Covid 19 Part XXXV-956,720 ROI (5,952 deaths) 452,946 NI (3,002 deaths) (08/01) Read OP

There does seem to be a determination in government to get out from under the singular NPHET advice. That they too are now looking at ways to ease restrictions bodes well. It suggests that we are intending to live with this, a task made a lot easier by a large proportion being vaccinated. Cases will continue to appear, and we may see boosters but the risk is likely to be reduced to mild to no symptoms for those vaccinated. The main challenge will be a HSE one of COVID + flu cases in the winter.

Vaccine passes can be extended till January, other emergency powers till Feb IIRC

Then it needs another government vote, which it will surely get anyways

Ok . I can't see them not being extended into Spring 2022 myself .

Merely a case that I don't have a crystal ball to know what's going to happen in the next 3 months. Only a fool would say, "They definitely cannot justify extending the legislation in November".

On Xmas Day 2019 if you had been told that in 3 months' time half the planet would be in lockdown over a pandemic, you'd have laughed and been absolutely certain that the person was talking bollox. At that time there hadn't been any official reports of any mysterious illnesses, you'd have only heard about rumours out of China told in weird corners of the internet.

The emergency powers are set to lapse in 3 months' time. I'm reasonably confident they won't extend them for a variety of reasons, but I'm not foolish enough to declare certainty about what can happen between now and then.

How would you rate the outcome in Italy, France, UK and how would you rate their health systems?

media is on the climate change story now

Housing crisis and investment funds have had a couple of weeks off.

Data, basically. Proof that an emergency still exists, such as;

Hospital and ICU numbers on an exponential growth trend, or already at a very high level (> 150 in ICU) with another surge beginning.

Or the emergence of a new variant with markedly more serious properties (such as greater serious illness in under 25s), which is proven to be more infectious and more resistant to vaccination.

Neither of which I see as being particularly likely.

No, I'm just giving a civil opinion on something that does the job and in my experience those who have issues with it were YouTube video redirected my way last year. I'm always amused how they routinely ignore the input and expertise of those running such tests and treating them as little more than button pushers. For me it seems a pretty pointless battle to wage but each to their own.

Yes. We're in the middle of a large wave of the virus with just under 60% of the population fully vaccinated out of a theoretical 80-85%. It only stops being an emergency when the threat has been addressed as much as is reasonably possible.

Maybe my definition of emergency and the legal one is different. After all, the government had emergency powers all the way though WWII despite not actually being a part of it.

I had it a few months ago and am getting my 2nd one next week

Do I remember incorrectly or did you not complain about others not following public health advice in Ireland earlier in the year?

Could have you completely wrong I will admit and apologise if I do

Just looking at some of Brian MacCraith's vaccination figures, in light of some info from the Music and Entertainment Association of Ireland and their meeting with government in the past few days where they were told the government is looking for 85-90% of 18+ being fully vaccinated before re-opening indoor events, which I'm invested in as indoor events are my job for more than a decade and I still haven't been able to return to work.

So many different percentages are floating around now for the vaccines (total pop., 12+, 16+, 18+) that it actually wasn't easy to find the updated 18+ percentage until MacCraith tweeted about it because it isn't really the one being touted much anymore, despite it still being the important determining factor for indoor events and associated careers going ahead again.

According to MacCraith's figures, two weeks ago, on July 28th, we were at 71.1% of 18+ fully vaccinated. Today, we're at 78.3%, so we've increased by 7.2% in those two weeks. If we can match that again, come the 25th of August (which is even before the government are apparently going to announce their plan for reopening indoor events) we should be at 85.5% of 18+ fully jabbed, and more again by the following week, hopefully bringing us close to 90% by the end of August.

I can't see them coming out on September 1st and just throwing the shackles off, even though by their own apparent metrics given to MEAI that's exactly what should happen, but it's given me a lift today to see that they have actually set a percentile figure as a target for getting events back running and that we are so very close to achieving it in the rollout. I thought posting this might hopefully give anyone else in the same boat as me a bit of a lift as well after so long out of work.