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Covid 19 Part XXXV-956,720 ROI (5,952 deaths) 452,946 NI (3,002 deaths) (08/01) Read OP

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  • Registered Users Posts: 29,424 ✭✭✭✭odyssey06


    Poll after poll showed consistent support for the government's approach, not just in March 2020 but in 2021.

    Even at the time, people were highly sceptical of those pictures on social media. People were asked to provide evidence on the thread of mainstream media pushing it as something that actually happened and were unable to. If you are going to claim they played some big role in public opinion, I predict you will be completely unable to support that claim.

    What people reacted to was reports of what was actually happening in hospitals in Wuhan and Bergamo.

    This is revisionism without foundation.

    "To follow knowledge like a sinking star..." (Tennyson's Ulysses)



  • Registered Users Posts: 29,424 ✭✭✭✭odyssey06


    Your argument jumped the shark somewhere around 'mini China'.

    Only a poster profoundly ignorant of China and what a lockdown in China meant as opposed to what we had here could say that.

    People supported the restrictions - proof is in poll after poll and broad public support for the measures as a means to protect the vulnerable in society and the health service. The protests against them were a handful of fringe cranks, most of the population wanted no truck with. A lot of people thought we could have opened things earlier, or queried some of the specific measures, but there was overwhelming public recognition that this was an unprecedented situation of threat to public health and the government acted legitimately in responding to it with strong measures.

    So the fact that all through it you were posting here querying and opposing the government approach, without any government restrictions being placed on you, is proof positive of the falsehood of your claims about 'mini China'. So well done for that.

    Post edited by odyssey06 on

    "To follow knowledge like a sinking star..." (Tennyson's Ulysses)



  • Registered Users Posts: 17,924 ✭✭✭✭Dohnjoe


    Yup, they were supported by a majority of the public, repeated polls showed this. Remember, this wasn't just one country, or a handful, it was pretty much universal.



  • Registered Users Posts: 29,424 ✭✭✭✭odyssey06


    There was nothing really new in any of the measures used for covid, they all had historical precedents.

    The scale of the covid response is a factor of the increase in global population and speed of communications and national co-ordination and extent of bureaucracy. Nothing more. So to make that the premise of your argument demonstrates a profound ignorance and lack of understanding of historical realities and constraints.

    So yeah, they didn't have vaccine passports for travel. They just quarantined the ships 40 days.

    You are worried about vaccine passports and schools being closed?

    Have a read of this.

    In 1563, when plague struck again (as the disease did most years, although some outbreaks were more severe than others), the lord mayor ordered that blue crosses should be attached to doors of houses that held anyone infected with plague over the past week. Inhabitants were to stay indoors for one month after the death or infection of anyone in the building. Only one uninfected person was allowed out of the house, in order to buy provisions for the sick or healing. To mark their health they were meant to carry a white rod, which if they forgot would incur a fine or even imprisonment. In 1539 plague struck London again and houses were to be incarcerated for 40 days – the typical quarantine period stipulated in 14th-century Venice. By 1580 shipping was heavily monitored, and crews and passengers were quarantined either on board their vessels or in the port where they had disembarked. Merchants were kept at the port of Rye and were prohibited from entering the city, and all goods were to be aired in order not to transport infection. Movement was also monitored within the country – travellers into London from outside counties were prohibited if there was known to be plague in their area.

    And more on historical use of vaccine passports:

    https://www.npr.org/2021/04/08/985253421/the-history-of-vaccine-passports-in-the-u-s-and-whats-new

    "To follow knowledge like a sinking star..." (Tennyson's Ulysses)



  • Registered Users Posts: 8,684 ✭✭✭Worztron


    "Couldn't go for a walk outdoors at the beach"

    Yep, that was just silly.

    Mitch Hedberg: "Rice is great if you're really hungry and want to eat two thousand of something."



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  • Registered Users Posts: 8,684 ✭✭✭Worztron


    Reported it as spam? Why?

