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

Just heard Holahan being interviewed on the radio - he said that NPHET were never against antigen tests! The gaslighting is outrageous, he reminds me a lot of a narcissist ex. Makes me sick.

'That poster' was correct. The poster you are quoting is incorrect. You should try paying attention.

But it isn't the only requirement is it? Not only do you need the pass but you also need the mask to walk in, a mask to go to the toilet. You can't be at the bar. If you couldn't be vaccinated then it seems you can't go inside.

People are fed up, being told one thing and then 2 days before reopening being told another. We can't keep going on and on with we need this and then we need that. Oh wait we can't do that so let's do this. They've made a balls of the whole thing.

What?!? It is 100% the norm in sciences that people without expertise (e.g. brand new masters or PhD students) are expected to question interpretations of data.

If data or papers or interpretations are correct, they will hold up to scrutiny.

This is meaningless and is not a consideration within fields. People are constantly questioning supposed experts, via peer review, conferences, critiques, reproducibility exercises, as it should be.

Yeah. Then went on to talk about hand washing etc. being important.

The general vibe seemed to be a move towards personal responsibility, i.e. you should consider your own underlying illnesses before going out even if you're vaccinated.

People with relevant masters and/or PhDs, by definition have expertise in the area. I'm talking about the armchair MS Excel experts and the Eddie Hobbses of this world who think that any kind of experience analysing numbers entitles them to disagree with epidemiologists about epidemiology.

He did but to be fair in the context, its one tool in the armoury of measures to fight transmission etc

Dec 24th: Daily cases 918

Jan 8th: Daily cases 8221

Yeah, cases really fell after Christmas eve. If you're real then the world you live in is totally imaginary

Nah, don't question them. You must always be obedient and we must always be good little boys and girls.

In fairness to that poster, when NPHET and Government have been wrong, he's always had their backs. Always supports them 100% no matter how wrong they have been at times. It's admirable if nothing else.

I've supervised many students and I'm serious when I say that a person with no schooling who is naturally critical and curious, is likely better able to scrutinise some types of work (e.g. population data in Excel) than a person with an undergrad module starting their PhD who is uncritical. There have been major failings in fields I'm familiar with due to a lack of scrutiny from those one would assume are experts.

It's dangerous to defer to expertise when it should instead be the case that expertise holds up to any inspection.

TBF it is quite hard to model the completely yo yo nature of cases and hospitalisations. They may get cases right as we are on the cusp of their predictions but hospitalisations look like complete guesses. It's not a problem in its own right but it is at the core of their advice to government.

Yes, because comparing getting a vaccine and the Nazi persecution of jews is completely original and logical 🙄

Contra the cult of micro-specialism, up until recently work from one branch of science was (theoretically) meant to be verifiable from other branches.

Epidemiology as a mystery cult which other scientists can't even begin to look at is just political smoke and mirrors, usually from people not in the sciences themselves.

Cillian de Gascun said in July last year that we had an improved infrastructure in place that should allow us to avoid further nationwide lockdown since we'd be able to trace and isolate clusters, identify contacts and get them to restrict their movements.

Philip Nolan said in September last year that restrospective contact tracing was an academic exercise that they didn't have the time or resources for. The latter part is a lie - we had about a dozen cases a day just before we opened up, contact tracing centres were being closed because there was nothing for them to do. the first part is a lie - it gives you far more accurate data about how the virus is actually spreading, rather than the "villain of the week" we've had all along based on NPHET's circumstantial guesswork. And it makes what de Gascun said a lie - it's impossible to isolate clusters when you're only looking in one direction. It's like setting out to cut a diseased branch from a tree, starting halfway along a twig, and only going forward from there.

Ronan Glynn said in February this year that NPHET were "pushing for retrospective contact tracing since August" last year. Either he was lying or Philip Nolan is even more incompetent than he already appears given his statement was a month after that. Also the only mention I could see from a quick glance at the NPHET minutes from August was one meeting - with the HSE pushing for it and NPHET noting that they'd think about it.

It's ludicrous to suggest that these experts are beyond criticism when they've repeatedly lied and misled the public.

If a Michelin starred chef serves you a steaming pile of crap, you don't need to spend five years in master cookery school before you earn the right to complain about it.