When will life go back to normal

Do you know what “flatten the curve” means, and why it is regularly used when discussing infectious diseases? Are you under the impression that the term means that the virus is gone?

I have the figures provided by the HSPC/HSE/CMO etc to go by, what have you got to prove your point? You are speculating without any proof, show me how you know for sure that only 500 have died from Covid.

Not every critically ill patient makes it to an ICU.

What you are posting is just unsubstantiated muck, the very thing you accused the CMO of.

So know proof nor studies, just your speculation then?

Why are the cancer treatment cancellations happening? Due to staff out sick, or due to hospital beds needed for Covid patients?

You seem to be suggesting that we just ignore Covid and try to work through it? What do you predict would be the effects on the hospitals, and cancer treatment, etc? And on schools?

As regards failing to use our tax money, etc., would you be prepared to pay more tax for a better health service?

Yes you've said that already, however, some of us would rather have a fuller picture of the facts.

You said "I would say 35 pregnant women in ICU with Covid, particularly with difficulty treating them is sobering, wouldn’t you? That would be a disproportionate number for age group and pregnancy status."

You do not have the required information to know if it's disproportionate or not, some or most of those women could have already been in vulnerable categories.

Marilynrr, you understand by reducing the sample to a subset with only those who have underlying illnesses while the number of pregnant women in ICU remains a constant, it makes the proportion larger?

For instance, let’s say of the 40,000 pregnant women given as an approximate by another poster, 10,000 have underlying medical conditions apart from pregnancy which make them vulnerable to a Covid infection requiring ICU, the ratio goes from the less than 1:1000 approximate (given by the other poster) to 1:286. Applying that ratio to the general population would give an equivalence of 17832 ICU admissions. So I think your point would be better served being applied to a larger sample, not a smaller one if you want to think the 35 number isn’t “sobering”

Problem I’ve learned during this is we are actually a weak enough nation, we’d be terrified to be lumped in with out there anti vaccine heads so we all keep our heads down.

from being ruled by London and then rome to a certain degree and laying all our problems on each Ive realized we’re aren’t bold nation like we like to convince ourselves

There is literally nobody making the argument of “to hell with the hospitals”.

The argument has only ever revolved around the differing views people have as to the appropriate balance between preserving life and enjoying life. That’s the key word — balance. Nobody ...nobody at all... is actually advocating that the wholesale abandonment of the interests of the health service or schools is in any way whatsoever a viable way forward. It’s simply a difference in opinion as to whether the outright prolongation of life (considering that the vast majority of Covid fatalities are people at or well beyond life expectancy, or have other comorbidities they wouldn’t have avoided anyway) is a prize that is worth restricting the very essence of what being alive is actually about — enjoying it.

I notice on this thread that there seems to be an assumption of a political constant. The fact is, given enough time and given enough constant resorting to moral absolutism by those who decry sceptics of the Covid policy as cold hearted, the day eventually comes when frustration among the public translates into mainstream politics. And I just hope we don’t hang on to this moral absolutism long enough for the political incentive on public anger towards restrictions to be seized by those with a more dangerous broad agenda.