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

FintanMcluskey wrote: »

“My father died at 46”

“I’m not going to start playing your game”

I love to see those populist presenters get the rug pulled from their immature conversation

As that guy said, 617,000 die each year in the Uk. All of those deaths are sad.

having watched that I feel the MP has been reading my posts on this thread.:D

ArthurDayne wrote: »

Oh, and I completely agree with you — personally I think our strategy still bears the psychological hallmark of the panic people felt about what was happening in Italy last year. There is a feeling that our restrictions have to be ultra-pre-emptive — that once the situation becomes truly cataclysmically dire there is absolutely no way of retrieving it. Induced by the panic over Italy, the government has tended to work on a top-down basis in terms of severity — risk tolerance is placed almost the lowest setting to be tentatively teased upwards rather than pushing it upwards and see how the situation progresses. Christmas has been the perfect example — whereby construction, schools, retail etc have all been earmarked as problems when it is sensible to assume that Christmas visiting and family gatherings with older relatives would subside in January.

The other issue of course is that society has cried out for the government to be the intervening force, to the expense of promoting personal responsibility. The words of Jonathan Sumption back in May 2020 seemed almost hyperbolic to many, but I wonder how many of those who dismissed them then would read them now and think he had a point:

“Free people make mistakes and willingly take risks. If we hold politicians responsible for everything that goes wrong, they will take away our liberty so that nothing can go wrong. They will do this not for our protection against risk, but for their own protection against criticism"

The quote at the end is prescient. And agreed too about the lasting damage the Italy scenario has had on the national psyche. I think in a general sense you won't meet many people who are completely against restrictions, and certainly I'm not one of them either, but the further along in the vaccination process we get, the longer the full lockdown lasts, you can see how that tide of public opinion can change.

Personally I've changed my tune too, you can't go on like this indefinitely, you can't have the threat of your life being taken away at the snap of the fingers because numbers have risen above an arbitrary number and you can't keep moving the goalposts on people too. The approach might be the most careful one for saving ever possible life they can from Covid but it comes at a cost. At the same time, opening everything up today and pretending nothing is happening comes at too great a cost too and that's what I mean by balance. If you tell me that by May we'll have Level 3 and no threat of Level 5 again then I'd say "OK, that's tough but fair" but this write off 2021 approach, another tough lockdown in Winter, not even guarantees for 2022 when all along the vaccine has been painted as the answer? How can a population of people not get upset at that? It's a lot to take on the chin.

Leadership is sorely missing from our government. IMO Christmas has scarred them for ever.
None of the decision makers (Government, NHEPT) are hindered by the restrictions and are earning their full salary.
They are not working from home permanently, for the past 10 months like a lot of people, they haven't lost their job like close to 500.000 people.

Its hard to understand the concerns of the public if you are not affected in the same way.

I understand the need for certain restrictions and do not expect indoor dining to open before June, but come March outdoor activities, like non contact sports(Tennis, Golf, etc) should be opened to provide an outlet to people to make social contact in a safe manner and provide exercise which we all know is badly needed. Also the 5km rule needs to go to county wide.

This lockdown is certainly the hardest.

wakka12 wrote: »

https://twitter.com/TodaywithClaire/status/1360185895060721666
https://twitter.com/TodaywithClaire/status/1360185896725864448

Bit mad to see our national broadcaster basically calling out individual citizens nearly at this stage and trying to turn people against each other. Never think you'd see it would you. Such a non story, a literal handful of Irish people booked a holiday under false pretense, so ****in what, let's have a witch hunt. It's such a distraction from the actual issue going on here, the fact that so many of the people vulnerable to the virus that those people might bring back are still not vaccinated against it.

You're right, it is such a ridiculous non story but that's what gets the public angry and riled up so that's where RTE will go. You'd expect more from RTE who can do serious current affairs but this is the equivalent of Love Island reality tv nonsense.

wakka12 wrote: »

https://twitter.com/TodaywithClaire/status/1360185895060721666
https://twitter.com/TodaywithClaire/status/1360185896725864448

Bit mad to see our national broadcaster basically calling out individual citizens nearly at this stage and trying to turn people against each other. Never think you'd see it would you. Such a non story, a literal handful of Irish people booked a holiday under false pretense, so ****in what, let's have a witch hunt. It's such a distraction from the actual issue going on here, the fact that so many of the people vulnerable to the virus that those people might bring back are still not vaccinated against it.

