Reflection on the pandemic: questions about the authorities' response.

I don’t really see it as a different take, it’s much the same as what is in the examiner except for an emphasis on what Martin said last year, which may be irrelevant now.

Varadkar is quoted as saying;

that “a lot of the people who are on the front line dealing with the trouble in our health service at the moment are the same people who we would be asking to come before inquiries and take time out to prepare for their testimony”.

They will be asked to give an account, and although there will be no consequences I welcome the opportunity to hear some explanations for some of the decisions taken.

There have been multiple investigations into the origins of the virus, it's widely believed it was zoonotic in origin but that hasn't been proven yet (therefore other theories, e.g. accidental lab leak cannot be ruled out). A definitive answer is heavily reliant on full access within China, which is unlikely as it's China, so it's likely we may never know.

As for the origins in Ireland, it was a global pandemic, likely any number of people travelling brought it here, was always going to be unavoidable considering what we know now.

Given that most of the anti-restrictions crowd don't understand the basics of modelling, it's doubtful the enquiry will satiate them in any way.

But its funny to see someone complaining about following the science and in the same breadth not wanting those professionals access to the media to explain the science (mostly because it flew in the face of their own crackpot theories).

And when the enquiry is done those people demanding it will just dismiss it as a waste of money/cover up/disgrace that hid the truth.

The problem with following the science was that the science was changing on a regular basis especially early on in the pandemic. There were a huge amount of unknowns. Ultimately when people say the government followed the science they were following NPHETs interpretation of the science.

NPHET didn't get everything right. But everyone involved in the response made mistakes and there were a lot of honest mistakes made because of incomplete/changing information.

The enquiry won't satisfy the extremes but the whole approach to the pandemic needs to reviewed to learn from.

Yep and try explaining how new facts changes the response and actions, many on here have tried and there are still arguments about things as fundamental as how masks or social distancing work or refusing to understand what a vaccine is.

Amazing how ye guys try to retcon things.

For years "anti mask" people were falling over themselves proclaiming masks were ineffective/useless since people weren't using them right and failing to cover their noses properly.

Yet supposedly the people who couldn't master masks are able to self test properly?

Seems unlikely, generally when people fail at the absolute basics its very unlikely they can manage much without adult assistance.

I agree. Unfortunately the big advantage of conspiracy theories is that the present a very simple view of the world. Cutting edge science which Covid 19 was at the start of the pandemic is the complete opposite.

It will be interesting to see what comes out. Mistakes were made but mistakes were inevitable given the limited and changing information available. It's still important the review happens.

It's called common sense (an admittedly alien concept to some)

While making decisions that affect millions of people with constantly evolving real time Data, you also wanted them to be under the fear that if they made a wrong decision they would what? Be struck off the medical register? Arrested maybe? Maybe tony holohan could be marched through the streets with a bell around his neck.

It's incredibly telling that the ones who screamed let us live the loudest are still complaining about not being allowed live, rather than actually living. Maybe they just had no lives to begin with.

A comprehensive review as a template for future reference - absolutely

Any sort of point scoring "it was the big bold nphet, we're just the government what power do we have" revisionary bollix - nah.