Blaming the authorities for the current wave

Brendan Burgess

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The "vox pops" that are being sent out by some, for example, " when should have nationalised private hospitals", or we should "have increased ICU beds" and loads more , simply emboldens people to simply blame the government and justify their actions.

Very good point.

But it's not just the vox pops. It's the media as well.

 
But it's not just the vox pops. It's the media as well.

Here is another example


However sad most of the songs are, and they are heartbreaking, I am choosing to listen to Adele at the moment rather than to the people in charge. The people in charge are deliberately and tactically scaremongering. They aren’t even trying to hide the fact any more. According to one senior Government Minister, a combination of our chief medical officer “scaring the bejaysus out of people” and booster shots is going to keep us out of lockdown. Fear as a weapon. Fear as a cattle prod. No thanks. Bejaysus, I’m not buying into that.

Anyway, it could reasonably be argued that the much more likely impact of the round-the-clock relaying of the same messages we’ve been hearing for nearly two years is that you risk boring the bejaysus out of people. No offence meant to him – he is only doing his extremely difficult and unenviable job after all – but lately when the Chief Scaring Officer comes on the radio I’ve been turning him off and sticking on Adele instead.


And another one


It is right to change policy when necessary. It would be much worse to blindly stick to a policy when the evidence changes.

Brendan
 
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Here is another example


However sad most of the songs are, and they are heartbreaking, I am choosing to listen to Adele at the moment rather than to the people in charge. The people in charge are deliberately and tactically scaremongering. They aren’t even trying to hide the fact any more. According to one senior Government Minister, a combination of our chief medical officer “scaring the bejaysus out of people” and booster shots is going to keep us out of lockdown. Fear as a weapon. Fear as a cattle prod. No thanks. Bejaysus, I’m not buying into that.

Anyway, it could reasonably be argued that the much more likely impact of the round-the-clock relaying of the same messages we’ve been hearing for nearly two years is that you risk boring the bejaysus out of people. No offence meant to him – he is only doing his extremely difficult and unenviable job after all – but lately when the Chief Scaring Officer comes on the radio I’ve been turning him off and sticking on Adele instead.
What's her alternative? Actual lockdown?

Who will she deflect blame onto then?

Living with covid isn't about ignoring it in 'la la land', or business as usual - it means you need to have a healthy sense of awareness, fear or concern, if not for what it can do to you than for the vulnerable people & potential superspreaders (physios, hairdressers, waiting staff) you might interact with, and conduct yourself accordingly as you try to lead as normal a life as you can.
 
Here is another example


However sad most of the songs are, and they are heartbreaking, I am choosing to listen to Adele at the moment rather than to the people in charge. The people in charge are deliberately and tactically scaremongering. They aren’t even trying to hide the fact any more. According to one senior Government Minister, a combination of our chief medical officer “scaring the bejaysus out of people” and booster shots is going to keep us out of lockdown. Fear as a weapon. Fear as a cattle prod. No thanks. Bejaysus, I’m not buying into that.

Anyway, it could reasonably be argued that the much more likely impact of the round-the-clock relaying of the same messages we’ve been hearing for nearly two years is that you risk boring the bejaysus out of people. No offence meant to him – he is only doing his extremely difficult and unenviable job after all – but lately when the Chief Scaring Officer comes on the radio I’ve been turning him off and sticking on Adele instead.
Ye Gads, you'd really would worry about what is considered journalism nowadays.

It's this infantile type of tripe that many people will lap up, it will give their Ill informed views a boost and again justify not doing the correct thing.
 
What's her alternative? Actual lockdown?

Who will she deflect blame onto then?

Living with covid isn't about ignoring it in 'la la land', or business as usual - it means you need to have a healthy sense of awareness, fear or concern, if not for what it can do to you than for the vulnerable people & potential superspreaders (physios, hairdressers, waiting staff) you might interact with, and conduct yourself accordingly as you try to lead as normal a life as you can.
She doesn't know what she wants it's a piece to match Boris at the CBI conference the other day trivialisation of serious issues, just to look cool.
 
And from the Indo






https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/politics/government-slammed-for-lack-of-urgency-on-antigen-testing-41085180.html
 
Well whatever about the other ones, the mistake by Ronan Glynn yesterday about never saying schools were safe smacked of a rubbish attempt at starting to cover ones ass. I don't mind policies changing if the data warrants it but I do have an issue with public health officials attempting to rewrite history. They are not politicians. They shouldn't care whether we blame them or not. If they have decided that schools are no longer safe considering the level of transmission then say that. But don't try and make it sound like you never declared them safe. It is worrying if NPHET are now concerned with looking like they might have got things wrong.
 
Here is another example


However sad most of the songs are, and they are heartbreaking, I am choosing to listen to Adele at the moment rather than to the people in charge. The people in charge are deliberately and tactically scaremongering. They aren’t even trying to hide the fact any more. According to one senior Government Minister, a combination of our chief medical officer “scaring the bejaysus out of people” and booster shots is going to keep us out of lockdown. Fear as a weapon. Fear as a cattle prod. No thanks. Bejaysus, I’m not buying into that.

Anyway, it could reasonably be argued that the much more likely impact of the round-the-clock relaying of the same messages we’ve been hearing for nearly two years is that you risk boring the bejaysus out of people. No offence meant to him – he is only doing his extremely difficult and unenviable job after all – but lately when the Chief Scaring Officer comes on the radio I’ve been turning him off and sticking on Adele instead.