It's a classic divide and conquer move. Whip up outrage about something and get people to focus on a particular area that is in fact not contributing to the current mess we are in. Remember the 'young people' drinking outdoors in the fresh air over the Summer - the calls for 'army on the streets' from a FF councillor in Galway?
What shocks me about the Irish public is the susceptibility of people and their ability to not see through it....makes you wonder about the average IQ here. Some people lap up everything RTE throws at them and then some.

RGS wrote: »

Leadership is sorely missing from our government. IMO Christmas has scarred them for ever.
None of the decision makers (Government, NHEPT) are hindered by the restrictions and are earning their full salary.
They are not working from home permanently, for the past 10 months like a lot of people, they haven't lost their job like close to 500.000 people.

Its hard to understand the concerns of the public if you are not affected in the same way.

I understand the need for certain restrictions and do not expect indoor dining to open before June, but come March outdoor activities, like non contact sports(Tennis, Golf, etc) should be opened to provide an outlet to people to make social contact in a safe manner and provide exercise which we all know is badly needed. Also the 5km rule needs to go to county wide.

This lockdown is certainly the hardest.

Nope. There were stricter restrictions from last March to May such as the 2 km non essential travel limit, zero construction taking place regardless of circumstances,. the over 70s having to cocoon and also fewer exemptions for the restrictions than there are now.

wakka12 wrote: »

https://twitter.com/TodaywithClaire/status/1360185895060721666
https://twitter.com/TodaywithClaire/status/1360185896725864448

Bit mad to see our national broadcaster basically calling out individual citizens nearly at this stage and trying to turn people against each other. Never think you'd see it would you. Such a non story, a literal handful of Irish people booked a holiday under false pretense, so ****in what, let's have a witch hunt. It's such a distraction from the actual issue going on here, the fact that so many of the people vulnerable to the virus that those people might bring back are still not vaccinated against it.

Can't be surprised at all. It is government money that pays the bills at rte. You don't bite the hand that feeds you. Rte is nothing more than a government propoganda machine at this stage.

I would like to see a proper campaign to defund RTE. A collective effort to not paying the TV licence fee. They are up to their necks in it at this stage.

ingo1984 wrote: »

Can't be surprised at all. It is government money that pays the bills at rte. You don't bite the hand that feeds you. Rte is nothing more than a government propoganda machine at this stage.

Tubbs seems to have gone off the reservation though.

I have made it a custom of mine to not listen to any of the covid news, skipping through the dedicated articles in the local and national papers, and only catching the daily figures when they pop up on my phone. The only thread I follow on this sub-forum is the vaccine one, as it at least gives you hope and they cut through a lot of the bull****, with scientific reason.

However, I heard on the radio during lunch this afternoon that current restrictions may be in place until the summer, and I genuinely don't know how I will get through. I am finding this lockdown harder than the other two combined to the extent that I don't see much point of getting out of bed some days. My three-year contract with work is due to expire in May, and despite exploring the option of extending it to incorporate the weeks I have missed (will be eight months up to the March 5th "review"), it looks like it won't be granted. And due to the severe lockdowns across the country, the prospect of finding work in this climate is slim. My other part-time job, sports reporting for the local paper, is by the wayside indefinitely too. The only routine I have during the week is an online course of a Thursday evening which I am grateful of, and in fairness to myself I keep active.

Now May was always going to be the end of my contract, but at least if I was working as normal, I wouldn't be worrying about it. It's the endless nothingness in the day that manifests worry, and then not having any regular "distractions", even something simple like a quiet pint or two, makes it worse.

I know I will be fine, but I can see why mental health issues, and unfortunately suicides, are increasing. But at least the elderly are safe eh?

dublinbando wrote: »

Wait so why is no one questioning how easy the hospitals are getting overwhelmed? Why aren't we building temporary hospitals? China built a full hospital in 10 days at the start of the pandemic!

It seems, the experts that our Government listens to have convinced them of armageddon if we were to loosen restrictions, they are obviously operating off the prediction models that have proven themselves to be way off, so, there is no point in even discussing expanding capacity as the system wouldn't be able to cope.

They think that if we hadn't gone into level 5 last Dec there would even have been more carnage.

This conveniently ignores the various parts of the world who have taken very different routes and ended up with similar or the same results.

The headbangers think that lockdowns work!!! But the same people can't explain North Dakota and South Dakota!!