    I got a reminder SMS yesterday from the HSE. I've gotten the first two vaccines and the first booster. I'm in two minds as to whether I'll get the second booster.

    Mitch Hedberg: "Rice is great if you're really hungry and want to eat two thousand of something."



  • Registered Users Posts: 627 ✭✭✭DLink


    I've never answered a telephone poll honestly, yet how can the pollsters know that?

    Opinion polls count for nothing, especially if the questions are leading.

    The only polls that count are verified elections and referendums, and you know that.

    Support through fear.



  • Registered Users Posts: 627 ✭✭✭DLink


    I've had enough of the HSE & covid, I don't want their text messages.



  • Registered Users Posts: 17,924 ✭✭✭✭Dohnjoe


    Are your personal views.

    There were extensive polls on this across many countries, the results were clear. Public sentiment in support of the measures was strong, especially at the beginning, when the disease was new and our knowledge was low. Thankfully adherence to the measures was also quite high, with most people respecting e.g. mask-wearing, etc, and understanding it on principle.



  • Registered Users Posts: 8,684 ✭✭✭Worztron


    But you may want other non-CV19 SMS from the HSE in the future. By marking it as spam, you may not get those.

    Mitch Hedberg: "Rice is great if you're really hungry and want to eat two thousand of something."



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  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    A very high % of people I know (myself included) all got COVID (mostly with mild symptoms) around Christmas. So none of those people will be getting vaccinated until after 4-6 months have passed.

    Implying that the whole country's suddenly turned anti-vax is nonsense. Once again, the HSE/DoH isn't really interpreting stats very well or gathering them properly.



  • Registered Users Posts: 627 ✭✭✭DLink


    It's a risk I'm willing to take, I've also blocked the close contact SMS rubbish.

    I've made it this far in life without needing unsolicited communications from the HSE, I think I'll survive.



  • Registered Users Posts: 627 ✭✭✭DLink


    My personal views you say?

    OK then, tell me when was the last time a government got elected via opinion poll? I'm willing to bet the answer is never.

    Governments or public policy shouldn't be decided by calling a select bunch of random strangers and asking them leading questions. It's everyone or nothing, surely such a smart covid supporter as yourself can see that.

    Opinion polls by their design or nature cannot reflect the will if the entire nation, meaning that all those opinion polls in support of covid count for nothing.

    Have a verifiable vote or go away.



  • Registered Users Posts: 29,424 ✭✭✭✭odyssey06


    Yeah there's a clue in your post 'random'. Randomly selected strangers.

    It's obvious you don't understand how opinion polls work.

    Who said governments were elected by opinion polls? Nobody.

    This is deflection and smokescreen,

    Opinion polls are reliable within a margin of error.

    The margin of support in the polls for restrictions, here and abroad are far in excess of such margins of error.

    The margin of support reflected in polls is a broadly accurate reflection of public opinion on the issues. They don't have to reflect the will of every single person in the country, to give that broad indication of support and it's patently absurd to even suggest it.

    Only someone who doesn't understand opinion polls or is simply desperate to rubbish them because they don't like the poll result would suggest it.

    Your argument hasn't a leg to stand on, you've now had to resort to conspiracy theories about opinion polls.

    So yes they are your personal views. And the personal views of the minority. And what have you got to support your claim your views are actually the majority view?

    Absolutely nothing except demonstrations of ignorance about how opinion polls work.

    "To follow knowledge like a sinking star..." (Tennyson's Ulysses)



  • Registered Users Posts: 17,924 ✭✭✭✭Dohnjoe


    As much as you might want to, you can't just dismiss (a consensus of) national and international polls because the results don't match your world views.

    Also, normal complaints about measures shouldn't be conflated with this illogical stance against them. I had plenty of issues with the nitty-gritty of certain measures but I understood on principle why they were there.



