Could we have stopped this

moonlighting_1

A good few weeks ago when this broke out in china some people on here were shouting to close the airports and stop people going to events out of this country. Some were even laughed at. Sadly the government didn't do anything at the time.

I am just wondering could we have done more as citizens, Talk to local politicians etc.
Some people on this forum were bang on about what was going to happen its scary.

Stop everything coming into country from mid February onwards would have stopped it.
But that would have included hauliers etc so a non Runner IMO.

lawrencesummers

Could we have stopped this.

Does it matter.


It’s here. Deal with it.

awec

If we wanted to stop it spreading completely in Ireland then surely we'd have to close the airports and the ports and ban foreign travel until such a time a vaccine was developed, mass produced and then widely administered in Ireland.

Otherwise we'd just get whacked with it as soon as we opened the borders again.

rob316

We could have done more sure but this a global pandemic it was coming here some way or another.

timhenn

Of course, we could have stopped this but you'd hardly expect that to have happened with fg at the wheel? Let's not forget, if they had been in power prior to the crash in the naughties, we would have been in a worse position than ff left us in.

PhilOssophy

We couldn't have stopped it but if the WHO had ordered no travel in/out of China, it would have massively reduced its spread.

Millionaire only not

timhenn wrote: »

Of course, we could have stopped this but you'd hardly expect that to have happened with fg at the wheel? Let's not forget, if they had been in power prior to the crash in the naughties, we would have been in a worse position than ff left us in.

Let alone if Sinn Fein were in power in the naughties we wouldn’t even be here talking !

brick tamland

timhenn wrote: »

Of course, we could have stopped this but you'd hardly expect that to have happened with fg at the wheel? Let's not forget, if they had been in power prior to the crash in the naughties, we would have been in a worse position than ff left us in.

How could we have stopped it getting in then?


Once it got out of china, it was going to get everywhere.

timhenn

Millionaire only not wrote: »

Let alone if Sinn Fein were in power in the naughties we wouldn’t even be here talking !

If cows had wings they could fly over the moon. What's that got to do with anything? fg have a track record of incompetence, it's part of their DNA really. Expecting anything other than a **** up with this crisis was foolhardy.

endacl

timhenn wrote: »

Of course, we could have stopped this but you'd hardly expect that to have happened with fg at the wheel? Let's not forget, if they had been in power prior to the crash in the naughties, we would have been in a worse position than ff left us in.

Millionaire only not wrote: »

Let alone if Sinn Fein were in power in the naughties we wouldn’t even be here talking !

Any chance we could get the developers to work on an autoban algorithm for every time political digs appear in threads that have nothing to do with political parties?

timhenn

brick tamland wrote: »

How could we have stopped it getting in then?


Once it got out of china, it was going to get everywhere.

We needed to have people in charge who were proactive, not reactive. fg letus down again.

timhenn

endacl wrote: »

Any chance we could get the developers to work on an autoban algorithm for every time political digs appear in threads that have nothing to do with political parties?

I wasn't making a political dig! The thread is about the possibility of stopping it before it spread in Ireland. Who was in control of that?

endacl

timhenn wrote: »

We needed to have people in charge who were proactive, not reactive. fg letus down again.

:rolleyes:

BarryD2

awec wrote: »

If we wanted to stop it spreading completely in Ireland then surely we'd have to close the airports and the ports and ban foreign travel until such a time a vaccine was developed, mass produced and then widely administered in Ireland.

It was clearly impractical to close the airports and ferries BUT our authorities could have sent a much stronger message out that anyone coming into the country should have stayed at home or wherever for two weeks.

Instead the repeated policy was go back to school, go back to work and only then if you feel symptoms to report them. This strategy was supposed to be containment but it was a pretty weak form of same?? That allowed for spread which then had to be chased down.

rossie1977

Not sure about stopping it but slowing it down yes if every country stopped all flights into and out of China as soon as Wuhan was locked down.

