When will it all end?

Scotty # wrote: »

I'm not sure acquired immunity lasts that long. I read a report months ago that said asymptomatic people had lost their antibodies after 25 days or so. Symptomatic people a little longer and critically ill but recovered still had them 6 months later.

My neighbour, a nursing home nurse, tested positive last May and again there at Christmas. Asymptomatic both times but the vaccine had her off work sick for a week.

We're still in the dark ages when it comes to fully understanding immunity, a lot of people scratching their heads with cases like you've mentioned.
I've spoken to someone working in a nursing home and she mentioned a lot of her friends were sick after it as well.
Could she possibly had different strains in May and December, she must have natural immunity if it's not affecting her.

Deleted User wrote: »

Agreed! The EU don’t seem to be handling things too well at the moment. The problem for us remains, not where can we get into, but can we even get out?

Belfast.......

Risteard81 wrote: »

There's no such thing as "Northern Irish".

Are you still peddling this "no such country as Northern Ireland" rubbish? FFS. :rolleyes: This is getting tiresome now.:(

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

I don’t understand what I’m seeing here. How is 783 an 18% reduction on 808? Isn’t it more like a 3% reduction on the previous week?

i am comparing to 7 days previous....

To even out the highs and lows of a week...

Sorry about the confusion..

patnor1011 wrote: »

What is amazing is how easily we went from "its only till vaccine come" and "vaccine save us from this virus" to "vaccine may stop hospitalization when infected".

Goal posts keep shifting and waiting for "something" seems to be with no end in sight. Now it is "we need to have at least 80% vaccinated" despite most of the posters dismissing herd immunity not so long ago till it change let us say "we keep it up, shut up and put up - because mutations".

It depends on what news sources you were using for the last year and whether you retained the parts you didn’t want to hear.

Tabloids didn’t go into much detail on how it would work in practice. They just told you that we would develop a vaccine and go back to normal. Good news sources discussed the details of vaccine testing, approval, supply, administration and of course efficacy for preventing mild and severe illness and hospitalisation and death.

If you used good news sources then the goalposts didn’t shift at all. If you used tabloids or Facebook or just chatting with people to get your news, then you might think the goalposts have shifted. That’s hardly anyone else’s fault though, is it?

bucketybuck wrote: »

Happened to catch a bit of the UK media last night and it was noticeable the difference in tone from the likes of RTE. The UK is miles ahead of Ireland in terms of vaccine roll out and future planning but still I saw multiple instances of the media asking hard questions and criticising their government even further.

I've no time for Stephen Nolan but I caught the teaser for his show which basically amounted to him shouting clearly "Are they doing enough, and when are we getting out of lockdown".

Such things are needed to keep governments at least semi-honest, but in Ireland they suckle at the teat of NPHET and don't dare ask such questions.

Mainstream media in Ireland especially the broadcast media operate in a simple fashion......get government politician on, pretend to ask some slightly awkward questions but never push them too hard and then allow them to sing from their soapbox. If journalist pushes too far that particular journalist / show is blackmarked by said politicians/ party and they never get any interviews again. Journalists learn to be government lackies.....

RTE is the worst offender, Newstalk not far behind. They know what they need to do to keep getting interviews with Paschal and his ilk.

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

It depends on what news sources you were using for the last year and whether you retained the parts you didn’t want to hear.

Tabloids didn’t go into much detail on how it would work in practice. They just told you that we would develop a vaccine and go back to normal. Good news sources discussed the details of vaccine testing, approval, supply, administration and of course efficacy for preventing mild and severe illness and hospitalisation and death.

If you used good news sources then the goalposts didn’t shift at all. If you used tabloids or Facebook or just chatting with people to get your news, then you might think the goalposts have shifted. That’s hardly anyone else’s fault though, is it?

Don't think anyone didn't realise that the vaccine roleout was going to take some time. However I think what this poster is broadly referring to is the failure to define an end point. We know the vaccines are effective and especially when you look at the way they reduce hospitalisation and death so what we need is a line in the sand defined by government.

So for example open up once all the over 50's have been vaccinated as O'Leary suggested or be utterly health and safety mad and wait till all the over 18' s are vaccinated....whatever that line is it is but we need the line and vague plans and chats about possible problems next winter etc etc just have people thinking this will never end.

Once we get to this point we have done our best and we have to grow up, recognise that this is an endemic virus, it isn't going away and that we will still have some hospitalisation and death after this point but we have to accept this and get on with life.

You must remember all the people making these lockdown decisions are financially secure and are actually raising their profile and professional credentials so they literally have no idea at all what many people now a year into debt or running g through savings or borrowing money from family etc etc are going through.

ujjjjjjjjj wrote: »

Don't think anyone didn't realise that the vaccine roleout was going to take some time. However I think what this poster is broadly referring to is the failure to define an end point. We know the vaccines are effective and especially when you look at the way they reduce hospitalisation and death so what we need is a line in the sand defined by government.

So for example open up once all the over 50's have been vaccinated as O'Leary suggested or be utterly health and safety mad and wait till all the over 18' s are vaccinated....whatever that line is it is but we need the line and vague plans and chats about possible problems next winter etc etc just have people thinking this will never end.

