The government's response to Coronavirus

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Susie2017

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I am wondering are individuals coming back from affected areas including Italy are still not being quarantined or told they MUST self isolate. What are we waiting for ? Why are we not cancelling all major gatherings like parades on St Patricks Day. What is the point in delaying these measures or are vested interests taking precedence? The Italian health ministry has warned their hospitals are on the verge of being overwhelmed. The death rate certainly appears to be many multiples higher than rates for influenza.
 
Italy has declared itself unsafe by closing schools, universities, theatres etc

In response, our DFA should issue a do not travel alert for Italy.
It won't stop everyone going\coming back, but it will invalidate travel insurance for that country and will stop many from travelling there.
 
The HSE have made some basic mistakes.

1) Lab Test criteria

Since Feb 24 the WHO have recommended expanded testing based on symptoms not just travel history/close contact with known cases, with the following recommendation:

Immediately expand surveillance to detect COVID-19 transmission chains, by testing all patients with atypical pneumonias, conducting screening in some patients with upper respiratory illnesses and/or recent COVID-19 exposure, and adding testing for the COVID-19 virus to existing surveillance systems (e.g. systems for influenza-like-illness and SARI)

The HSE retained very restrictive criteria. The expanded criteria might have helped with the Cork case, due to the long delay between onset of symptoms and isolation. The USA/CDC have allowed expanded testing from Feb 26, due to both medical and media pressure.

2) Travellers returning from Italy

The USA, UK and New Zealand all recommend self-quarantine for 14 days for travellers returning from or transiting through Northern Italy (or Italy). In Ireland the advice is "if you feel well, then keep to your normal routine". The HSE are ignoring multiple documented cases of transmission with no symptoms or only mild/non-specific symptoms. The HSE model of how the disease works doesn't match with reality. Many universities in the USA require 14-day self-isolation of returning students/faculty not just from CDC Level 3 (e.g. Italy, S. Korea) but also Level 2 (e.g. Japan).

Best practice is Singapore and Taiwan, but that bar is impossibly high for the HSE/Irish government. Ireland should at least be trying to match WHO and USA/UK guidelines.
 
Daddy Ireland said:
Big jump in deaths Italy today. 49 deaths today added to 41 yesterday. Deaths gone over 4% of cases. Good ol Ireland allow in all the Italians for the postponed game. As stated before utter madness.
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Good old Ireland has not put in place social security for people or companies who need to self Isolate yet to stop the spread within
Ireland Can wait until Cabinet sub committee meeting on Monday no hurry it's seams, and a Doctor the Leader of our Country no less,
 
AS per usual it takes someone to die in order for the conditions to change in ireland.
 
"Asked about the conditions of patients, Mr Holohan said they had not done an analysis, but there was no reason to believe the picture here was different to the international situation where most cases were mild"

80% of cases are mild/moderate (not "mild"); 20% severe/critical. But nobody wants to talk about the 20%.

The WHO reported that of the severe/critical cases in China 75% needed oxygen therapy/supplementation, 25% mechanical ventilation. Average hospital stay for these cases was 3-6 weeks (not days). Also studies report lung scarring/fibrosis for some recovered patients. Too early to say if this is irreversible.

The coronavirus should be viewed as potentially causing long-term lung damage. Yet it is still all systems go for the big St Patrick's Day parades. Madness.
 
hydrcarbon
"Yet it is still all systems go for the big St Patrick's Day parades. Madness" i agree asking people not to attend if not feeling well ,problem is kids will want see parade so parents will go (people will be up against each other (sardines)for above minimum contact time trying to get best view look at dublin parade via tv
keep thinking of that lotto ad guy ara shar (spelling) it will be all right
.
 
It is trite to say but public health is macro and involves more than the assessment of any individual‘s health risk. There are for example significant fiscal consequences if a country is designated as a “do not travel“ destination both for insurance companies and airlines (and of course politically).

We can and should all make our private health decisions for ourselves. I think plenty of people know that anyone travelling is mad and that anyone going to big gatherings is also a bit mad.
 
KoalaB said:
It is trite to say but public health is macro and involves more than the assessment of any individual‘s health risk. There are for example significant fiscal consequences if a country is designated as a “do not travel“ destination both for insurance companies and airlines (and of course politically).

We can and should all make our private health decisions for ourselves. I think plenty of people know that anyone travelling is mad and that anyone going to big gatherings is also a bit mad.
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The issue with public parades is not so much that the people who attend may get infected (that's their choice) but that they may go on to infect people who didn't attend - e.g. a few days later they sit beside someone on the bus or train and transmit the virus to someone else. That's why I don't view it as just a private health issue. The lessons of Philadelphia in 1918 or the Wuhan potluck in 2020 still need to be learned. The parade was cancelled in 2001 due to the foot-and-mouth outbreak and held later when the crisis was over - no reason the same thing cannot be done again.

Overall a country's reputation will be enhanced by taking effective measures to limit the spread - I doubt there are many people in Taiwan saying they overreacted. For example they should be in a good position to attract future investment from companies that want to diversify their supply chains, reducing future risk.
 
All flights from Italy should have been banned weeks ago, it's just horrific what's unfolding over there, with not near enough intensive care beds to cope with the critically ill. I shudder at the thoughts of the same happening here.
 
We are now in the position Italy were in a few weeks back. They went from 20 to circa 7500 cases in that time. We really need to learn the lessons here - and put them into practice today, not in a few weeks time! That should mean a ban on all mass gatherings including St Patricks Day events.
 
Saavy99 said:
All flights from Italy should have been banned weeks ago, it's just horrific what's unfolding over there, with not near enough intensive care beds to cope with the critically ill. I shudder at the thoughts of the same happening here.
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And then people jump on a train to Nice or Zurich and fly home from there. You could also have argued that all flights should have been banned from China weeks ago, or Korea or Japan or anywhere else. It's easy to be wise retrospecitvly but we also need to put this in proportion. What happens the next time someone in India or Russia or anywhere else gets a virus no one has seen before. ? Is there an automatic protocol put in place that that country is locked down for a month. Who would travel anywhere if that was the case?
 
Minister for Health Simon Harris has said there is a moderate-to-high risk that Ireland will follow a pattern seen in other EU countries in regard to the Covid-19 outbreak such as Italy, France and Germany.
www.rte.ie

Three new cases of Covid-19 in Republic of Ireland

Three more cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed in the Republic of Ireland, bringing the total number to 24.
www.rte.ie www.rte.ie
 
Peanuts20 said:
? Is there an automatic protocol put in place that that country is locked down for a month. Who would travel anywhere if that was the case?
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Chinese locked down cities containing 50 million, now they appear to be getting on top of this vurus.

We had ample time to learn from them.
 
David_Dublin said:
Totalitarian states tend to be able to enforce these types of things a little more efficiently than liberal democracies - they have some practise!
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Indeed and what's more the populous tends to be more willing to put up with the accompanying loss of liberty
 
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