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

"I think it's really hard to find a country that's handled the pandemic brilliantly. I don't think there are any. Some have handled parts of it very well, but haven't managed to keep it up for the whole time."

I think this is one of the best summations of the whole thing tbh. IMHO sometimes the simple answer is the right one, its not a vast left wing conspiracy, its not a vast right wing conspiracy, its not part of a plan to kill socialising, its not someone's agenda. The reality is the world was hit with a virus that is just about perfect for doing what it has done to society. Almost all countries responded in much the same way, the only real difference being the finer details, but broadly speaking the measures were similar. Different waves hitting countries at different times also skews any looking at dates of measures being implemented or lifted a bit too. I keep coming back to asking myself if almost all the experts in public health, virology, epidemiology etc etc are pretty much on the same page, can they ALL be wrong ? I just don't buy that they are. That's not to say they're all correct - the whole word was flying blind to a large degree and I think we got their best guesses.

Each country's response was tailored to their own specific circumstances, our hospital capacity was a limiting factor on ours no doubt, the Conservatives in the UK probably have a different view on lives Vs economy, the Swedes are culturally different again, some Euro countries were more accepting of curfews, they're all a bit different. Everyone is viewing this through their own personal circumstances and cherry picking bits of random countries' responses that suit and claiming we should have done this or that. And round and round we go.

Anyway, looks like rain Ted.

We are at 505 in hospital this breezy morning, up 2.

That can't be true. We brought in new restrictions here specifically with Omicron mentioned as part of the rationale. NPHET knows best from their latest scare mongering letter:

Hospitality restrictions make absolutely no difference. How could they?

Yep.

Pat kenny didn't sound happy when he was just told this on radio.

They're not "warning" of more deadly viruses though really. The point was made that there is no guarantee that Covid is the worst thing to happen in a century and that nothing bad will come along for another 100 years. There could be another pandemic in five years' time and it could be worse.

Key word there being "could". It's basically a lottery. It's guaranteed that there will be pandemics in future, but no guarantee of when they will occur or how severe they will be.

The warning in general is that pandemic preparedness has been underfunded for decades and up to covid was seeing funding dropping continuously. In many ways we got lucky with covid that we were able to pull our sh1t together so quickly to minimise the impact. A more deadly virus could wreak absolute chaos, so there's a need for a global effort to ensure unity on our preparedness for future pandemics.

...down 31 on yesterday. Up 2 on Sunday's number :)

Of course your right but the timing of these things and the context is very important. If they were to report on everything that could be a problem in the future we’re would we be. Also this isn’t the first pandemic and won’t be the last the difference is the media and social media which keep reporting day in day out looking for the next fear driver.

If the same energy and focus had been put on to the health services every year and what we could be facing with its short comings maybe we would be in a better place.

like I said these things need context it’s about feeding the fear and getting clicks.

Spot on as can be seen today the storm is front and centre covid relegated to the benches for now.

Lets be honest we know NPHET and the Government used the Omicron strain as an excuse to close nightclubs and bring in other restrictions, the data isnt there yet to justify the move but do it anyway, keep blaming the unvaccinated and hope it distracts everyone enough to stop pointing out how crap our heath system is despite the huge sums pumped into it every year.

Aren't schools closed anyway tomorrow on account of the date?

It would be pointless. Cork city will be underwater in 50-100 years anyway because of climate change.

we would do better to focus our efforts on areas of public safety which are actually a threat to people's lives