Once we get to this point we have done our best and we have to grow up, recognise that this is an endemic virus, it isn't going away and that we will still have some hospitalisation and death after this point but we have to accept this and get on with life.

You must remember all the people making these lockdown decisions are financially secure and are actually raising their profile and professional credentials so they literally have no idea at all what many people now a year into debt or running g through savings or borrowing money from family etc etc are going through.

I think lots of people didn’t consider how long the vaccine would take to test, produce and administer. I think lots of people presumed we’d be out of this whole situation by now.

What makes you think there is a definite end point at this stage? Do you think they know the end point and they just aren’t telling you? Or do you think they just have to wait and see wha happens in the next few months?

That talk about next winter isn’t vague or veiled. It’s been talked about clearly for ages. The information we have is that the virus is seasonal and we’ll have to see what happens next winter when lots of the population are vaccinated and we go through a winter without lots of restrictions like this year. It’s not vague talk, it’s clear talk about uncertainties.

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

Then why would you watch it?

Awfully glib response. Perhaps he watches it in disgust due to the fact he is forced to pay for it.

Sobit1964 wrote: »

Awfully glib response. Perhaps he watches it in disgust due to the fact he is forced to pay for it.

Maybe so but if you don’t feel like your being informed by the media that’s most in your face, the it’s nobody’s responsibility but your own, to find better media.

I also think that lots of people are surprised that the pandemic is going on longer than they expected because they dismissed news they didn’t want to hear as “doom and gloom”. The fact the people are surprised by the questions emerging now around aspects of vaccine efficacy (mild illness, severe illness, hospitalisation and death) is evidence that they haven’t grasped the no alliances of the subject. Whether they were never told about them because they used poor news, or were told about those things and dismissed them, I don’t know.

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

Maybe so but if you don’t feel like your being informed by the media that’s most in your face, the it’s nobody’s responsibility but your own, to find better media.

I also think that lots of people are surprised that the pandemic is going on longer than they expected because they dismissed news they didn’t want to hear as “doom and gloom”. The fact the people are surprised by the questions emerging now around aspects of vaccine efficacy (mild illness, severe illness, hospitalisation and death) is evidence that they haven’t grasped the no alliances of the subject. Whether they were never told about them because they used poor news, or were told about those things and dismissed them, I don’t know.

Or.

People are surprised that lockdown is still going on as they have the ability to sift news and critically assess data themselves. They are shocked how many people are terrified of normal life due to the bad news and terrible reporting of the legacy media.

ujjjjjjjjj wrote: »

Was ignoring the reply as it was glib (being polite). You are right, we all pay a tax which we have to pay called the TV licence which largely goes to fund RTE (yes OK you can opt not to have a TV..so please avoid that post) so I think we have a right to comment on RTE.

If it was a subscription service fine but it isn't.

Comment on RTE all you want. But complaining that you’re not well enough informed on the issue is self-defeating.

The kind of theatre you talked about where the news presenters ask politicians to give prepared answers to obvious questions, isn’t going to enlighten anyone anyway. It’s part of the news process but it’s hardly going to yield terribly interesting results.

It’s one person’s responsibility to make sure you’re informed.

The people who seem shocked that there’s a whole process to work through regarding vaccine testing, manufacturing, procurement, and administration, and then there are a whole series of questions around efficacy, means they haven’t been informed about those things until now. But those things have been discussed over the last year in good news sources. So they either haven’t been getting good news or haven’t been paying attention.

francogarbanzo wrote: »

Individual Florida counties may have a certain level of restrictions

Is that not exactly what I said?

francogarbanzo wrote: »

To your second point, compared to what?

Well, us, obviously.

Florida deaths per million: 1,456
Ireland deaths per million: 876

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

The bit in bold: I think i was pretty clear that i was talking about the people who were surprised at the length of the pandemic and restrictions post vaccine - not about people who don't like the length. I don't like the length but I was not surprised by it as I was getting news that talked about these kinds of issues over the last year. If someone is surprised by the vaccine process and the time needed to get back to normal, then they either we'ren't getting good news or weren't taking it in.

Maybe they are surprised as we will soon be celebrating the one year anniversary of 'two weeks to flatten the curve'?

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

Comment on RTE all you want. But complaining that you’re not well enough informed on the issue is self-defeating.

The kind of theatre you talked about where the news presenters ask politicians to give prepared answers to obvious questions, isn’t going to enlighten anyone anyway. It’s part of the news process but it’s hardly going to yield terribly interesting results.

It’s one person’s responsibility to make sure you’re informed.

The people who seem shocked that there’s a whole process to work through regarding vaccine testing, manufacturing, procurement, and administration, and then there are a whole series of questions around efficacy, means they haven’t been informed about those things until now. But those things have been discussed over the last year in good news sources. So they either haven’t been getting good news or haven’t been paying attention.

I am perfectly well informed thank you as I do primary research myself. Don't worry I don't rely on RTE but many people don't have the time, academic ability, intelligence or understanding to be able to sift through primary materials.

I am interested though as to what news sources you think are good in Ireland ? I genuinely can't find one who during the pandemic I have found even close to satisfactory. Bar the odd outlier in the Irish media in general they adopt a general low confrontation approach with the Irish government as they know if they are too confrontational they don't get access.