Even though western carriers stopped flying to China you had Chinese carriers landing in major hubs like Zurich, Frankfurt, Paris, Amsterdam, Madrid couple of times a day in mid February

dinjo99

Someone on the radio today said “the best time to plant an oak tree is 25 years ago, the second best time is today”.

We are where we are. No point in looking back, there’s still a hell of a lot we can all do to stop things reaching their worst potential.

JP Liz V1

Flights to and from China and Italy should have stopped from January

The problem you have is, it's here now, so if steps are taken to combat it, people get on board with it.

If you tried to combat against it before it ever even made the news here, people would be giving out like madmen saying they're wasting money and govt. are incompetent trying to fight the invisible man. You'd have conspiracy theorists everywhere.

Same as if you get the brakes fixed on your car before they actually need doing. You avoid any issues. But you still feel robbed becase "sure there was nothing wrong with them anyway".

solidasarock

Not unless we literally stopped everyone and everything from entering the country from December or every country stopped everything coming in and out of China at the very earliest signs of this disease, then no. I cant imagine we could have magically stopped it.

And at those early stages its impossible to know if its just some unhealthy people dying from flu or a potential pandemic.



But I do think more could be done to stop the spread. Closing the boarders is stupid. Movement needs to be restricted on the local level.

timhenn

timhenn wrote: »

We needed to have people in charge who were proactive, not reactive. fg letus down again.

I actually think the current care taker government have played a blinder. When, ever, has Ireland been ahead of Britain on something? They seemed to take their cue from us, not the other way around.

NIMAN

SOme people are very quick to slag off the government.

IMHO, I think the Irish Gov have done as well, if not better, than many others.

Its easy to say we shoul dhave shut down the country in January or February in hindsight, but could you imagine how that would have went down with the population? Especially when it seemed to be only in China at the time?

You have to be realistic. If you want to bash the Gov then you'll find something to bash them about, but I think they have done well so far.

Pete_Cavan

timhenn wrote: »

I wasn't making a political dig! The thread is about the possibility of stopping it before it spread in Ireland. Who was in control of that?

In reality, there is and was no way of stopping it getting here. Not allowing a single person into the country (be that through an airport, sea port or across the incredibly porous NI border) from February onwards was an impossibility. It was always going to get here, what mattered is how we deal with it when it arrived.

Jinglejangle69

timhenn wrote: »

Of course, we could have stopped this but you'd hardly expect that to have happened with fg at the wheel? Let's not forget, if they had been in power prior to the crash in the naughties, we would have been in a worse position than ff left us in.

Jesus you have issues.

lawrencesummers

Deleted User wrote: »

I actually think the current care taker government have played a blinder. When, ever, has Ireland been ahead of Britain on something? They seemed to take their cue from us, not the other way around.

I don’t agree. They may have made the right calls at the right time unlike the Greatness across the water but They didn’t do enough to stop travel from Italy when they made a balls of cancelling the rugby match. They could have told Italian fans not to travel and instructed the airlines and hotels to refund Italians who cancel, then fans wouldn’t have been out of pocket and many would have stayed home because there were no refunds then.

They could have temp tested and isolate incoming passengers from Italy. It wouldn’t catch everyone, but it might have caught some.

This is also the same government that allowed the health system become over run and under capacity on a normal virus free day. It couldn’t cope with what it had anywayz That just means bigger problems when Something like this hits.

JP Liz V1

JP Liz V1 wrote: »

Flights to and from China and Italy should have stopped from January

Simplistic view.

I flew to China last summer. I didn't go Dub - Shanghai. I went DUB - Frankfurt - Shanghai and on the way back I went Shanghai - AMS - Dub.

Only way would have been to stop all international flights. Which, within days, there would have been pundits and opinion pieces going on the failure of the government etc etc. And when/if it didn't arrive, there would be opinion pieces on the damage the government did the economy all for nothing.

