Covid 19 Part XXIV-37,063 ROI (1,801 deaths) 12,886 NI (582 deaths) (02/10) Read OP

The situation that currently pertains is that a teenager can go to school and sit in a classroom with 25 others during the day but that evening, he or she cannot enjoy their sport in a space twice the size with high walls, no ceiling and much more ventilation.

These nonsensical guidelines emanate from well-meaning administrators following advice from the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET). I don’t doubt NPHET's motives; what bugs me is that they cannot be questioned.

If Covid case numbers go down, NPHET are right and are lionised as heroes (I am not speaking figuratively – these well-renumerated public servants are literally called heroes), saving the nation. If case numbers rise, NPHET are still right, it’s just that we are not listening and adhering to what we are told to do.


Decision-making without accountability like that is never a good idea. We are long past that, though, when those who even raise the point are liable to be dismissed as tin-foil hat-wearing conspiracy theorists. I said as much to a friend recently. His response? “Okay, calm down, Jim Corr…”

What the lockdown and the reaction it subsequently provoked in Ireland proved is that the nanny state is in charge now, once and for all. Personal autonomy has been pushed to the margins.

Wolf359f wrote: »

It would be nice if you had an opinion on the article you posted.

Wolf359f wrote: »

Yes only a very small percentage of people need hospital care, even smaller amount need ICU and an even smaller amount will succumb to the virus.
However, as we have seen with hospital cases now at ~100, there will get a point where outpatient appointments will have to be cancelled again, causing more pain and suffering to those needing care.

As people pointed out before, schools will be last to close, you can be damn sure the government won't allow the health system to come to a crawl like before.

Even if we can reach where we are with seasonal influenza with COVID-19, there is still a significant degree of influenza mortality every year - even with well-established vaccines and antivirals.

In fact, we have essentially already decided to sacrifice the control of influenza each winter to maintain our way of life.

There has been no masking, social distancing or curfews or lockdowns for flu, even in particularly bad years.

Hospital ICUs do admit influenza patients and thousands of people die from it each year but we have just learned to live with this.

Influenza also disappears during spring and summer each year, so we get a regular welcome and expected reprieve.

Eventually, our attitudes and approaches to COVID-19 may become the same.