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

I know how you feel. I got my booster last month. Arm felt like it was physically stabbed and I was in a drunk/tired daze for 24 hours.

Itll sound cliched but I found a few paracetamol set me back to normal quick enough.

Don't get me wrong. I'm following restrictions and advice (except for the really stupid ones) but its the idea of having to do so potentially every Winter that really grates me and the casual way the likes of Varadkar remark as much.

You can expect people to pause their lives for a while but you cannot expect them to do it indefinitely, especially when so few are at real risk.

People can come back at me and say "but if it saves one life etc etc".

And i would counter this by again saying that lives can be damaged catastrophically in ways that don't include dying. People's mental health for example. And i don't mean the snowflakes who cry out mental health at the drop of a hat. I mean people with real issues out there and there are plenty of them.

Look. I hate the restrictions as much as anyone else and I'm not worried about getting the virus myself. I would be concerned about inadvertently passing it on to someone more vulnerable. I'm not a selfish person therefore I reluctantly agree with whatever restrictions and vaccine program is in situ. I'm a glass hall full person aswell so hopefully we will be out of this mess completely by Spring and we begin to live with a less virulent and dangerous strain in Omricon. There's so much negativety here. All you read is about people moaning about this and that. Nothing you say will change the governments mindset or choices so my advice is to take each day as it comes and get on with it and stop the constant moaning.

I was wondering that also.

Was it a hangover from the days of vaccine scarcity? People with natural antibodies get pushed down the priority list.

I haven't heard anyone saying "If it saves one life", I have heard that in other debates but not here.

So few are at real risk? No, the people at real risk are the people this can put into ICU. You are looking at the deaths. That's only ever been half the equation. It's the people treated in hospital & saved in ICU this is about which runs into the thousands over the course of this pandemic.

Lives can be damaged catastrophically by covid itself, the loss of loved one's, partners, parents has a mental health toll too and long term consequences for the living.

You can't expect people to pause their lives indefinitely, also, you can't expect governments "to stand idly by" as health services come under strain (and not just here, other countries respond to the same threat).

But if we are going to be faced with his battle every winter, we need to be quicker at re-opening and get rid of the "abundance of caution" in spring-summer-autumn. Still have considerations like ventilation, vaccine passes \ test certs, annual jabs similar to flu, that kind of thing.

They never made sense, right from the day they were introduced they were a white elephant that didn't serve any rational purpose. I'd say they didn't solve the problem they were supposed to solve, but nobody was even clear about what that problem actually was.

The very second it became clear that vaccines didn't stop transmission the concept of a covid cert should immediately have been binned. The fact it wasn't only serves to give conspiracy theorists real ammunition for once.

Re: "if it saves one life" i wasn't necessarily referring just to boards but you do hear commentary like that at times.

And yes, whether you like it or not, in the grand scheme of things only a small number are at risk compared to those who aren't.

Nobody is asking the government to stand idly by. The problem is the fact that our government casually mention years of this and that is just not a realistic thing to expect people to adhere to. Call that immoral or whatever you want but covid cannot be the only consideration in the long term and my problem is that with the lot we have in charge there's a danger they will insist it is.

is there anything to be said for having a ‘substantial meal’

I think we are all about to find out exactly just how little vaccines reduce transmission.

Strange, if you are so big on sources for claims, why didn't you challenge the original poster who made a claim without a source?

Double standard much?

People who are fully vaccinated against covid-19 are far less likely to infect others, despite the arrival of the delta variant, several studies show. The findings refute the idea, which has become common in some circles, that vaccines no longer do much to prevent the spread of the coronavirus... team took samples from 23 people every day after they first tested positive until the infection cleared and performed tests, including trying to infect cells in a dish with the samples.With five out of the six fully vaccinated people, none of the samples were infectious, unlike most from unvaccinated people. The study shows that vaccinated people shed fewer viruses and also stop shedding sooner than unvaccinated people, says Brooke.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2294250-how-much-less-likely-are-you-to-spread-covid-19-if-youre-vaccinated/#ixzz7FgUwVu24

Both vaccines reduced transmission, but that the Pfizer vaccine was the most effective in doing so. The contacts of those who were fully vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine were 65 percent less likely to test positive for COVID-19 compared with the contacts of those who were unvaccinated. The contacts of those fully vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine, meanwhile, were 36 percent less likely to test positive when compared with the contacts of those who were unvaccinated.

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2021/10/13/do-coronavirus-vaccines-prevent-transmission-of-the-virus

Govt probably paying waiting staff 1200 a day not to wait tables. I hear that's the going day rate for a lot of professions nowadays.

Cillian deGascun said there is no difference in the transmission.

We have a highly vaccinated population, and our booster programme has now been given out to those that need it most.

Christmas is this week and whether you like it or not, Covid with Omicron is going to let rip across Ireland. This is the right approach to take. The only way to build up immunity is by getting Covid and coming out the other side.

If you are elderly over 70 and not vaccinated or boosted, I would be worried. The rest have to get on with it. It is coming, like the tide you can't stop it.

If I hear another person go, "oh I've been so good, I don't know how I got it" rubbish. This is a highly transmissible variant. Your silly masks won't stop it, your pointless QR code won't stop it. Washing your hands all day won't stop it. Unless you lock away for the next 6 months, forget about keeping it out.

It's for that reason we must stop all restrictions immediately. Return the economy to normal and move on. The restrictions are not stopping anything. Nearly every house in the land will be packed this Saturday. People of all ages, no ventilation, no nothing. Yet we go around on a moral high ground saying that the restaurant must be lights out by 20:00. Or that we need to reduce a stadium to 1,000 people like the Aviva.

We cannot keep locking down parts of life each year. This will be the most vaccinated that we will ever be. I for one have had three shots and will draw a line at that.

I think you've played a blinder if your stories are correct about how lucrative locum cover is

Highlights all the problems within the HSE but fair play