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

Deleted User wrote: »

Every single day more and more items are announced or discussed that will enable the further unpicking of restrictions and return to normality. These are completely ignored in favour of continuous demonisation of individuals and embarrassment at not hosting a football match.

I think I get some of why ye are all so frustrated though. Imagine watching a Dail committee meeting or NPHET briefing and expecting to learn something new? Ye hang on every word at these things which tell no one nothing apart from the daily numbers

Can you give some examples of what was announced today.

Graham wrote: »

You're really not very good at translating posts if that's what you get.

It's kinda odd watching somebody imagine you might say something and then debate the very point they've just imagined!

Then why are you trying to get people to stop talking about something that is in direct relation to the thread title?

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Every single day more and more items are announced or discussed that will enable the further unpicking of restrictions and return to normality. These are completely ignored in favour of continuous demonisation of individuals and embarrassment at not hosting a football match.

I think I get some of why ye are all so frustrated though. Imagine watching a Dail committee meeting or NPHET briefing and expecting to learn something new? Ye hang on every word at these things which tell no one nothing apart from the daily numbers

I watch them hoping to learn the rationale behind their recommendations or decisions. And get frustrated when there is no data that only they are privy to that might explain their ridiculously over-cautious approach.

The resistance to controlled antigen testing is a mess. If there’s no money or resources to implement it then that would at least be a reasonable excuse. But it’s batsh**t nonsense - apparently they can’t be used because they can be hacked, and other countries are only using them because they don’t have PCR capabilities.

Can’t understand how that nonsense is defended here.

seamus wrote: »

Are you worried that we won't have large events, again, ever, or something? It will come back. You'll have to wait, but it's not like you'll never see a full stadium again.

Quarter full stadiums at this point in the pandemic, would be a bad move. We are joined at the hip to a country with one of the worst pandemic responses in the world, who are currently experiencing a new wave of infection. It would have turned into a complete disaster as thousands of British made their way here to see matches*, dragging infections with them.

What other countries are doing, is irrelevant. We can only make choices for ourselves. We are not adequately vaccinated to support events of this size, and we are too openly exposed to the UK, a unique feature of our politics that has made our infection numbers bigger than they need to be and made our response more difficult.

This was a call that had to be made, and they made it on the basis that it would not be possible to say whether it would be safe to host a quarter-full stadium at the time that the matches went ahead.

And that decision has turned out to be completely justified.

*Yes, the aim was that crowds would be limited to Irish residents, but we all know that's complete bollox and half of the tickets would be sold onto brits and other foreigners

Do you think if it was possible to just have irish residents at an event we could to work to event scales similar to the rest of Europe?

There is match in Croker this weekend, we are doing 3% capacity of croker. I'm dissapointed Ireland is the only nation to not hold an event, i can see why this was decided and think if we qualified it would be a bit different. Surely though since our 'unique' problem of having the tickets going to people in Britain is effectively elimated for GAA games should ee not be having 15\20k there this weekend?

also our not agreeing to fans has nothing to do with standing up to Uefa IMO

Newspapers are turning against Lord Holohan now too.

What worries me most is for future pandemics or other catastrophes. The arrogance of thinking they know best and unwillingness to follow or even take on board what works internarionally is worrying.
At this stage with the pace of vaccines, antigen testing will probably be redundant by the time it could be set up. But what happens if it flairs up again in the winter or there's another virus in a few years. Will they be in a position to implement rapid testing at the drop of a hat, follow the latest science or will they stick to their good auld conservative approach and do things the way they've always done them.

paddyisreal wrote: »

Chief scientific office compiles a report on antigen testing and our CMO hasn't read it ! This is unbelievable stuff. Most arrogant display in front of a national committee since john delaney

Even Anthony Staines on NT a few minutes ago was astonished to hear that.

I think Tony's arrogance and control freak tendencies have finally turned public opinion against him and his band of ass-coverers if the media coverage this morning is anything to go by.

Just heard on newstalk which is unbelievable that nphet never rolled back on their advice for face masks they changed it to recommending face coverings to get around it the fact they made a Balls of it.

Graham wrote: »

and yet it's only really the anti-Tony lobby that ever mention him.

Unknown doctor gets freedom of city.

paddyisreal wrote: »

Just heard on newstalk which is unbelievable that nphet never rolled back on their advice for face masks they changed it to recommending face coverings to get around it the fact they made a Balls of it.

Well tbf that cockup came from the WHOs guidance at the time - that masks would encourage a false sense of security and would deprive medical professionals of badly needed protective equipment or wtte

It was only in May 2020 that the WHO changed its recommendations from not wearing face masks to recommending that governments should encourage people to wear face coverings ie non-medical masks

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-52945210

Not the first thing the WHO feked up tbh.

the kelt wrote: »

To be honest you have a point, when it comes to something being relevant to the title of the thread the current situation in regards to antigen testing is as relevant as it gets as it’s the main ticket item in the news considering nphet, Holohan and Covid etc these last couple of days

I see this morning there seems to be a row brewing further between nphet and the department of transport over this.

There should be no row. The Minister and cabinet have the final say. If they want to use rapid testing for travel they can have that implemented, regardless of what Tony thinks. He has his views on them and is not for changing, it's up to the elected officials to make governance decisions.

robbiezero wrote: »

Are you saying we couldn't have held that idiotic "concert" or put 2400 people in Croke Park in March?
Or indeed at any point in the pandemic?

Its a question.

I believe you suggested March as the point where events should have been trialled- here

So again "Are you saying we should have been less cautious than the UK and held trials in March a full month and a half before they did?

Tenger wrote: »

The airline pilots and crew who were at the Dail today all got tested within an hour at IALPA HQ. That’s 350 in an hour.

Dublin airport is currently getting about 2000 arrivals a day. So a similar setup could process those over 7 hours. And airports are specifically designed to handle people queuing and getting documentation checked before they join another queue.
The test centres in the airport (of which there are 3) could handle an increase in arrivals and carry out antigen testing.

Arrivals will have all ready have been tested, so the departure figures is the pertinent one, a number that will increase exponentially when non essential travel is lifted.

The IALPA have 4 demands / recommendations, 3 which have been met or will be met, the main sticking point for them is antigen testing.

This position has itself evolved in 3 weeks.

They are citing 'the science' and the scientific community but can't cite any validated real life study on them whilst claiming NPHET are anti science.

Their position on antigen is based largely on the opinion of Professor Michael Mina who deserves respect and his opinion listened to.

The problem is they have completely cherry picked his opinion to pieces and diluted it down as have the back bench politicians banging pots and pans together in a vain attempt to seem important.

His preference for antigen over PCR is the rapid nature of it, travelers should be tested an hour before the flight. In theory he has a point.

If somebody uses a PCR test two to three days before a flight and they get a negative result, by the time they walk on that flight they could literally be at the peak of their infection. Antigen tests would detect those people

The IALPA ran with this for a day or 2, until I imagine it was pointed out to them it wasn't practical, now they have pushed it to maybe the day of travel or the day before which is not what the expert was touting.

Mina also said vaccinated people should be tested, this was conveniently ignored.

They certainly have a point on the cost of antigen, but again touting it as a €5 test is just disingenuous, unless someone can point me to a company validating tests for 5 quid?

The IAPA are certainly entitled to put forward their case, they are compelled to do it, but ranting and raving about science whilst putting forward diluted opinion is probably not the best way to achieve what they want.