This is also the same government that allowed the health system become over run and under capacity on a normal virus free day. It couldn’t cope with what it had anywayz That just means bigger problems when Something like this hits.

Ah here! The Health System has been in a sh1t state for years, if not decades. Even at the height of the Celtic Tiger, the health service was a mess.

timhenn

endacl wrote: »

:rolleyes:

So who was in charge?

Jinglejangle69

lawrencesummers wrote: »

I don’t agree. They may have made the right calls at the right time unlike the Greatness across the water but They didn’t do enough to stop travel from Italy when they made a balls of cancelling the rugby match. They could have told Italian fans not to travel and instructed the airlines and hotels to refund Italians who cancel, then fans wouldn’t have been out of pocket and many would have stayed home because there were no refunds then.

They could have temp tested and isolate incoming passengers from Italy. It wouldn’t catch everyone, but it might have caught some.

This is also the same government that allowed the health system become over run and under capacity on a normal virus free day. It couldn’t cope with what it had anywayz That just means bigger problems when Something like this hits.

Lowest trolley numbers ever at the moment.

15 yesterday.

What does that tell you?

Sure Italy didn't even know how bad they had it how do you expect the Irish government to?

Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Jinglejangle69

timhenn wrote: »

So who was in charge?

You do know the caretaker government took and followed advice from WHO and medical experts

If they hadn't of you would be the first in here giving out they made decisions themselves without expert advice.

Just give over the political digs, it serves no purpose at the moment.

timhenn

Deleted User wrote: »

I actually think the current care taker government have played a blinder. When, ever, has Ireland been ahead of Britain on something? They seemed to take their cue from us, not the other way around.

Being ahead of the uk is nothing to shout about. fg were asleep at the wheel, we'll all suffer for it.

timhenn

Pete_Cavan wrote: »

In reality, there is and was no way of stopping it getting here. Not allowing a single person into the country (be that through an airport, sea port or across the incredibly porous NI border) from February onwards was an impossibility. It was always going to get here, what mattered is how we deal with it when it arrived.

How we deal with it? You mean how we dealt with it when it arrived? We didn't deal with it well.

Jinglejangle69

timhenn wrote: »

Being ahead of the uk is nothing to shout about. fg were asleep at the wheel, we'll all suffer for it.

They weren't even supposed to be at the wheel.

They got notes out, but still had the balls to step up.

What have you done from behind your phone?

timhenn

timhenn wrote: »

Being ahead of the uk is nothing to shout about. fg were asleep at the wheel, we'll all suffer for it.

UK 233
Ireland 3

Thats not a rugby score.

Cork Boy 53

timhenn wrote: »

Of course, we could have stopped this but you'd hardly expect that to have happened with fg at the wheel? Let's not forget, if they had been in power prior to the crash in the naughties, we would have been in a worse position than ff left us in.

And if Mary Lou and her brigade had been in power the ****show would be 20 times worse. Thankfully for us all they aren't.

timhenn

Jinglejangle69 wrote: »

Jesus you have issues.

Damn right I do, I know people who're suffering with this virus and can only hope they won't die from it. This thing wasn't approached seriously enough by those in charge. Leo was flying off to America not long over a week ago!

timhenn

Jinglejangle69 wrote: »

You do know the caretaker government took and followed advice from WHO and medical experts

If they hadn't of you would be the first in here giving out they made decisions themselves without expert advice.

Just give over the political digs, it serves no purpose at the moment.

No I wouldn't. It can't be hidden or denied. fg ****ed up and they ****ed up big style. There's no getting away from it. I have no doubt it would be exactly the same if we had ff in power. I can't say for the others but we need better leaders for this state. The ones we're choosing are costing many lives.

timhenn

timhenn wrote: »

Damn right I do, I know people who're suffering with this virus and can only hope they won't die from it. This thing wasn't approached seriously enough by those in charge. Leo was flying off to America not long over a week ago!

