Relaxation of Restrictions, Part XI *Read OP For Mod Warnings*

muddypuppy

Sweet.Science wrote: »

If you were a betting person when would you expect all Covid restrictions to be lifted in Ireland

I would guess the Tuesday after the August bank holiday .

And us being the last country in Europe to do so.

*all* of them? No chance in August imo. A good amount will be dropped, but I can't see big indoor events back for example.
Really hope I'm wrong tho.

FlubberJones

Stormyteacup wrote: »

Best outcome will be that NPHET will plead for mask wearing during winter but that they won't be mandated - they will absolutely be calling for them though.

There will be heel-dragging on things like crowds and return to offices. I suspect it will all be very incremental and ridiculously slow, with a carrot dangling at each teeny bit of normality that is returned to us. NPHET will want to prolong whatever compliance remains once vaccination rollout complete.

Once outdoor organised crowds get the go-ahead things will get interesting. There won't be rational reason to keep organisation of peaceful protests illegal - and once it's sanctioned, the people will show their dissatisfaction. A march for 'Housing' will attract many thousands of citizens disillusioned by more than just the housing crisis (me included).

I'll wear a mask on public transport, just remembering how busy the Luas was in the "olda days".... absolute germ factory

Sweet.Science

muddypuppy wrote: »

*all* of them? No chance in August imo. A good amount will be dropped, but I can't see big indoor events back for example.
Really hope I'm wrong tho.

Why though ?

landofthetree

It's only 18 weeks till Oct. Then we will be back to the same old story.

Hope I'm wrong. But I just dont see our crappy leaders exposing our crappy health system to the risk of being overrun.

Graham

landofthetree wrote: »

It's only 18 weeks till Oct. Then we will be back to the same old story.

Hope I'm wrong. But I just dont see our crappy leaders exposing our crappy health system to the risk of being overrun.

You're not expecting the vaccines to work?

TheDoctor

Graham wrote: »

You're not expecting the vaccines to work?

I imagine he’s referring to our health system getting over run as it does every Xmas but now we can use Covid as an excuse to lockdown.

Graham

TheDoctor wrote: »

I imagine he’s referring to our health system getting over run as it does every Xmas but now we can use Covid as an excuse to lockdown.

Why would we want to lockdown if enough of the population have been vaccinated? Makes no sense.

TheDoctor

Graham wrote: »

Why would we want to lockdown if enough of the population have been vaccinated? Makes no sense.

To prevent the usual trolley crisis in hospitals that occur every winter.

Boggles

TheDoctor wrote: »

To prevent the usual trolley crisis in hospitals that occur every winter.

You can prevent a trolley crisis without "lockdown".

We did it several times in the past year.

Obviously going forward it would be better to fix the problems that cause them.

Graham

TheDoctor wrote: »

To prevent the usual trolley crisis in hospitals that occur every winter.

Ahhh ok, now I see.

Nothing at all to do with Covid then. Just your common or garden "we're going to lockdown for everything" conspiracy theory.

Got it.

SortingYouOut

TheDoctor wrote: »

I imagine he’s referring to our health system getting over run as it does every Xmas but now we can use Covid as an excuse to lockdown.

Makes loads of sense alright. Lockdown the entire country to stop the winter trolley crisis caused by the flu. Locking down the country will save us millions in healthcare costs and will incur no other costs elsewhere, it's a win win :rolleyes:

Multipass

FlubberJones wrote: »

I'll wear a mask on public transport, just remembering how busy the Luas was in the "olda days".... absolute germ factory

But wearing the mask is to ‘protect’ others from your own germ factory, not vice versa

VG31

Multipass wrote: »

But wearing the mask is to ‘protect’ others from your own germ factory, not vice versa

Judging by the number of older people who were wearing masks outside a few months ago and are no longer now since they got their vaccinations, the point of masks seems to be misunderstood by most people.

We'll likely see a much higher uptake of the flu vaccine this winter which should help to reduce hospital numbers somewhat.

PTH2009

Doctor Jimbob wrote: »

It's hardly surprising people are concerned this will drag on for longer than necessary when the Taoiseach is coming out with stuff like this:

https://www.msn.com/en-ie/news/other/taoiseach-micheal-martin-confirms-indoor-pubs-dining-date-will-be-later-than-hoped/ar-AAKjKzQ?ocid=msedgntp

'However, when asked about indoor dining and allowing publicans to welcome customers back inside from July 1, he said he wanted to see what impact the reopening of hotels and outdoor dining would have on the virus “during July"'

Why do we need to wait and see what happens with hotels and outdoor dining? They're opening indoors in other countries. Can we not take a look at the data from those countries come July and act accordingly? It's not like we're out on our own leading the way with the speed of our reopening.

D VARIANTS

_Kaiser_

PTH2009 wrote: »

D VARIANTS

More like Micheal terrified of making a decision without a report on the effects being commissioned here first.

I used to think Enda and Leo were bad (and they were/are!), but Micheal Martin is the weakest and most unsuitable Taioseach we've had yet. Small wonder his own party are lining up against him.

Graham

Doctor Jimbob wrote: »

Why do we need to wait and see what happens with hotels and outdoor dining? They're opening indoors in other countries.

I would have thought because its sensible to assess the impact here before relaxing restrictions further.

'other countries' like the UK are now facing the possibility of reversing some of the 'irreversible' relaxation of restrictions. Personally I'd rather we didn't have to follow suit.

