Relaxation of restrictions Part II

growleaves · 29-04-2020 11:02AM

Top Virginia health official warns state lockdown could be 'two-year affair'

During a Friday afternoon briefing on the coronavirus response, Virginia Health Commissioner Norman Oliver said Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam's "Phase One" coronavirus response plan, which involves business closures and social distancing, could last for as long as two years.

“I, personally, think Phase One will be a two-year affair,” Oliver said. “There are a lot of people working on this, and I hope they prove me wrong, but I don’t see it happening in less than two years.”

A Virginia Department of Health representative immediately attempted to walk back Oliver's comments, suggesting that Oliver meant the coronavirus will be with Virginians for two years and not that state-mandated lockdowns would continue that long.

road_high · 29-04-2020 11:04AM

Penfailed wrote: »

That's pure speculation on your part.

Sadly, I wouldn't doubt it. Was only saying to my ma the same thing last night- they'll extend to two weeks - and as the June bank holiday will be coming up "to be extra safe" we will extend beyond that. Then we will do another "review". All the while the economy is flushed down the toilet.

growleaves · 29-04-2020 11:04AM

That's pure speculation on your part.

Pure speculation is what got us where we are today.

Models said around median 175 thousand dead in the US even with full lockdowns.

easypazz · 29-04-2020 11:06AM

Penfailed wrote: »

Are you going to rehash this argument again?

There is nothing to rehash.

Ireland is in lockdown. Everything closed, checkpoints everywhere, 200 people instead of 100000 arrive into Dublin airport on a single day, all other airports as good as closed, people only allowed out for exercise or essential journeys, hospital handed over to the state, army escort medical supplies, public transport empty.

What is the argument exactly?

road_high · 29-04-2020 11:08AM

easypazz wrote: »

There is nothing to rehash.

Ireland is in lockdown. Everything closed, checkpoints everywhere, 200 people instead of 100000 arrive into Dublin airport on a single day, all other airports as good as closed, people only allowed out for exercise or essential journeys, hospital handed over to the state, army escort medical supplies, public transport empty.

What is the argument exactly?

With some people it's not a lockdown unless they're beating people off the streets with canes and you're not allowed outside your front door. They are the hardcore!

growleaves · 29-04-2020 11:10AM

Ireland is in lockdown. Everything closed, checkpoints everywhere, 200 people instead of 100000 arrive into Dublin airport on a single day, all other airports as good as closed, people only allowed out for exercise or essential journeys, hospital handed over to the state, army escort medical supplies, public transport empty.

That meets the definition as used widely in the media and by people generally.

There's no accepted definition as the word was only recently borrowed from prison terminology.

Multipass · 29-04-2020 11:11AM

batman_oh wrote: »

One thing I can't quite understand in the suggested first phase of relaxation is that the garden centres and DIY places are going to open, but you aren't allowed drive to them as that's not essential. So nobody can go there unless they fall within their 2km area of exercise. So why bother opening when some are already doing online ordering?

The best thing I’ve seen was a garden centre that opened last week, and on their Facebook page were asking customers not to come..... only in Ireland :pac:

Tenzor07 · 29-04-2020 11:14AM

road_high wrote: »

Sadly, I wouldn't doubt it. Was only saying to my ma the same thing last night- they'll extend to two weeks - and as the June bank holiday will be coming up "to be extra safe" we will extend beyond that. Then we will do another "review". All the while the economy is flushed down the toilet.

Yea a mate of mine working in Dublin city center got an email from his company to say the office is closed until June at the earliest, so it appears this may have been based on Government advice...

So buckle up people...

Penfailed · 29-04-2020 11:21AM

easypazz wrote: »

There is nothing to rehash.

Ireland is in lockdown. Everything closed, checkpoints everywhere, 200 people instead of 100000 arrive into Dublin airport on a single day, all other airports as good as closed, people only allowed out for exercise or essential journeys, hospital handed over to the state, army escort medical supplies, public transport empty.

What is the argument exactly?

We've been here before on this very thread. Some people think that we have restrictions rather than a lockdown. Saying otherwise won't change their opinion.

ixoy · 29-04-2020 11:21AM

Tenzor07 wrote: »

Yea a mate of mine working in Dublin city center got an email from his company to say the office is closed until June at the earliest, so it appears this may have been based on Government advice....

Is his office public facing and can he do his work from home? Because WFH should certainly be pushed heavily where possible. And where it's not - shops, cafes, etc - we need to look at what we can get going.

