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

That's politer than me, I'd call them borderline sociopaths who would gladly see society crumble so they could be right on the internet who'll be desperately scrambling to explain how were still locked down when restrictions are lifted on Tuesday.

On boards anyway, I'd call them much worse to their face.

Sunday papers starting to filter out with the front pages.

The times gets there first this week.

They say,

Government sources saying what the government want do is reopen nightclubs with vaccine cert, remove caps on stadiums ( indoor isn't mentioned but with clubs open you'd assume it carries through to the likes of 3arena etc) & remove caps on weddings.

Return to the office to stay in the phase it's currently in, but really it wasn't changing much anyway from what I can see, most places have gone hybrid anyway.

Government sources (rather oddly I think) are putting the case increase partially down to more people having head colds and going for tests to then return postive results that otherwise might have gone undected.

I mean I see where they're coming from with it but it feels like a stretch.

That's a nuts thing to come out with about PCR tests after 18 months and millions of tests

Yeah no I mean it definitely happens like you've given the example of but I think it's a slight bit of a stretch currently to say its what's driving an increase. I could well be wrong in the long run here but I couldn't see it having a big impact personally so far

2031 Uzbekistan is the only country in the world where covid is still a thing, vaccine required just like your malaria jabs..... Boards posters "I've never been to Uzbekistan and am not going, but the fact that the Irish government requires vaccination is basically 1940s Germany"

Yeah, I can see it.

406 in hospital, how many are vaccinated and unvaccinated?

At the start of this week it was just under half of new admissions unvaccinated and 40 percent of total.

https://www.irishpost.com/news/number-of-covid-19-patients-in-irish-hospitals-highest-since-march-at-height-of-third-wave-221795

Certain posters on here almost seem delighted at the prospect of the 22nd being delayed or diluted out of some sort of ego trip that they were seemingly right and other posters were seemingly wrong. But like a broken clock, even that is right twice a day.

But to live in such a negative mindset, and to get such glee out of being right in negative circumstances is really really odd behaviour. Some really weird sad little people on here. Emphasis on "little".

There is a great irony in the posters that claim Ireland isnt actually restricted

It usually turns out, they are lucky enough to have had the ability to travel to a different country to experience fairly basic social events and subsequently come home to say how great life is in Ireland

The indo go with the headline "Government to pause lifting of restrictions" with absolutely nothing on the front page to give any credence to the headline. The only reference on the front page anyway says that they are ready to pause. Bit of a difference between being ready to pause and actually doing something. The headline piece is very light on information, rambles on about boosters for a while.

They also say there'll be increase inspections of the covid cert.

So the times and the Independent have gone on two completely different tangents.

The business post front page is too blured to make out what their article says

Not sure if that's adults or over 12's, but it would allude to over 12's

I'm still trying work out what actual point you're trying to make there, if any.

All I see there is crude reductionism, slogans and non sequiturs.

And I'm not particularly interested in listening to some completely out of touch Eton and Magdalen College educated toff who is an apologist for the very worst of the British ruling class talking down to the rest of us, thanks.

Again, why would we want to be like Hungary, not just in terms of Covid death rates, but for any reason at all, given how that country has led itself down the garden path of being an international pariah?

What on earth does "glee" have to do with anything?

Referencing such is a coping mechanism designed to do nothing other than ascribe bad faith motives to those who disagree with you.

This is a question of whether something is necessary. There is very good reason to think it is.

We have nearly a million and a half unvaccinated people still driving this disease, the vaccine programme has slowed to a crawl, we're entering winter and hospital cases have gone from 42 in July to over 400 now, while ICU has gone from under 20 to over 70. We have a new variant coming out of Scotland with a transmission advantage, one which is slowly but surely gaining a significant foothold there.

If you have no other framework for containing or driving down Covid - and we don't, because our thinking about public health is miles behind where it needs to be - having a no restrictions environment, is, to put it mildly, madness.