The Pandemic is officially over!

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-65499929

After three years and billions of people's lives disrupted, WHO have finally drawn a line under this fiasco of a pandemic!

Now is the time to quietly bury all the news about the damage done to so many by so few.

Threadbans:

DLink

dolanbaker

Risteard81

not_sure_what_to_pick

You clearly didn't read what you posted. The pandemic isn't over, just the emergency status.

"The worst thing any country can do now is to use this news as a reason to let down its guard, to dismantle the systems it has built, or to send the message to its people that Covid-19 is nothing to worry about," he said."

JP Liz V1

I'm glad the global pandemic emergency is over but I'll probably still be cautious, hand washing and masking in certain settings etc.,

apache

I was up at my GP there the other day. I asked the receptionist did I need a mask? Someone in the waiting room without one. She said it would be appreciated if patients wore one. They have notices on the door saying no mask no entry yet they don't even provide masks there. They used to refuse entry and make you go to the chemist to buy one.

So anyway I had a mask with me so I did put it on. But I'm thinking it's wrong of her to say that. They are not a requirement. I was at a hospital appointment last week and didn't wear one with no problems. It's a bit rich.

AerLingus747

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120560090#Comment_120560090

terrible carry on, I'd have gone to the guards to report such carry on

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120559925#Comment_120559925

Clearly arse covering and still likes to feel in control of the uncontrollable , the pandemic IS over, it is and has been endemic for the past two years, in other words it is just another coronavirus common cold now.

rob316

So can we close the forum now?

not_sure_what_to_pick

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120560115#Comment_120560115

It is not a cold. The WHO says that someone dies every three minutes from covid while declaring the emergency response over today. Last month they said that one in ten infected with covid gets long covid. That doesn't sound like it's over to me.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120560136#Comment_120560136

Did you sign up to reply to this?

Tork

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120560123#Comment_120560123

You could but then, what would all the people addicted to the place do?

apache

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120560101#Comment_120560101

Stupid thing to say. I was just saying.

not_sure_what_to_pick

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120560157#Comment_120560157

I signed up a month ago to reply to this today?

igCorcaigh

What happens the app?

I think I will keep onto it, as it has my vax certs (and for memory sakes, ah!).

I do find it strange though, that I was never pinged, all trough the pandemic. Even after contracting COVID.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120560305#Comment_120560305

If it is anything like the NHS app, it will be removed automatically at some point in the future.

igCorcaigh

I bought one of these coins from Dublin Fire Brigade (as a fund raiser for them) as a gift to my brother for his birthday back in June 2020.

A nice piece of history, to hold on to, I think.

DLink

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120560203#Comment_120560203

You're a sleeper agent. Obviously 🤣

AerLingus747

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120560410#Comment_120560410

You can still get your covid pass on the NHS app.

DLink

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120560136#Comment_120560136

If the idiots who pulled the trigger on declaring the emergency in the first place have now declared it over, then that's good enough for me.

It's like the Irish begging for more restrictions, yet when they start to loosen things up, it's a case of "Whoa there Nelly, what are you doing? You'll kill us all!".

You can't decide to trust the experts when they're going one way but not the other. No need to keep dragging it out, the world has moved on, try to keep up 🙄

not_sure_what_to_pick

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120560533#Comment_120560533

The same idiots who said that people are dying every three minutes from covid and one in ten ends up with long covid.

DLink

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120560560#Comment_120560560

In a word, yes. It's over, deal with it.

not_sure_what_to_pick

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120560574#Comment_120560574

https://www.irishtimes.com/health/2023/05/05/covid-19-is-no-longer-a-global-health-emergency-says-who-in-major-step-towards-end-of-pandemic/

The WHO said that even though the emergency phase is over, the pandemic has not come to an end, noting recent spikes in cases in southeast Asia and the Middle East

DLink

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120560607#Comment_120560607

The "emergency phase" is what prompted the draconian restrictions on our personal freedoms and everyday lives, thankfully all that is in the past now.

If the official emergency is over, then covid is over, it can't be any simpler that that. covid is now just another bug that you'll pick up, the same as the flu or a cold.

not_sure_what_to_pick

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120560657#Comment_120560657

The pandemic isn't over, just the emergency response to it.

Your freedoms are fine but you still have to stay at home if you have cold, flu or covid.

Tomaldo

It ended for me when the HSE stopped announcing how many died from it in the last 24 hours on the 6 o'c. News. Am I right to say Maradona's death was the only thing that stopped it from being the first item on the RTE news during that period.

