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

I think they're more petrified of the January **** show again to be honest but you do you.

Cant blame the government/nphet/hse/medical staff for that either. Hospital outbreaks are a function of community case load and no matter how perfect someone is with their PPE, you will inevitably get hospital outbreaks.

It's not the house party animals who are ending up in hospital! It's much older groups where vaccinations did not do enough to protect them or where they have not been vaccinated. As always hospitals are full of people with underlying conditions.

Same here for the winter months so one would cancel out the other.

I have been there a number of times and even in summer early and late in the day with care homes you see many of them outside. Sometimes even in the middle of the day out in the shade of verandas. Probably out there whether they like it or not as it leaves it easier for staff to do housekeeping. Not something you could do here in the depth of winter.

The U.K case numbers are trending upwards again and their average daily deaths are higher than they were for October, so it looks very uncertain there as well.

To be fair, I don’t think it’s as much him having been mistaken as it is him simply changing his tune. The high level of vaccination has done much to remove a great chunk of the ethical oppositions to keeping things open which even I, as a consistent critic of the lockdown approaches adopted here, still accept existed. That is because vaccination has greatly mitigated and reduced the human cost, in terms of deaths and hospitalisations, of the reality that we must face and endure Covid rather than perpetually seek to suppress it. Those who have not opted to get vaccinated have only made the ethical argument of the lockdown advocates that bit harder to overcome — and while they are free to choose not to get vaccinated, they must accept that they are part of the problem too.

The potential problem with Martin’s thinking, as has been the problem with the Irish government’s thinking in general for quite some time now, is that it has always been mired in short-termism (i.e. address an immediate problem with short-term measures). And so here they are again, presented with an immediate issue of rising infections and suddenly the long-term pathway (to which the high level of vaccination now gives added benefit) seems to be at risk of getting blurred by the societal and media demand to do something — or to at least be seen to do something. They need to show steel now and be willing to set out the plain reality that living with Covid invariably means actually living with Covid, which means the virus will spread whether we keep kicking the can down the road or not.

all guns blazing on the restrictions front anyway

reduced hospitality hours, extended use of the cert into further sectors of society

Honestly I find such steps backward so disheartening.

Do people really believe that this cert will be gone any time soon? It is there now and it will continue to extend and evolve.

Until midnight under the latest restrictions

Ffs pub hours changed again

Application to change thread title to "Reimposition of Restrictions"

is this work from home advice merely advisory?