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

asthma as an underlying condition is quite low risk as far as these things go - HPSC reports from last year (they stopped publishing) show that pre-vaccine only 2% of the deaths with underlying condition were due to asthma, compared to over 40% with heart disease. 2% of ~80% of deaths were due to asthma. So again it is incredibly unlikely that a load of healthy 30 year olds were dying every week

I agree 100%. So what qualifies you to make all these statements on boards? What qualifications do you have to state that (in spite of the evidence against) that loads of "previously healthy" 30 year olds were dying every week?

What is the total WEEKLY admission rate at present? and what is the average length of stay? What was the incidence of staff leave at the time?

No a family member is an icu nurse and to be honest you wouldnt like to hear what she has to say cos it wouldnt fit in with your narrative.

In her opinion the government/HSE have been appalling in their handling of this pandemic. From the millions wasted on substandard PPE along with the refusal to mandate masks for the public and on top of that sending infected patients out to nursing homes. Their refusal to use antigen testing for months is another thing she has issues with.

Is she busy, no because shes at home due to outdated isolation policies which again she is fuming over. When she is allowed to work is it busy, yes it is she admits. It is flat out busy because of a lack of staff but as shes says herself "its been that way for all her career and there was no virtue signallers clapping her before COVID came along" She ahs been this busy her entire career because the powers that be have ignored their own reports made over a decade ago that concluded we need to vastly increase our icu capacity and beds but hired more admin staff than they do healthcare workers

From 2018

So yes they are under pressure and have been all their careers, but no one gave a damn before COVID and she wouldnt be long tellin ye that! According to her though its nothing compared to last january and would be much more manageable if they were just allowed work.

Where was the admiration and concern before COVID?

Around 900 per week. Discharges are 600 pw so stay is a bit over a week currently and I world expect discharges to tick up quite a bit in the coming week or so Flu is non existent this winter with just 37 reported cases nationally last week so that's having negligible impact on hospitals. Check the HSE dashboard. No idea of staff leave but sensible isolation rules would sort that out quickly. In addition the HSE has always had issues with staff absence anyway.

The hospitals are busy, very busy, but we've been here before every winter for decades. You and others are making this out to be an exception, unfortunately it's very much the norm for Irish hospitals in the winter.

A friend of my daughter has had it twice, once during the Summer and again recently and double vaccinated in between. Second dose was much milder but I wouldn't be inclined to exclude anyone who had recovered or fully vaccinated from being considered a close contact.

I am noticing more and more people not wearing masks in supermarket settings these days. And none of this covering their mouths with a scarf or something pulled over them as if they genuinely forgot one either.

Including one woman earlier, in a tracksuit that would identify her as a howiya from a mile away, who told her partner out loud "I threw this jacket on me as it's cold and I'm not wearing any underwear" as they both proceeded to walk in the "exit" door of Tesco with no masks. Begs the question: what the eff was she wearing before she threw on the jacket?

Each to their own and all that, and while I wouldn't agree with most of the restrictions, masks are literally the easiest one to adhere to. They can't all have medical issues that make them exempt.

I guess stupid us as stupid does.

All it will take us one ill person (not even necessarily CoViD, plain old seasonal influenza or RSV that's been doing the rounds recently will do) and everyone in the office could be out for a week or two.

TBH there's a lot of speculation in the article about whether we would get something like Delta or Omicron. The thinking behind this article is that if you have large unvaccinated populations it is a perfect opportunity for a variant of concern to emerge.

The virus mutates regularly but producing a VOC like this usually requires plenty of hosts, in particular hosts who are immunocompromised or who have very weak immune systems where it can reside for long periods.

By vaccinating the rest of the world more fully you reduce that potential pool and therefore reduce the risk of another troublesome variant appearing. 

You are right in your thinking, anyone saying otherwise is full of crap.

There are now several animal species that act as reservoirs for covid, so it will circulate indefinitely even if we had 100% vaccine coverage.

Although we already know that vaccinations dont stop the spread either, so covid will continue to circulate in humans indefinitely too.

precisely.

you do you.

leave the pronouncements for everyone else to be vaccinated, restricted etc please.

That Ann rabbit one is still useless at media even after the Stephanie prisener training that we the taxpayers funded !