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

Sure it is. What's a "lockdown" in this context.

No, I'm saying that the cancellations were not due to 'lockdown'. Lockdown and how hospital services are operated are distinct things. There are times when hospital services were curtailed but not restrictions on the general public, and vice versa. Sometimes it was both.

I'm saying you need to balance the cancellations against what would have happened had they proceeded, in terms of outbreaks, and impact that would have on staff and other patients.

Hospital services were prioritised for emergency care and procedures. Heart operations, cancer surgery etc all kept operational - some were even done in the private hospitals that were taken over. These are very vulnerable patients. More outbreaks would have meant more deaths.

I'm saying also long covid has a role in rise of diabetes and cardiac conditions, as per the studies I linked.

You can't just look at one side of the balance sheet.

More recent studies are showing no link between covid and heart issues.

There's only so long the denials that lockdown measures and their knock on effects, as well as let's just say, other interventions which are known to cause heart inflammation, may to be blame can fly. I expect the dam to break soon. Countries like the US , who didnt shut down medical services to the extent of the UK and ireland or even at all are also seeing large numbers of non covid excess deaths.

Nope, the study does not show no link between covid and "heart issues". Read the study again. Where does it assess heart failure?

This much wider study shows the opposite for more serious conditions:

Researchers found that rates of many conditions, such as heart failure and stroke, were substantially higher in people who had recovered from COVID-19 than in similar people who hadn’t had the disease. What’s more, the risk was elevated even for those who were under 65 years of age and lacked risk factors, such as obesity or diabetes...

The risk of heart failure increased by 72%, or around 12 more people in the COVID-19 group per 1,000 studied.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00403-0

And what do you think? People who had broken legs weren't going to A&E? Why do you think A&E might have been quiet at mid-day during a lockdown?

Did you wander the ICU wards and count beds?

Maeanwhile, some real data from January 2021:

Pressure remains on the hospital system, with 13 hospitals having no available intensive care unit (ICU) or high dependency unit (HDU) beds...Pressure also continues on general bed capacity, with beds full at Connolly, Kilkenny, Mullingar, St Vincent’s, Tallaght, and Tullamore hospitals. In total, there were 194 general beds available in 23 hospitals.

https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/covid-ireland-records-some-10000-cases-with-no-icu-beds-at-13-hospitals-1244116.html

Breast check is currently a year behind. So instead of having your first mammogram at 50, you’ll be lucky to get it at 51, and thereafter every 3 years instead of every 2. No-one will bother counting the deaths that will result from this.

Now the MSM are telling us that lack of vitamin D caused more severe Covid outcomes. I remember saying this 30 months ago that staying indoors and not getting sunlight could not be healthy. People who talked back then about vitamin D were labelled conspiracy theorists. I even remember a specific NPHET daily conference where they dismissed lack of Vit D as a cause of death. Instead of encouraging people to get some sun they scared them into staying indoors.

https://www.irishtimes.com/health/2022/08/19/insufficient-vitamin-d-linked-to-fourfold-increase-in-risk-of-death-among-covid-19-patients/

As I was saying from the very beginning of this pandemic, the most strategies undertaken by many countries would have serious negative outcomes, and that the secondary deaths that these policies would ultimately cause would dwarf the covid deaths. Things like zero covid, flattening the curve and lockdowns and various other restrictions were short term solutions to a long term problem. A long term strategy was required from day one and only very few governments understood and implemented it well.

Most of the world went to the covid olympics where the only number that mattered were covid cases and deaths with covid. Other diseases and deaths became far less important. Those who did well initially in these games were cheered and admired, while those who didn’t were criticised and ridiculed. New Zealand’s PM came very close to getting the Nobel Peace Prize for how she dealt with the pandemic.

If we however could agree to such a strange concept nowadays that all deaths matter and death with/from covid is as important as a death from day a heart attack, and look at all deaths with excess deaths as the one and only KPI, how countries like NZ, Israel and so on would fare?

Israel, NZ, Netherlands, Finland, France, Iceland, Norway and many other to various degree are experiencing unexplained deaths (outside of covid deaths) this year. At the same time Sweden is doing just fine and did not have excess deaths to worry about for about 15 months now. Who will win the ‘excess deaths’ olympics over the long run (which is what really matters) remains to be seen but it will not be the countries who embraced lockdowns, flattening the curve and zero covid as they are not doing very well. As with every decision that is to do with a complex system and long time frame the secondary and even higher order effects are more important than the first order effects, and these have to be factored in the decision making.

Pity that our strong and independent media are somehow missing all that. But sure they are the ones who are telling us what games to play. The fact that most countries have let down their citizens will continue to be brushed under the carpet.

You are not looking at the past to.improve the future. All you are doing is looking to criticise people and blame people for decisions you perceive as being poor ones.

Look at this thread to see how casually the rent-a-crowd mob deserted their Covid statistical analysis to go save Ukraine/Climate Change/.. instead. They could not even grasp that there was a gross inconsistency between bring us your unvaxxed children one day and donate your spare room to unvaccinated Ukrainians the next. Tragically they were happy just for the kicking to have stopped and scared to demand to know why. There has to be some criticism or else this is going to repeat.