And another one


It is right to change policy when necessary. It would be much worse to blindly stick to a policy when the evidence changes.

Brendan
I saw the headline and just didn't read it. Shoddy 'journalism' but about what I'd expect from the author.
 
It is worrying if NPHET are now concerned with looking like they might have got things wrong.
They opposed masks for a long time and were recently dismissive of antigen tests. It's fine to change tack but they should just own it as it's an evolving situation.

I wouldn't blame the Government for the current wave and I don't expect that the tinkering with opening times or which venues can open or who can meet with who(does anyone keep track?) will make much difference to anything. I do blame the Government for not getting the health system a bit more winter/Covid ready this year, although I appreciate it's a multifactorial problem and they went all-in on vaccines instead.

There seems to be some revisionism in relation to what the vaccines promised also. Initially they were heralded as a game-changer and the key to a return to normality (efficacy rates of 90%+ bandied about). Now that infection/transmission is motoring on, as efficacy falls off at an alarming rate, the best can be said is that the vaccines weaken the link between infection and hospitalisation/death. While this again is what it is, it's not how the vaccines were sold (although this may be a minority view on AAM).

This current wave will surely burn itself out soon.
 
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There seems to be some revisionism in relation to what the vaccines promised also. Initially they were heralded as a game-changer and the key to a return to normality (efficacy rates of 90%+ bandied about).
That of course was prior to the emergence of the Delta variant, and variants were flagged early as a significant risk. That said, while the vaccines we are currently using have a significantly lower effectiveness against Delta after a single dose, they are close to 90% effectiveness against the Delta after the second dose.

They opposed masks for a long time and were recently dismissive of antigen tests. It's fine to change tack but they should just own it as it's an evolving situation.
Other countries have shown that antigen testing at mass scale does not result in a significant drop in infections, and there is a valid concern that symptomatic people here are using them and failing to isolate if the results are negative.
 
Regardless of recent tinkering with Covid restrictions, vaccines touted for young kids, and pending boosters for everyone in the audience, the hospital/ICU graphs here might be cause for optimism https://covid19ireland-geohive.hub.arcgis.com/pages/hospitals-icu--testing

The wave over last Christmas saw hospital Covid numbers jump from circa 200 to over 2000 (ICU from 22 to 221) in just one month before slowly declining until late June. The numbers have crept up in the five months since late June, reaching 685 in hospital with 132 of those in ICU, but have inched downward over the last few days. Surely the pool of those likely to end up in hospital/ICU is dwindling fast.
 
At last the Irish Times is showing a bit of balance and understanding.



My 2½-hour wait for the booster last Friday was a doddle compared to the later four- and five-hour queues that presented a challenge for people with mobility and other issues. That was clearly not the fault of staff and volunteers who remained calm, efficient and kindly even in the face of brewing irritability. Perspective: the booster is a triumph. Case numbers are falling in those lucky groups. Fewer people will take up an ICU bed or die. Yet one rheumatologist’s timeline on Saturday was full of people giving out about the queues – “This is a free, life-saving shot. I would happily wait starkers in the snow for it,” she commented. One nurse vaccinator at Citywest arrived home exhausted having watched colleagues being told they were “bloody useless”.


“Spent a day having the head torn off me by people who had to queue . . . for a life-saving, free vaccine! Frontline workers don’t deserve the abuse they received today.”
 
Giving out your poor investment returns or your higher than normal mortgage rate are first world problems. Giving out about stories in a free media is a first world problem

There is simply no need for massive queues. There was no reason to do walk in's when there are more than enough eligible people to fill appointment slots.

However, no excuse for abusing anyone on the ground. It is a systemic issue rather than a personnel issue.
 
At last the Irish Times is showing a bit of balance and understanding.



My 2½-hour wait for the booster last Friday was a doddle compared to the later four- and five-hour queues that presented a challenge for people with mobility and other issues. That was clearly not the fault of staff and volunteers who remained calm, efficient and kindly even in the face of brewing irritability. Perspective: the booster is a triumph. Case numbers are falling in those lucky groups. Fewer people will take up an ICU bed or die. Yet one rheumatologist’s timeline on Saturday was full of people giving out about the queues – “This is a free, life-saving shot. I would happily wait starkers in the snow for it,” she commented. One nurse vaccinator at Citywest arrived home exhausted having watched colleagues being told they were “bloody useless”.


“Spent a day having the head torn off me by people who had to queue . . . for a life-saving, free vaccine! Frontline workers don’t deserve the abuse they received today.”
And to think that since only 60 + are eligible for the booster, manners seems have disappeared for some.
 
Before the media decide to continue with the blame some facts.. up to last Thursday, 516k boosters were administered, last week that was 187k .

Overall we got 10.1 m vaccines delivered, with just over 7.1 million administered.

The rollout has been probably the greatest achievement in health in this country's history, surpassing any other health emergency, including TB/ Polio , by a factor of ?

Let the media at it, but the facts are the vaccine program has been a huge success, and if a few rude/ greedy people want to insult " F..um" theyd be dead without those who did their job for the entire year.

There's much to complain about in this country , but the vaccine strategy/ implementation isn't one.

And I have the figures by week to prove that, it's the sense of entitlement, greed and lack of appreciation , the media "making things up" to sell advertising space, or feel important in a tiny world.

Rant over but I have the figures, based on ECDC data.
 
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