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

So your response to me saying the far right aren't sitting on their hands is there's only about a thousand of them? Not sure what point you're making

So is the plan with kids to spend over 100 million to vaccinate kids and then over another 100 twice a year for boosters that will do very little to protect the vulnerable.

Would investing this money into increasing hospital capacity and icu capacity offer much more to help protect the elderly and well protect everyone more.

But that would require the government and the HSE to actually do some work, which unfortunately they have no interest in.

I'd probably argue we had a very centrist government but at the moment they've discovered the magic money tree and are spending it like money was going out of fashion. FG are definitely more in favour of giving their business cronys the nice publicly owned assets and FF are just populist gombeens without a coherent thought in the entire party.

When both parties are consistently rewarding those on welfare more than those working then that comment doesn't pass the smell test for me.

Yeah - that's where we've moved to now.

Both my own and my wife's Christmas parties have been canceled - companies are calling it 'corporate responsibility' but really, they're afraid to be seen to be celebrating because they'll be shamed on social media.

Government can say they haven't shut nightclubs even though making them close at 12am is the same thing. They can say they're not banning international travel but they can load enough extra expense and hassle onto it to make it unfeasible for the majority.

When will play-centers need to check covid certs for a 6 year old before letting them in? Anyone who thinks this isn't on the way is a moron.

Over the last 20 months we've seen all these freedoms, civil liberties and constitutional rights traded away with barely a shrug from the majority. All for a disease that is most dangerous to an easily identifiable minority group- those above the age of life-expectancy.

The freedoms we thought we had are not worth the paper they were written on, it turns out we didn't value them or deserve them anyway. We have handed a playbook to the next Government on how best to control us. Thank Christ people in the rest of Europe stood up and protested because that is the only thing keeping our Government in check.

What a pathetic people we turned out to be.

No, vaccines are far cheaper than hospital beds and offer pretty much the best return on money spent on the health system (as they reduce the need for beds in the first place).

And it's not either/or, the spending on vaccines will happen along side spending to increase capacity, the vaccine spending will not put much of a dent at all into the overall health and welfare budget.

Each hospital bed costs hundreds of euro per day to run, ICU beds cost thousands per day, anti-viral pills cost about €600 each.

I've a Migraine listening to a Journalist trying to explain the Claire Byrne what exactly is going on with potential recommendations 🙄

Eamonn Ryan apparently thinks it's all about treating children like adults 🙄

Mother of god its getting worse by the minute, the ineptitude

I'm pretty sure , They Don't 😏

Moron here. They're not going to be checking Covid certs for 6 year olds in play centres.

Did you attend any protests yerself?

Ah yes, Mr Collins, proof positive of the old saying "never argue with a fool, they will bring you down to their level and beat you with experience".

So we have all 3 here, vaccines don't work after X time, expense and "natural immunity".

The effects against severe disease for the non-immuno compromised has remained strong across many months. What wanes is the antibodies that can fight SARS-COV2 immediately (and seems to be a reason why transmission and infection rates can increase as the time from vaccination gets longer). However, even with that waning, we're still keeping R down to 1.1-1.3 for a very transmissible virus because of the vaccines (the adult boosters should see this drop further).

Vaccines are still the cheapest option when fighting the virus, every transmission that doesn't happen, everyone that doesn't get hospitalised saves hundreds or thousands of euro vs. a cheap vaccine, the health authorities spend far more on far less effective measures.

There is absolutely no advantage to anyone in meeting a pathogen without a vaccine vs. with a vaccine, the same immune response occurs but when vaccinated the chances of severe disease are virtually eliminated and onward transmission of the virus is reduced. Yes kids should be out playing with friends, getting colds, playing in mud (which is why we have tetanus shots) but we have an early childhood vaccine program for a reason and infant mortality reduction has been the absolutely massive benefit of that.

In saying that, the risk to children is very very small, the vaccines make the risk very very very small hence why it'll be completely optional, but fearmongering about waning, expense and bigging up "natural immunity" are not arguments against vaccination, it should purely come down to risk/benefit and what the parents perceive that risk as.

And in the future, it will likely be part of the annual flu program (which is free for children) as new vaccines come online.

People posting here about moving out of Ireland like it's a big deal. Lads, we've been doing it for centuries. The grass isn't always greener though.

People on here trying to convince us that vaccines for kids or an annual booster is a bad thing. Beggars belief really

You do realise Covid is not the only thing that overcrowds hospitals.

Hospitals have been overrun for decades with people on trolleys.

Spending hundreds of millions to vaccinate kids each year who are not filling up hospitals each year is pointless.

The money being spent on these vaccines would be better spent on increasing capacity.