Sophrosyne
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Could you provide a link to the source of the above percentages?
All the more reason to talk about the death rate in Ireland over the last number of years which has varied between 0.63% to 0.66% over the last 10 years. It was 0.63% in 2020 which is a lower rate than the previous 5 years. !
That's the truth, the older members of our community are in general cherished but it always seems to be a one way street, they never seem grateful for the contribution of the younger generations.Yep, this is a disease of the old, usually the fat and old. Massive sacrifices were made by the young, who were at almost no serious risk, to protect the old. That's nothing new in this country, we are always defecating on the young for the benefit of the old. That's the way we've chosen to run the country. Actually that's the way the old have chosen to run the country. Old people are rich and entitled. Why would anyone expect them to behave any differently during this pandemic?
| Quarter | 1990 | 2020 | ||
1 | Jan-Mar | 8,618 | 8,674 | +56 |
2 | Apr-Jun | 7,519 | 8,582 | +1,063 |
3 | Jul-Sep | 7,358 | 7,111 | -247 |
4 | Oct-Dec | 7,639 | 7,398 | -241 |
Excellent post and while we do concentrate on Ireland and our small population and the ease of which people compiled with the orders to stay at home the entire effort cannot and should not be looked at using one metric ie deaths.At the onset Ireland and the rest of the world was in uncharted waters.
Nobody knew how the virus would progress and/or mutate. The previous MERS-CoV had mainly affected 41–60-year-old males.
The health protection measures were mainly to slow the progress of the virus so not to overwhelm the health service and to allow time to set up necessary tracing and treatments and also in the hope of an ameliorating vaccine.
The measures were not just to shield the elderly but also the thousands of younger people on the lengthy vulnerable list.
In the absence of those measures, who can say what the fatality rates or the hospital and ICU admittance rates might have been.
The CSO Vital Statistics release for deaths in the 4 quarters of 2020 suggests that the measures introduced in March 2020 prevented many deaths:
Quarter Jan-Mar Apr-Jun Jul-Sep Oct-Dec
Global research is ongoing concerning, inter alia, the short and long-term effect of Covid-19 on the immune system.
It is too soon to be conclusive about health protection measures.
I agree the affects of the restrictions were overwhelmingly positive, you just need to look at other countries. In hindsight perhaps they'd tweak a number of the measures, but you'd need a super computer to model the impact of bahavioural and environmental changes that people chose or were forced to adapt to through the course of this. Elderly restricting their movements meant fewer falls with life-shortening injuries, the drop in traffic meant better air quality and fewer people getting stressed in traffic, more people getting out walking and exercising with all the benefits that brings...People who continue to push additional death narrative really need to educate themselves as to what exactly happened in the context of the total of society, hospital admissions for example with covid 19 lead to all other medical care abandoned and saving lives became the primary work and those figures will tell anyone who really wants to understand this virus was/is a serious risk to people's lives and all the restrictions and laws introduced were necessary.
I think the mental health issues will surface but again how do we correlate this with lockdown and restrictions will be interesting to see.I agree the affects of the restrictions were overwhelmingly positive, you just need to look at other countries. In hindsight perhaps they'd tweak a number of the measures, but you'd need a super computer to model the impact of bahavioural and environmental changes that people chose or were forced to adapt to through the course of this. Elderly restricting their movements meant fewer falls with life-shortening injuries, the drop in traffic meant better air quality and fewer people getting stressed in traffic, more people getting out walking and exercising with all the benefits that brings...
It's often suggested the restrictions have had a significant affect on mental health, and it's difficult to measure the impact of that on peoples' lives but suicide was down 20% last year. However the deferral of of non-critical care will have a quality of life impact on a lot of peoples lives that can't accurately be measured by death statistics.
True, and I think sometimes we tend to focus on the negative impacts of things like this where the impacts to mental health will not all be negative. Delayed treatment in non-critical healthcare might be a negative factor for years to come, but a lot of positives came as well. More people are exercising which we know improves wellbeing, some people now have a greater appreciation for the really important things in life, more remote work giving some a better work-life balance. etc.I think the mental health issues will surface but again how do we correlate this with lockdown and restrictions will be interesting to see.
And the mental health impacts on loved ones could have been devastating had the death toll been higher, and especially say in those 50+ with complicating conditions for whom ICU capacity was so important in pulling them through if they got severe covid.True, and I think sometimes we tend to focus on the negative impacts of things like this where the impacts to mental health will not all be negative. Delayed treatment in non-critical healthcare might be a negative factor for years to come, but a lot of positives came as well. More people are exercising which we know improves wellbeing, some people now have a greater appreciation for the really important things in life, more remote work giving some a better work-life balance. etc.