DLink

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120560751#Comment_120560751

"Still have to stay home" you say...... That brings back so many memories, all bad.

Show me the law that says that I need to stay home and then perhaps we can talk.

No one stayed home before, and no one is going to stay home now.... unless you have paid sick leave from work that is, no point in wasting the perfect opportunity to extend the weekend at someone else's expense.

not_sure_what_to_pick

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120560808#Comment_120560808

So you won't stay at home when sick because you just don't care about infecting others? Big clap to you.

DLink

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120560817#Comment_120560817

I'm not self isolating ever, ever, ever again, I feel dirty even saying "self isolating", and you're right, I don't care about passing anything on, be it the covid, the flu, or a cold... the same as before covid became a thing, and just the same as everyone else I've ever worked with....

No sick pay = into work we go

Employers are looking for certs to allow you to stay home again, and who's going to pay a doctor €50 or €60 for a day off that will only entitle you to something like €80 sick pay?

You got spoiled by the covid restrictions, no one cares any more, not the people and certainly not the employers.

Pauliedragon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120560751#Comment_120560751

People won't or simply can't afford to stay at home with the flu or the cold or covid because they can't afford to in the current financial climate with every day costs going out of control. If the government or doctors want us to stay home for a week with the flu put their hand in their pocket and give people their full wages for the week through social. There were boasting a couple of weeks ago about being 16bn in the black over the next couple of years so they can afford it.

Micky 32

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120560560#Comment_120560560

There’s a huge question mark over that claim of one in ten. There is no way it’s one in ten. Twitter even put a marker on that claim. Yes one person dies every 3 mins but 319 die every 3 mins of other causes. Puts a bit of perspective on it. It’s been over a while now. Life has returned to normal. I have been living 2019 for at least a year now. Nobody cares in the real world. It’s over.

Swaine

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120560777#Comment_120560777

People weren't dying from it though. They were dying with it.

This fact seems to have got overlooked throughout this farce.

odyssey06

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120562554#Comment_120562554

Thats not a fact. Thats medical misinformation.

You are also ignoring the numbers of people it sent to ICU and hospital from covid.

https://www.thejournal.ie/debunk-183-covid-deaths-ireland-5850250-Aug2022/

DLink

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120562582#Comment_120562582

Doesn't matter now, it's over 😁

SuperBowserWorld

The pandemic is over ...

Brutal intensive industry meat production, destruction of habitat, and cheap airline travel bringing the next one to you soon !

DLink

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120562870#Comment_120562870

All hail cheap airline travel, makes it easier to get away from this damp kip every now and then.

The biggest risk is that then the next pandemic comes, public trust of the "professionals" will have already been severely eroded and there will be a far greater number who will revolt the next time.

Covid was not severe enough to warrant such an overreaction, like the one we just witnessed.

If it had been as deadly as the "Spanish Flu", then things would have been very different.

SuperBowserWorld

Agree we went ridiculously cautious for covid. It was only to prevent our very expensive health service which was already at capacity from being overwhelmed.

And even now, the health service is still at capacity and not due to covid.

Investment in healthy eating, alcohol reduction, exercise, mental health would save many more lives. And also the govt. needs to deliver on the billions poured into the health service. And make it possible for those who work in it to afford accommodation and a future in this country.

DLink

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120562907#Comment_120562907

I'd like to say I agree with you, I know I'll be pushing back if it ever happens again, but I think the great Irish public will just roll over again and hand over the keys to the kingdom.

_Kaiser_

The reality is that the pandemic was "over" as any kind of serious threat to most people after about 4 months when it became clear who was actually at risk of serious illness or death - in general the same people who were already vulnerable to a host of other illnesses. It's those people that our efforts and resources should have been focused on, not asking young and/or healthy people to hide away, maybe losing their jobs and/or dealing with serious stresses in the meantime.

What Covid exposed in this country was the obsessive need of a small minority to control the behaviour of others, the dangers of social media crusading and divisive polarisation, the shocking ease at which freedoms and rights were handed over by many, and the lack of news media that could provide an objective and effective challenge to the politicians and decisions being made - or more accurately abdicated to a group of unelected and unaccountable public servants led by a man who should never have been in charge in the first place.