What would you have done differently?

Outkast_IRE

When the dust settles and the investigations are done. It will all point back to China not just ignoring the problem, but active suppression of the medical professionals in the region who were trying to warn the world and get the required government response. They knew in November 2019 there was a major issue.



China is all the worst apsects of a communist state and brutal dictatorship roled into one.

timhenn

Jinglejangle69 wrote: »

They weren't even supposed to be at the wheel.

They got notes out, but still had the balls to step up.

What have you done from behind your phone?

Are you just here to defend fg? They were in charge, it was their call, they got it wrong and lives have been cost and more are to come.

timhenn

Deleted User wrote: »

UK 233
Ireland 3

Thats not a rugby score.

What is this sh1t? The uk have an incompetent government and so have we, are you boasting about the number of deaths there compared to ours?

timhenn

Cork Boy 53 wrote: »

And if Mary Lou and her brigade had been in power the ****show would be 20 times worse. Thankfully for us all they aren't.

If a cow had wings it could fly.

timhenn

Deleted User wrote: »

What would you have done differently?

Alot of things but I'm not close to being in charge. Those who are shouldn't be excused.

frillyleaf

lawrencesummers wrote: »

Could we have stopped this.

Does it matter.


It’s here. Deal with it.

We are still not restricting flights or movement in and out of Ireland, we are still not quarantining people from infected areas. It was always going to arrive here but it is concerning that we aren’t taking these measures as it means we are leaving ourselves vulnerable to surge of cases.

timhenn

timhenn wrote: »

Alot of things but I'm not close to being in charge. Those who are shouldn't be excused.

Such as?

Quantum Erasure

endacl wrote: »

Any chance we could get the developers to work on an autoban algorithm ....

i don't know about autobahns, but if we could get them to build a few houses...

biko

Yes, it could have been stopped but it wasn't - because many people are of the "let's wait and see" variety.
It's because of their attitudes the virus spread like wildfire.

After SARS and H1N1, Singapore built a robust system for tracking and containing epidemics.
South Korea, Taiwan, and others did too.
Muppets in Europe, not so much...

It's simply down to strict travel controls and protocols for identifying sick individuals

It boils down to closed borders and test, test, test.

But it would take weeks before European countries even considered restricting travel and testing.

timhenn

Deleted User wrote: »

Such as?

Well, I wouldn't be flying off to America anyway. There was numerous things we should have done differently and we still aren't doing everything we should be. I don't care who it offends, the original issue was with China and it's spread globally, but for us, the issue was compounded by the actions or should I say the inactions of fg.

Skylinehead

endacl wrote: »

Any chance we could get the developers to work on an autoban algorithm

What good would a motorway be in this situation?

frillyleaf

timhenn wrote: »

I wasn't making a political dig! The thread is about the possibility of stopping it before it spread in Ireland. Who was in control of that?

This was complicated by us being part of the EU but I think if our government indicated that there ‘may be’ quarantines for people flying from affected areas that alone would have stopped a lot of people taking chances. I became concerned when I saw minimum reporting on it in Irish media

noodler

awec wrote: »

If we wanted to stop it spreading completely in Ireland then surely we'd have to close the airports and the ports and ban foreign travel until such a time a vaccine was developed, mass produced and then widely administered in Ireland.

Otherwise we'd just get whacked with it as soon as we opened the borders again.

Solid, well reasoned post

timhenn

timhenn wrote: »

Well, I wouldn't be flying off to America anyway. There was numerous things we should have done differently and we still aren't doing everything we should be. I don't care who it offends, the original issue was with China and it's spread globally, but for us, the issue was compounded by the actions or should I say the inactions of fg.

Quelle Surprise. The only thing you say you would differently is a shot at the Taoiseach. Not anything specific, decisive, substantiative.

The virus was here before Varadkar went to the US. My question was what would you have done differently to stop it getting here?