Have NPHET lost the attention of people?

gifted wrote: »

When this pandemic first occurred NPHET were out and advising a lot of precautions which people actually took notice of....just recently I've noticed more and more people that I talk to are saying they're taking no more notice of NPHET as they just seem to be repeating the same warnings as before...hygiene...social distancing...etc....and just seem to be going through the motions now at these briefings they give.

Have they lost the attention of the people?

Stopped listening to them months ago. I find them extremely negative/hung up on childish scaremongering- always finger whagging and generally talking down to the populace. Sorry, I left school nearly two decades ago. Don't need that approach whcih I find all wrong.

The NPHET are losing credibility imho.

At the start the message was clear and easy to understand: tight restrictions were imposed on society to "flatten the curve" and buy our health sector valuable time to face the unknown challenges ahead.

Now 6 months on, the message is confusing and contradictory. They say we must learn to "live with the virus" but that doesn't make sense when you consider the huge sectors of the economy are closed / operating as a shadow of their normal selves. That doesn't sound like "living with the virus" to me. It sounds more like "lets all hunker down and hope for the best"... There's no clear goal to work toward and so people are quite rightly a bit fed up with them now.

If they stayed on point then people would be listening as they were before. It's the ridiculous hypocrisies that has annoyed people, to the point that the public assumes they have no idea what they're doing.

No attendance at sporting events is a perfect example. We've had months of them telling us that outside with distancing is multiple times safer than indoors. We have very large grounds where distancing is easily achievable. The vast vast majority of other countries are allowing it. Yet our health service alone has the knowledge that its somehow unsafe, going against their previous outdoors advice

I found their recommendation to and of the Governemnt for rubber stamping it, the extra restrictions on outdoor/indoor sports and training/gyms extremely poor from a physical and mental health POV.
Both activities benefit people hugely in boosting people's immune systems and general health. But all they could see was "the virus". Locking at home doing nothing is very detrimental

People just weary of it. I think at the beginning we fell in behind with the message 'stay home' 'flatten the curve' and that was working seemed like there could be an end or some hope of back to normal by end this year.
Now it's just yep go back to work, school etc but no parties, socializing, travel or fun allowed! I totally understand why, its just people are looking ahead to winter months thinking F***, is this all I have to look forward to. Young people heading off to college one week a month, back with mammy & daddy then for the rest of the time, unable to head out for a night with friends without questioning, older people on their own dark winter nights, no cards, bridge, senior clubs. People in events, live entertainment, hospitality & tourism also not looking a a great few months ahead - I mean yeh we all lucky to be alive but honestly listening to nphet or the govt right now would tip you over the edge!

No it hasn't but what is abundantly clear is the outrageous cynical underming of it by FG & independent TD"S, I can understand the independents parish pump politicking but FG are supposed to be in government, in particular Leo has been on a solo mission, not just to undermine NPHET but government policy, which he not only supported but introduced. Indeed his sudden interest in pubs reopening is beyond hypocrisy, it was him who closed them down. Every announcement or initiative he's announced in his new role has either backfired, misfired or just been dismissed, the oddest one being the staycation tax rebate.

To my mind the only organisation that has shown any consistency throughout this crisis and painful as it might be is NPHET.

Just watching Eamonn Ryan taking questions in the Dail, mother of God, why o why does any of his government colleagues think this is wise, absolutely dreadful and incoherent

If you are a member of NPHET, your job is to advise on public health. If it was me, I would want to be overly conservative so no one could come at me and say I didn’t warn enough etc etc. That’s fine and that’s what I think NPHET we’re doing, even without Covid they prob think pubs are risky.

The governments job is to take that advice and look at the bigger picture, the economy etc and then decide what to accept.

So I think people blame NPHET but the real issue is the government not leading, and hiding behind “science or public health advice”

It's the Government that has lost the attention of people. The communication of the last set of restrictions a few weeks ago was shambolic and Ministers were struggling to address contradictions six people indoors but not for mass, only 15 people outdoors but games ok, etc. And that was before Golfgate ripped their credibility completely apart.

The government have blundered by giving NPHET so much of a platform. Of course people aren't going to listen to the same things about being extra cautious etc. repeated for the 50th time, no matter the spin on it. NPHET should be banned from talking to the media. Let them advise the government, of course, but in private. NPHET aren't politicians for good reason, they may be aware of the kind of medical advice people need to follow, but they have no clue on how to deliver it, and letting them try to deliver it with constant nagging/finger pointing/scaremongering is proving painfully ineffective.

They are driving outside of their lane and have been for a while. They are abusing this situation to try and manoeuvre stuff that they as individuals would be lobbying for without Covid.

There has been more and more talk about flu season. Things like Masks and 2 hour pub/Restaurant limits are things that they will want permanently.

Keeping this crisis going on as long as possible benefits them to suit their ideological purposes. And we know full well that they probably have books half written or book deals in the pipeline.

The crisis is over and they need to go back to their regular jobs.

lee_baby_simms wrote: »

The next 2 weeks are critical.

They've really overused that one. They need to keep it in their back pocket until things get close to armageddon levels.