The fact that there are still some who are worried and attacking others about something that was little more than a mild dose for the overwhelming majority shows the damage that was done by the blanket and excessive one-sided coverage of the event. Just as serious is the financial and mental health consequences of our response, all of which will be with us for a long time to come.

odyssey06

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120563189#Comment_120563189

You still don't get that it was a highly infectious disease. It spreads from person to person. It was always a numbers game of spread and people needing hospital and ICU care, and that wasn't just confined to those 'vulnerable'. If you add up the number of all those vulnerable by that metric, you get a significant percentage of the adult population. Which makes it all the more absurd to talk about 'focused' protection.

And it was never a small minority. This is a lie you tell yourself because poll after poll showed clear majority support for restrictions in Ireland and you were on the opposite minority.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120563247#Comment_120563247

Influenza is a highly infectious disease that can and has killed many elderly and vulnerable people in the past and is still doing so today.

If people like you had their way, we would be having lockdowns every winter there is a "bad flu" doing the rounds!

odyssey06

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120563383#Comment_120563383

Covid across all variants both more severe and more infectious than flu. Your post is utterly disingenuous.

Thats why - not people like me - but the experts at every major health authority in the world acted as they did and treated it as a threat on a scale that dwarfs that of a bad flu.

Speaking as someone who had a "bad flu" in the early 1990s, and having Delta in the spring of 2021, I can assure you that the flu was far worse, the doctor tole me it would take at least six weeks to recover from it, he was right.

I was younger back then, but still made severely ill.

So, NO covid was not worse that a bad flu, I speak from experience.

Anyway, with the official end to the "emergency" pandemic, many will now be at a loss as they have finally had the feeling of power they had controlling others taken away.

odyssey06

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120563405#Comment_120563405

Your experience is dwarfed and outweighed by millions of lived experiences of covid, actual deaths and experts at every health authority in the world.

On a macro scale you dont have a clue what you are talking about. Its up there with the limited narrow view of someone saying smoking doesnt cause lung cancer cos they smoked and didnt get it.

Well, almost 100% of the population actually also caught covid, many had such minor symptoms that they didn't bother even getting tested, my daughter for example caught Delta at the same time as me and had virtually no symptoms, it was only because she needed testing that she found out she had it.

My experience was mirrored by millions of people, as for the smoking reference, you're getting desperate now.

You remind me of the Dukes in "Trading places" at the end of the film - "Turn the machines back on!"

odyssey06

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120563532#Comment_120563532

Did 100 percent actually caught covid? You dont know that. Statement without foundation.

And if we tested for flu like we test for covid we could have found similar. Do you test your family for flu? Without symptoms? So again you dont know if they even had flu or not. They could have flu and not know it or have a mild dose they think is a cold.

Across the range of demographics and outcomes and variants, covid is both more infectious and severe than flu. You have produced no real evidence to challenge those facts, just limited narrow anecdotes.

Anyone repeating the justtheflubro canard at this stage demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of scientific evidence and statistics. So yes right up there with the smoking and cancer.

So you dont understand covid or flu for that matter.

https://www.passporthealthusa.com/2022/04/can-the-flu-be-asymptomatic/

Micky 32

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120562897#Comment_120562897

Yeah has to be done. I have flown 7 longhaul return flights and 1 short flight since November 21. A few ferry crossings. . I decided life is for living after covid.

Micky 32

I think we should stop bickering and get on with our lives now . There’s no point arguing over the past. Yesterday’s announcement should be seen as a milestone as to how far we have come from out of the abyss.

As Donnelly said yesterday

“While Covid-19 remains a global health threat

( which is fair enough just like other diseases such as heart disease and strokes)

, we have learned to live with it and returned to normal life.”

Just go out and enjoy your lives 👍

Tomaldo

I read in Phoenix mag that the Irish Times received huge Government advertising revenue from Covid ads. Is it possible that affected their editorial policy, I'd be be surprised if other media outlets didn't get similar amounts.

odyssey06

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120564015#Comment_120564015

Doubtful proposition... what was their editorial policy before that happened.

Tomaldo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120564080#Comment_120564080

On Covid, I don't know, that's why I'm asking. They have been accused in the recent past of fueling the property bubble because they received a lot of advertising revenue for their supplements. Although they did publish Morgan Kelly's gloomy predictions, which turned out to be accurate.

odyssey06

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120564114#Comment_120564114

I cant see anyone here to be able to answer it though ... similar to the property question its a bit of an unknowable question without an admission from someone involved.

They responded to what they thought people were interested in... which may have led to more interest in it... a reinforcing cycle. Even if hadnt received the ad money and were just reliant on sales... they were selling what there was interest in.