  • Registered Users Posts: 627 ✭✭✭DLink


    Wow... conspiracy theories, ignorance, deflection & smokescreens, they're up there with anti-knowledge. You sure know how to win friends 🤣

    An opinion poll of "randomly" selected strangers, who are being asked leading questions, does not speak for me, and should not be used to justify taking my basic freedoms & civil liberties away... how about you throw those words and phrases back in face now while you're at it.

    If, by your own admission, governments aren't elected by opinion polls, why should they be allowed to dictate public policy according to the results of opinion polls????

    And you're damn right I don't like the "results" of the covid opinion polls, I'll give you that much, they only helped feed into the lockdown agendas and contributed towards the suppression of my rights & freedoms.

    Oh and if you can't see the irony of you, a random stranger on the internet, calling me out for complaining about randomly selected strangers in opinion polls, you're just confirming that there's no hope for you.

    Thankfully economics and harsh reality won the covid war and we have no more restrictions... I'm so glad you're not in charge of anything more threatening than a keyboard.



  • Registered Users Posts: 627 ✭✭✭DLink


    I can dismiss whatever I want, and I can pour scorn on whatever I want, especially when it comes to the farce that is / was the covid response of this country.

    The muppets in charge were burning my tax money without scrutiny, so I have every right to complain about whatever I damn please.



  • Registered Users, Subscribers Posts: 5,924 ✭✭✭hometruths


    The opinion polls showed people were frightened, and support the measures put in place to alleviate that fear.

    The problem is the fear was based on terrifying estimates of the infection fatality rate, some were claiming it was as high as 6%.

    Anybody who questioned these estimates was demonised as a granny killer and a threat to public health for spreading misinformation.

    Hindsight shows that the IFR was nowhere near 6%.

    Fine, it's ok to be wrong with hindsight. It was a novel virus. Nobody knew for sure.

    But to turn round now and claim that people who question the longterm effect of the measures are just nitpicking with hindsight is astonishing.

    We should be learning from these mistakes, not dismissing them as nitpicking.



  • Registered Users Posts: 29,424 ✭✭✭✭odyssey06


    The support wasnt just in 2020 but on into 2021 and beyond. A preliminary IFR based on incomplete data from China was history by that point. And IFR was only ever one half of the equation yet the 'questioning' types rarely if ever mentioned that.

    To state that anybody who questioned the estimates was demonised as a granny killer is just hyperbole or attacked for spreading misinformation merely for questioning it likewise. Utterly without foundation and dismissed as such.

    "To follow knowledge like a sinking star..." (Tennyson's Ulysses)



  • Registered Users, Subscribers Posts: 5,924 ✭✭✭hometruths


    Utterly without foundation and dismissed as such.

    More misinformation I guess in your opinion. And you wonder why people are angry, it's incredible.



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  • Registered Users Posts: 29,424 ✭✭✭✭odyssey06


    The level of anger is no indicator of the truth or justice of a cause. Very often the opposite in fact.

    "To follow knowledge like a sinking star..." (Tennyson's Ulysses)



  • Registered Users Posts: 1,893 ✭✭✭deirdremf


    Some wonderful news from the HSE, most people in the country have been vaccinated! Table below, p.7 of the following link!

    But Waterford is the BEST of all!

    In County & Cty of Waterford, over 99.9% of adults have been vaccinated.

    Hardly a single elderly bachelor farmer in the hills and the bogs refused to be vaccinated anywhere in Ireland!

    But Co & City of Waterford trumped everwhere else in the country: Nary a student, nary an alcoholic, nary a junkie nor a crusty nor a hippy refused to be vaccinated in Waterford. They sure do conform down there!

    And good and all as that might be, in some places it seems that more people than actually live in the county must have been vaccinated, because the HSE saw fit to add a disclaimer:

    Note: Where calculation of estimated uptake exceeds 100% due to unidentified data quality issues, the uptake will be rounded to 99.9%




  • Registered Users Posts: 29,424 ✭✭✭✭odyssey06


    If the stats are tracking number of vaccines given out since early 2021 then there is a very obvious explanation for the older demographics that some of the recipients have passed away.

