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

Leo says lots of things. What will happen is unknown but with a twin challenge of COVID and flu the health system could be under a lot of pressure. I see the 3 months as a pragmatic date to get us to a point after we've completed vaccinations. Beyond that none of this, mask wearing on transport aside, makes any sense.

I was expecting a certain poster from conspiracy theories to have debunked this by now. But I forgot that he hasn't posted outside of CT in over 10,000 posts. Must be only paid for one forum only.

These are now closing because of a new surge, so we need to follow them

The others are tightening restrictions because of delta, so is better to delay reopening

We keep forgetting that those countries reopened for the majority of this and last year while we never really reopened. 500 days to flatten the curve and counting... but that's ok, hold firm for another 2 weeks: until we stop counting the positive we'll never get out of this farce.

Nonsense, the approach from Ireland has been to take as little risk as possible while the national debt slowly rises to €50k per person. Hospitalisations should be the metric and even at that we should have ramped up our facilities to cope with a potentially more serious outbreak. The 7-day average is 679. Today there is 80 people in hospital and 22 in ICU. The last time it was 679 was 27th February and there were 550 in hospital and 134 in ICU. Vaccinations are having an impact and the delta variant is proven to cause more cases but less hospitalisations.

The people wanting to perpetually lockdown the country should be forced to pay a tax to support it. There isn't a magic money tree and very soon vulnerable people will be at the back of the queue if we don't get back to 2019 levels of economic trading.

After Delta, there will be Echo or whatever. People need to grow up and those that want to lock themselves away perpetually are perfectly entitled to do so.

The fear mongering is that it's being reported in the same articles as ICU figures with zero context. There's no indication of how many of these vaccinated people were hospitalised (my guess would be zero). Nor is there any kind of basic competent reporting which would point out the very obvious facts you just have, and how this is totally expected.

Similarly, I've seen numerous reports in the last few days about how statistic x has hit the highest number since April/February/last blue moon

I saw zero such mentions a month or so ago when many such indicators had hit their lowest levels in over 6 months.

How is that not fear mongering?

She's an anti vaxxer with a number of videos arguing against all elements of public health restrictions during the pandemic. I find the harp on her desk a cute little touch.

Actual proof needed of that please if you have it. Thanks. Many of the people who dislike this bill that are pro vaccine and already have both vaccines ...the distain for this bill is not restricted to one side or the other.

She is discussing the legal points which she is qualified to do. What are the legal points of the bill she discusses that you disagree with? I have stated she is 'fairly fair' and has some good points ...which of them do you disregard and what do you think is right with the bill ? Some are mentioned by posters above if you have not yet read the bill or watched her entire video.

Always it is the message not the messenger one should attentively listen to, before discarding too quickly the points completely or partially.

There has been too much of not listening to the 'other' camp just because they have a differening view during the past year and a half and the middle ground has been silently squezzed.

Neither is Macron an epidemiologist. He said that AZ was only quassi effective in older people and now he is forcing people to take it or they cannot get on a bus. Others followed on mass and look where they are going to be in 6 weeks.

To those of you interested I forgot to add regarding the Irish Harp. Music ...all three strains and satire and harpists/bards were held in high esteem here until others tried to ban Irish traditions and silence the harpists. They also represent the concept that all should be able to talk equally and not be silenced but listened too.

Which we should have been doing all during this last year before making decisions that may effect generations to come aswell as the here and now and not foregoing proper debate whether that is here, in our homes, neighbourhoods, media and especially the Dáil.

A lot of the bickering on here reminds me at times of the contentious debate over whether the strings of the official harp of Ireland should be vertical or at an angle.😆

I like Tim Spector of the Zoe app a very intelligent man with a calming influence even in a rough sea when missing an oar and yet he still steadily steers for the shore by following the science data even of it goes against the UKs equivalent to Nphet. I wish we had the likes of his leadership here.

This seems mental. We are at herd immunity for those at the most serious risk from covid (over 50s) because of vaccinations. The rest of the adults will be substantially vaccinated in the next few weeks. Why would we introduce restrictions for the flu season?