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

I'm in a hotel since yesterday and even though there's no legal requirement anymore a lot are still wearing them, although there are about 10/20% of us who aren't.

No signage or warnings or even recommendations about though which is something that only hit me after a while. The only indication of it all is a few hand sanitisers.

Normality is finally resuming

quite disrespectful, if you think this is some sort of conspiracy you are wrong. "King Tony" took responsibility in the best interests of the people and also whilst his wife was severely ill with Cancer and subsequently passed away. If the restrictions were not in place there would of been a whole lot more deaths. Personally i am not vaccinated and believe natural immunity is best and indeed have had covid but you are still taking a chance particularly if you have an underlying illness and more so if you don't know about it. Dr. Holohan done a great job which was difficult and challenging, show some respect

Tony was great in the beginning but then after 6 months when Tony was away and the government tried to make some decisions in the best interests of the overall country and not just the HSE, Tony was encouraged to return and remind the government who really runs the country.

There were 2 Tonys, I'm a big fan of Tony 1.0, less so Tony 2.0.

Ah lads, we must think of the ‘The Covid shielders who feel left behind by reopening’. Poor Louis world shrunk badly last January 21st when the announcement of restrictions were to be eased.

Before you even consider going back to any normality and ditching the masks please think of Jan, Bridget and Niamh 😆😆😆

LuckyLloyd was being sarcastic.

Every country had a group who hated the CMO and threw themselves at the alter of a CMO in other countries, it's pretty funny to watch.

Why bother listening or taking any heed of him? The game is up for auld Pat. He’s hanging on to the thread of his old underpants. Masks are going for the foreseeable whether he likes it or not.

And what was his routine before the pandemic?

I'm sorry for your trouble but get your facts right. Tony Holohan had no role in sending patients into nursing homes. He has no role in the HSE and, if you read the article you cited, he is not mentioned. Personally, and I know it is not a popular view, I feel our government and NPHET did a good job in guiding us through the pandemic. Mistakes were made. The biggest was lifting restrictions for Christmas 2020. That was welcomed by many on here but turned out to be a disaster that cost many lives.

ah no its just a point from my side, she survived that.

Mistakes were made that cost people their lives & while HSE "decided" this they would take their data and advice from NPHET. Me personally I think they did not do a good job as some decisions were weird (€9 meal being the highlight) or when Tony wasn't happy that people socialized outdoors even though ppl had being told that the threat of Covid was less when outdoors. If two things come from this whole Covid thing is the HSE are a disgrace and are wasting money & our government do not care about the general public

Again I can't tell if it's ignorance or wilful misrepresentation on your part above, but you're missing the point. €9 was arbitrary, but it was an existing bord failte threshold for hospitality, so that's why it was used.

No, you could catch it in both settings, but you were more likely it was thought to catch it in an uncontrolled setting. It was more about reducing the capacity of the hospitality industry (particularly the closure of the riskiest settings) so that the number of close contacts each individual would have would be suppressed.

The government and Nphet did a decent job but they were completely over reliant on very strict lockdowns that they were never in a position to enforce to the level required. Lockdowns of the general public in Ireland rely heavily on public buy in. It was obvious last March/April/May that people were increasingly ignoring the 5km/intercounty/ meeting in groups elements of the restrictions as time went on that public buy in had dropped in a big way. Any visit to any sizeable public area/Park and this would have been obvious. That's before we talk about private house parties etc.

The thing about the reopening during Christmas 2020 what was the alternative? I think the restrictions should have been eased even though the amount of easing was a mistake. However restrictions are pointless unless an overwhelming percentage of the population actually obey them. From September 2020 to the end of April 2021 ish we had harsh movement restrictions. Without some sort of easing around Christmas the public buy in would have dropped even faster.

I'd give Nphet a 6 out of 10. Other notable mistakes was halting large portions of the construction industry in the middle of a housing crisis, their attitude to masks and antigen tests which they were late and reluctant adopters of. Finally their discussions were so leaky they effectively moved from advisors to decision makers. At times they should have just broadcast their meetings live at least that way the government would have found out about their recommendations/decisions at the same time as journalists not after.

On the positive side they avoided the health system being overwhelmed which was their core objective which they thankfully achieved.