    That would be one of the data quality issues.

    "To follow knowledge like a sinking star..." (Tennyson's Ulysses)



  • Registered Users Posts: 1,893 ✭✭✭deirdremf


    But isn't it great that all the 20-29 year olds in Waterford got vaccinated?



  • Registered Users Posts: 29,424 ✭✭✭✭odyssey06


    If they did great.

    If they didnt...

    Maybe thats distorted by students.

    Or they had an mvc clinic that served another region and the figures need to be adjusted. And a nearby region has its figures too low.

    Or maybe they are using incorrect population stats.

    "To follow knowledge like a sinking star..." (Tennyson's Ulysses)



  • Registered Users Posts: 8,210 ✭✭✭ceadaoin.


    This study showing a very low IFR in the non elderly, which first came out in 2021 and was attacked then as 'misinformation' has now been peer reviewed and published. The 'we didn't know how dangerous it was (or wasn't) ' excuse for lockdowns doesn't really add up, when this info, and more besides, was out there. How many in the below age groups, who were at little risk from COVID, died due to the measures, directly or indirectly? We are still finding out but it's almost certainly way more than ever were 'saved'


    The median IFR was 0.0003% at 0–19 years, 0.002% at 20–29 years, 0.011% at 30–39 years, 0.035% at 40–49 years, 0.123% at 50–59 years, and 0.506% at 60–69 years. 

    https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S001393512201982X



  • Registered Users Posts: 1,893 ✭✭✭deirdremf


    Why would they be using incorrect population stats? Surely the HSE can be trusted to tell the truth?



  • Registered Users Posts: 29,424 ✭✭✭✭odyssey06


    It is a study from 2021. Lockdowns started in 2020. So how was the information out there? Some amount of deceptive revisionism going on.

    Why doesnt it include the IFR for the groups most vulnerable to covid?

    Where are the attacks on it for being misinformation?

    Was it actually attacked as misinformation or were people who cited at as the IFR for covid fullstop attacked for spreading misinformation?

    The study itself shows a wide range in IFR across countries which seem hard to explain ie should make anyone wary of citing this as actual IFR to be expected in a country.

    The IFR as I keep repeating is only one of the equation. The other being the infection rate.

    And to state the number of deaths almost certainly exceeds the number saved is entirely without foundation. This article on its own simply cannot prove what you are saying.

    Post edited by odyssey06 on

    "To follow knowledge like a sinking star..." (Tennyson's Ulysses)



  • Registered Users Posts: 29,424 ✭✭✭✭odyssey06


    Unidentified data quality issues.

    You answered the question yourself several posts back.

    "To follow knowledge like a sinking star..." (Tennyson's Ulysses)



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  • Registered Users, Subscribers Posts: 5,924 ✭✭✭hometruths


    One of the authors of that study, John Ioannidis, was publicly cautioning in March 2020 that lockdowns could be potentially more dangerous than the disease. At the time he gave an interview to Fox News:

    The surprise came in what Ioannidis had to say. As many public health experts and government officials were urging people to stay home to avoid infection, he speculated that the coronavirus might be less dangerous than assumed. News media were overhyping the disease. The greater risk lay not in covid-19 but in overzealous lockdowns to prevent its spread.

    The interview provoked quite a backlash.

    The video would be viewed more than a half-million times on YouTube before it disappeared. Six weeks after it was uploaded, the footage of Ioannidis was removed by YouTube, which said the interview with one of the world’s foremost epidemiologists had violated its policies on covid-19 misinformation.

    John Ioannidis was attacked for spreading misinformation. Much of what he said now appears to have been the truth. Or at least closer to the truth than the data used to justify the lockdowns in March 2020.



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