TheDoctor

SortingYouOut wrote: »

Makes loads of sense alright. Lockdown the entire country to stop the winter trolley crisis caused by the flu. Locking down the country will save us millions in healthcare costs and will incur no other costs elsewhere, it's a win win :rolleyes:

Sure we’ve locked down some places for 15 months for a virus with a 99.something% survival rate.

Save a few hundred people, rack up billions upon billions of debt, put 25% of people out of work.

It’s a win win.....

Try and make sense of that one.

More people under 50 died on Irish roads last year

Zipppy

I'd imagine this has been asked before, so apologies in advance

With travel restrictions now eased, are we allowed to travel to NI ?

Lumen

Zipppy wrote: »

I'd imagine this has been asked before, so apologies in advance

With travel restrictions now eased, are we allowed to travel to NI ?

Yes.

TheDoctor

Doctor Jimbob wrote: »

It's hardly surprising people are concerned this will drag on for longer than necessary when the Taoiseach is coming out with stuff like this:

https://www.msn.com/en-ie/news/other/taoiseach-micheal-martin-confirms-indoor-pubs-dining-date-will-be-later-than-hoped/ar-AAKjKzQ?ocid=msedgntp

'However, when asked about indoor dining and allowing publicans to welcome customers back inside from July 1, he said he wanted to see what impact the reopening of hotels and outdoor dining would have on the virus “during July"'

Why do we need to wait and see what happens with hotels and outdoor dining? They're opening indoors in other countries. Can we not take a look at the data from those countries come July and act accordingly? It's not like we're out on our own leading the way with the speed of our reopening.

It’s very unfortunate that Ireland has all the worst variants and they haven’t impacted any other country but here.

So we can’t obviously therefore use other countries as an example

Whatsisname

Graham wrote: »

I would have thought because its sensible to assess the impact here before relaxing restrictions further.

'other countries' like the UK are now facing the possibility of reversing some of the 'irreversible' relaxation of restrictions. Personally I'd rather we didn't have to follow suit.

Why would the UK have to reverse the relaxation of restrictions? Do you not think the vaccines work?

Graham

Whatsisname wrote: »

Why would the UK have to reverse the relaxation of restrictions? Do you not think the vaccines work?

The UK are talking about it, it wasn't my decision :rolleyes:

I guess it does highlight the potential risk of opening up too much too soon before enough of the population are vaccinated.

Chivito550

Graham wrote: »

I would have thought because its sensible to assess the impact here before relaxing restrictions further.

'other countries' like the UK are now facing the possibility of reversing some of the 'irreversible' relaxation of restrictions. Personally I'd rather we didn't have to follow suit.

The classic "Stay in lockdown to avoid lockdown" approach.

Graham

Doctor Jimbob wrote: »

Basing our indoor dining on what happens with our outdoor dining is not sensible. That's what I'm taking issue with.

Relax restrictions, assess the impact, relax restrictions some more, assess the impact. Rinse & repeat.

Looks like a fairly sensible approach to me.

Graham

Chivito550 wrote: »

The classic "Stay in lockdown to avoid lockdown" approach.

Give it a few minutes. Your mandatory thanks will be here shortly.

Relax restrictions gradually so they don't have to be reversed is the real plan but you already knew that :rolleyes:

Boggles

Doctor Jimbob wrote: »

Choosing to slow down our reopening if things go tits up in the UK would be taking a look at data from other countries and acting accordingly. That's sensible. Basing our indoor dining on what happens with our outdoor dining is not sensible. That's what I'm taking issue with.

So if the Indian Variant was to result in an increase in incident rate and hospitalizations in England and a reversal in easing, you think we should pause or reopening solely on that?

Richard Hillman

https://twitter.com/MichealLehane/status/1396819572867600394?s=19


This is what we are dealing with. Every other country are setting targets to restore freedoms. We are looking to extend them.

TheDoctor

Doctor Jimbob wrote: »

That looks like a sensible approach to me too.

Outdoor dining is opening early June. That gives 3 weeks to assess the impact before the 1st of July. That's already slower than the time given to assess the impact of relaxations in April and May.

Won’t be 1 July though. Be lucky for mid July

Stormyteacup

Graham wrote: »

Why would we want to lockdown if enough of the population have been vaccinated? Makes no sense.

Unlikely we will have ‘enough’ vaccinated. There’s a reason Ireland has the highest percentage of people willing to take a vaccine - and it’s not because we are higher-evolved, better civic-minded people that the rest of the Worlds citizens. There were enough hints and muddy waters to convey the idea that the vaccine (along with helping us get to herd immunity), would provide bonuses re social activities and travel. While those things are still dangling and a drawn-out relaxation of restrictions it’s likely we will have more per capita vaccinated that most nations. Remains to be seen if it’s enough, especially as the selfish advantages for taking a vaccine become less of an issue (digital green cert, and unlikely that private businesses will insist on proof of vaccination).

That aside ‘lockdown’ doesn’t really have a definition.

Restrictions though, could be kept/reinstated through this winter. Masks on public transport, tests for travel abroad along with advice not to, a reduced capacity for events like concerts, theatre and weddings, table service only for hospitality - if those measures could be used to put a plaster on our broken health system, and they could be employed without costing the government anything then they may use them - and their function would not be to primarily prevent the spread of Covid.

Boggles

Doctor Jimbob wrote: »

If it was causing a significant rise in hospitalizations then yes. Absolutely.

So we shouldn't look at any other variables, just whatever happens in England we mimic?