Penfailed · 29-04-2020 11:22AM

road_high wrote: »

Sadly, I wouldn't doubt it. Was only saying to my ma the same thing last night- they'll extend to two weeks - and as the June bank holiday will be coming up "to be extra safe" we will extend beyond that. Then we will do another "review". All the while the economy is flushed down the toilet.

I'm hopeful that that won't be the case.

stephenjmcd · 29-04-2020 11:23AM

Tenzor07 wrote: »

Yea a mate of mine working in Dublin city center got an email from his company to say the office is closed until June at the earliest, so it appears this may have been based on Government advice...

So buckle up people...

Dont think anyone expected to be back in the office next week did they ? I've a letter so I can go in for emergency work (IT) but we were constantly told early to mid june for resumption of office work.
Theres only a certain level of work we can do from home longterm.

growleaves · 29-04-2020 11:23AM

https://twitter.com/justin_hart/status/1253945240123133954?ref_src=twsrc

zerosugarbuzz · 29-04-2020 11:24AM

Tenzor07 wrote: »

Yea a mate of mine working in Dublin city center got an email from his company to say the office is closed until June at the earliest, so it appears this may have been based on Government advice...

So buckle up people...

Absolutely disgraceful that this is going on. On top of ruining the economy and all of our futures our immune systems will all be compromised due to self isolating.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock · 29-04-2020 11:26AM

Does sound like Leo is gearing you all up for some bad news....

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said the numbers around ICU admissions, new cases and deaths due to Covid-19 "just aren't good enough yet" to start easing restrictions.

"Maybe it'll change significantly by Friday, but as things stand I don't think we're there yet," he said.

https://www.rte.ie/news/coronavirus/2020/0429/1135508-restrictions-work/

mandrake04 · 29-04-2020 11:27AM

Banana Republic. wrote: »

Watching the briefing last night and engine is on tender hooks, HSE & DOH seemed tense together and the journos done a good job last night, they are starting to dig deeper into why the HSE is still dragging it’s heels with testing capacity with Dr Heery still talking about “reagent” since day one ramping up testing to 15k a day, this line is being fed since day one. Also the government ministers disagreeing on restrictions being lifted and not lifted so they’ve a lot to decide this week. So many variables it’s far from cut and dried.

The shortage of reagent is over played card, there was a shortage of Lysis buffer which is used in the RNA extraction. It tends to be some of the more bulky type of reagent so stockpiling the stuff and getting it delivered is a problem. The delay from the manufacturers was no more than a week, and that was over a month ago. It’s actually one of the most simple reagents to make and someone down in UCC actually made it...but by the time they were all patting themselves on the back the real stuff was already been distributed around the world so it was pointless exercise.

The Test kits themselves which comprise of Primer/Probes, Elution buffer, MMIXR1&2 and RNA-IC Internal controls is not a real problem, the manufacturer did say use sensibly as there was a huge demand but there has been a steady supply.

Their main problem was lack of up to date instrumentation and having people who know how to work it. They increased testing around the country in something like 40 labs but a lot of these are POC or point of care even the gear in their main labs is only medium sized.

walshb · 29-04-2020 11:28AM

stephenjmcd wrote: »

Its Gemma o Doherty, less said about her the better. In a world of her own

Really....nasty nasty piece of work...

Vile

Incapable of even putting across her view in any dignified or respectful manner.....

0gac3yjefb5sv7 · 29-04-2020 11:28AM

They surely have to lift the 2km rule completely in the coming weeks or at least make it possible to do one longer trip per week. People can't go on forever not seeing friends & family that are over 20km+ away.

munsterlegend · 29-04-2020 11:29AM

walshb wrote: »

Really....nasty nasty piece of work...

Vile

Incapable of even putting across her view in any dignified or respectful manner.....

Very unhinged stuff. Just being confrontational for the sake of it.

never_mind · 29-04-2020 11:30AM

Princess Consuela Bananahammock wrote: »

Does sound like Leo is gearing you all up for some bad news....

https://www.rte.ie/news/coronavirus/2020/0429/1135508-restrictions-work/

My issue is lack of transparency (imagine, the Irish government lacking in transparency!). A road-map of easing restrictions needs to be published. If this includes locking down the country until June then so be it. We need to know where we stand.

ELM327 · 29-04-2020 11:32AM

But sure how would they know when they can ease the restrictions? It's out of their hands.

