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

Ferris_Bueller wrote: »

So annoyed today. Fed up of this country and the gobs*ites running it. It feels like playing a game that is set up to make you lose, the rules keep changing. If its not deaths it's hospitalisations, if not that it's case numbers, if not that it's variants, they will always just find some reason to keep things shut and make this go on for longer than it needs to. This is going to be another summer ruined by NPHET.

I would love to just know - what makes Ireland so different?! We are receiving the same amount of vaccines per capita as the rest of the EU, we have a population happy to take the vaccines, we have low hospital and ICU numbers. Why can we not live like the rest of Europe.

The next week is going to be crippling with the fear of them kicking things back, personally a delay of two weeks isn't the biggest deal in isolation, but it won't be a two week delay. It will be at least a delay until August, followed by another delay until the schools are open and then we are nearly back into winter and the cycle restarts.

It pains me to say it, but I hate this country and the people running it. 18 months ago and prior I would have said I loved this country but this pandemic has really shone on a light on what it's really like due to the a***holes running the show. If there was a protest organised for next weekend I would actually go, and I say that as someone who has been critical of them in the past. Something needs to happen.

Superb post. Really articulated exactly my own feelings on the issue, especially around the delays to the following stages of reopening and how this stops us from having normality until well into 2022, as things will never be rescinded over winter.

Most of all it's the feelings around Ireland. I too am slowly starting to hate this country. I've had very enjoyable stints abroad in the past, but never thought I was making the wrong decision settling down here. It was far from perfect but mostly it worked well. Taxes are high but we have little poverty and a settled society. People are generally good sorts. It was great for a sporting fan, and someone who loves nightlife and socializing. Festivals were aplenty and the restaurant scene was improving massively.

Now it's all going to pot. I always assumed in time of worldwide crises, Ireland would follow the lead of our bigger EU compatriots. We'd look at what they did, and fall somewhere on the conservative side of the middle. I never in a million years thought we'd have the arrogance to go completely off script and become an outlier. Who on earth do we think we are? How have we given power over to people with such arrogance who assume they know more than the brightest minds in Europe? How have our media stood by an applauded this rather than question it. And most of all, how have so much of our populace not only accepted this, but actively encouraged it, rather than take a look outside their station and ask what is happening elsewhere.

The Archbishop of Cashel-Emly, Most Reverend Kieran O’Reilly, has described as “disappointing” a letter sent to his diocese from a senior HSE official recommending the diocese defer First Holy Communion and Confirmations to September, to help curb the spread of Covid-19.

Archbishop O’Reilly also cautioned parents in the diocese against holding Communion or Confirmation house parties for people outside of their immediate family.

A letter signed by Dr Rose Fitzgerald, Specialist in Public Health Medicine at Public Health Mid West, was sent yesterday to the dioceses of Cashel-Emily, Limerick, and Killaloe, stating, "it is our view that these ceremonies should be deferred unit September 2021, due to the current high rate of Covid-19 infection in the Mid-West region, (and that), by September most of those eligible should be fully vaccinated against Covid”.

The letter informs each of the three Catholic dioceses that the Department received “a number of queries in relation to the holding of First Holy Communion and Confirmation ceremonies over the summer period in the Limerick, Clare and North Tipperary region”.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/munster/arid-40320566.html

Graham wrote: »

We are in a pandemic. This isn't routine.

The only thing unprecedented about this pandemic in any meaningful sense is the political reaction to it - the lockdowns.

Lots of people around now lived through Asian flu and Hong Kong flu to name comparable pandemics.

darconio wrote: »

When we predicted this behavior months ago we were called fear mongers, now I hope it's clear for everybody what to expect.
And there is still a vast cohort supporting their decisions: how that is possible is beyond me, but yeah I think we deserve it after spending months accepting passively the events. The next few months will be interesting with the flu season knocking at our door, I will be very curious to see what happens

Sunk cost fallacy. They're in too deep at this stage to admit NPHET are overstepping the mark and Governemt too weak to go against it.

gozunda wrote: »

Yup the difference between total and adult population has been well discussed already. And "adult" by definition includes everyone over 18.

Highlighted bit. I've seen this variously posted. How does the percentage of population who are younger - actually prevent older cohorts contracting covid?

At this current point in time, it means that the oldest (and most vulnerable) of society get vaccinated much quicker in our country than compatriots, due to the low average age of our adult population. So when compared with Spain for example, 40% full vaccination should have a much greater proportion of the vulnerable vaccinated (or all the vulnerable vaccinated in our case) in the younger country than in the older country. The vulnerable therefore have much less chance of catching the virus. Our unvaccinated are all young, and therefore of little to no risk.

You would therefore assume that country A, with the younger population, would have less restrictions due to the lack of vulnerable people. However nightclubs are soon opening in Barcelona and we're not allowed 6 people inside a restaurant for 90 mins in mid July

Richard Hillman wrote: »

Irish open golf will have 5000 spectators, over a vast estate and they have to wear a masks outdoors. They have the nerve to call it a pilot event :pac:

Most of the golfers are just back from the US where they are were playing in front of 50-75% attendance crowds with no masks.

But this one is a "Test Event"

Its fkn mental. What kind of test is that supposed to be anyway? Whether 5,000 people per day spread over 100 acres outdoors will cause a super spreader event or not? What are we testing here exactly? This particular one is beyond farcical.

What I suspect this really is (the mask mandate) is the organiser ****ting themselves over possible liabilities. Maybe not. Maybe just us being as bonkers as we are with everything else covid. I don know anything anymore.

In my early 30s, not vaccinated and invited on a stag next weekend with a group of lads (15-20lads), majority of them not vaccinated too. Bus, shared hostel accommodation, and outdoor activities. I have been really careful all through the pandemic but I am been put under pressure to go on the stag even though I am not too comfortable. What would you do? Am I over cautious? I have a wife and 2 young kids at home too which I am also trying to protect.

Graham wrote: »

50+ and 60+ years ago for the last significant ones doesn't sound particularly routine.

Its within living memory. There also people who are alive and perfectly healthy who lived through TB in the 1940s.

keg wrote: »

In my early 30s, not vaccinated and invited on a stag next weekend with a group of lads (15-20lads), majority of them not vaccinated too. Bus, shared hostel accommodation, and outdoor activities. I have been really careful all through the pandemic but I am been put under pressure to go on the stag even though I am not too comfortable. What would you do? Am I over cautious? I have a wife and 2 young kids at home too which I am also trying to protect.

Funnily enough though I am Mr. Anti-Lockdown I would advise you to do what makes you comfortable and set your own boundaries. Don't go if you don't want to.

I do not think there is much danger in general for healthy 30 year-olds however you must make your own risk assessment

gozunda wrote: »

From the article - the detailed recommendation is a -

Thise groups or HSE should lobby government. It's not up to HSE to tell the church what they can do.