Charles Babbage · 29-04-2020 11:32AM

stephenjmcd wrote: »

Hoping that the plan if released in Friday has some substance to it.
Highly demoralising looking at other countries right across the EU starting to lift restrictions and giving people aims and dates to work towards. If you look at Poland for example they'll be realistically back to normal in June and we could be essentially still where we are now.

Let's see what Friday brings

People are talking here as if the Irish government has some different policy from other places like Poland. It does not, it has an equal willingness to reopen things but it has different data. Poland has half the deaths of Ireland with 7 times the population and only half the number of new cases at present. We are where we are, we cannot wish we were somewhere else and we just have to get on with it and not make any more mistakes.

Issuing a plan is fine but they need to identify the data that will be needed to justify each step.

leahyl · 29-04-2020 11:33AM

never_mind wrote: »

My issue is lack of transparency (imagine, the Irish government lacking in transparency!). A road-map of easing restrictions needs to be published. If this includes locking down the country until June then so be it. We need to know where we stand.

From the article

"Mr Varadkar said he hopes to be able to set out the different steps to reopen the country and ease restrictions, but suggested that an easing would not be announced this week.

"We expect to be in a position to share the exit strategy with the Irish public in the next couple of days, certainly over the weekend. We'll be getting new advice from the Chief Medical Officer on Friday as to when we should start that process of reopening the economy and the country."

Tenzor07 · 29-04-2020 11:33AM

ixoy wrote: »

Is his office public facing and can he do his work from home? Because WFH should certainly be pushed heavily where possible. And where it's not - shops, cafes, etc - we need to look at what we can get going.

Of course, he's been WFH for about 2 months now.

As for shops and cafe's, pubs etc. the ones around by Google/Facebook are sustained by workers in that area, and after 3 months they won't be reopening without government grants...

growleaves · 29-04-2020 11:33AM

munsterlegend wrote: »

Very unhinged stuff. Just being confrontational for the sake of it.

She seems to have a very literal view of political liberalism. She things public servants should literally view each citizen they meet as their "Master". Authority doesn't operate like that, even in a politically liberal society.

road_high · 29-04-2020 11:34AM

Princess Consuela Bananahammock wrote: »

Does sound like Leo is gearing you all up for some bad news....

https://www.rte.ie/news/coronavirus/2020/0429/1135508-restrictions-work/

That’s how they operate- drip drip drip feed. Not even going to watch this rubbish Friday night, not worth wasting your time.

_Kaiser_ · 29-04-2020 11:34AM

ixoy wrote: »

Is his office public facing and can he do his work from home? Because WFH should certainly be pushed heavily where possible. And where it's not - shops, cafes, etc - we need to look at what we can get going.

WFH should be pushed as not only a response to this current crisis, but a long term shift in businesses/roles where there is no need to have the person in the office full time.

But it won't happen in many places, even where those places are working away from home at the moment. Lots of management still think that people need to be physically watched to be productive when, generally, the opposite is the case.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock · 29-04-2020 11:35AM

ELM327 wrote: »

But sure how would they know when they can ease the restrictions? It's out of their hands.

They can issue a set of guidelines with the caveat that all dates and objectives are subject to a review should the data change or the number of cases spikes again. There should be less vairaibles than a few weeks ago and a pattern should be emerging by now.

Pretty much every plan of easing of restrictions in Europe comes with this footnote.

The problem is that they more than likely have one, but it's not one that makes for pleasant reading.

cython · 29-04-2020 11:35AM

never_mind wrote: »

My issue is lack of transparency (imagine, the Irish government lacking in transparency!). A road-map of easing restrictions needs to be published. If this includes locking down the country until June then so be it. We need to know where we stand.

Was going to say exactly this. It's beyond frustrating to hear such vague rationales as "not good enough" without ever being told what "good enough" might look like. But if they even provided a ballpark of what might be required from the public then it would be more difficult to hide behind this kind of excuse when the bolstering measures (testing, etc.) from the state are not realised in time.

jonnny68 · 29-04-2020 11:36AM

People from up north can come over the border and go on day trips here without the garda doing anything,Bulgarian fruit pickers can travel on a packed plane to come into this country to pick strawberry's, so if Leo and co think that people are going to remain under lockdown and this 2km restrictions then they'll be sorely mistaken.

Relaxation of restrictions Part II

Comments