Hi Jim & Chris - very interesting and comprehensive. Those comments on Alcohol from Patrick O'Donovan beggars belief. As you say, the soft touches are being targeted again and it seems like Ministers like this one think that alcohol is responsible for all of the Country's problems. The sector should be treated fairly and Government Minsters like Patrick O'Donovan should get some common sense and grow up. It's quite scary that people like him are in positions of power.
Hi Jim - Thanks for the blog post. Points are well made. Aligned with your point on the lack of a risk assessment approach, I think we are getting plenty of numbers (cases, ICU, vaccinations etc) but with little or no insight as to their meaning. A simple example is the reference to cases in Donegal (my home county) on https://covid19ireland-geohive.hub.arcgis.com/ - there are 3 different rates per 100,000 within the county - the highest along the border with Derry. Another example is Galway - where west of Galway city is very low etc. If we got some explanation for these and other occurances, it would help public understanding and also set the base for risk assessment and for applying focused measures relative to local needs. We await the upcoming review for post April 5th measures with interest (but perhaps no insight) :)
Agree with a lot of that, but putting the ridiculous Government comments above to one side and focusing exclusively on the virus; what restrictions would you change and what would you keep (based off current restrictions/vaccinations)?
It’s very easy for us all to be annoyed by everything and give out, but when given some respite the behaviour of (some) people around the Christmas period led to a huge amount of deaths in January.
Interesting article thanks, I have an elder brother who lives just outside Cork City, while my other brother and I live here in the UK. We’ve had our vaccine here but no sign of vaccine for the eldest 😣 Unfortunately, this feeds the ‘we were right to brexit’ lobby which really upsets me 😢
Great article, in fairness if we had the supply of vaccines and they were not being delivered due to incompetence I would totally agree with you but I think this is a vaccine supply issue. They made the decision to join the eu vaccine procurement programme which was a bad call with the benefit of hindsight, but sourcing vaccine by ourselves would have been risky too. Are we doing a lot worse than other eu countries?
The whole message from the Government and particularly NPHET is consistently delivered in an ‘adult to child’ fashion. Another looming battle will be trying to stop people travelling abroad this summer when the EU is proposing a much more liberal, and practical, travel agreement between countries. Ireland is setting records in ‘days closed’ for businesses and schools and no one is asking ‘why’. These records are not badges of honour, though it feels like the state think they are something to be proud of.
Hi Jim & Chris - very interesting and comprehensive. Those comments on Alcohol from Patrick O'Donovan beggars belief. As you say, the soft touches are being targeted again and it seems like Ministers like this one think that alcohol is responsible for all of the Country's problems. The sector should be treated fairly and Government Minsters like Patrick O'Donovan should get some common sense and grow up. It's quite scary that people like him are in positions of power.
Hi Jim - Thanks for the blog post. Points are well made. Aligned with your point on the lack of a risk assessment approach, I think we are getting plenty of numbers (cases, ICU, vaccinations etc) but with little or no insight as to their meaning. A simple example is the reference to cases in Donegal (my home county) on https://covid19ireland-geohive.hub.arcgis.com/ - there are 3 different rates per 100,000 within the county - the highest along the border with Derry. Another example is Galway - where west of Galway city is very low etc. If we got some explanation for these and other occurances, it would help public understanding and also set the base for risk assessment and for applying focused measures relative to local needs. We await the upcoming review for post April 5th measures with interest (but perhaps no insight) :)
Agree with a lot of that, but putting the ridiculous Government comments above to one side and focusing exclusively on the virus; what restrictions would you change and what would you keep (based off current restrictions/vaccinations)?
It’s very easy for us all to be annoyed by everything and give out, but when given some respite the behaviour of (some) people around the Christmas period led to a huge amount of deaths in January.
Well done - this in my sums up matters up well in all respects.
Interesting article thanks, I have an elder brother who lives just outside Cork City, while my other brother and I live here in the UK. We’ve had our vaccine here but no sign of vaccine for the eldest 😣 Unfortunately, this feeds the ‘we were right to brexit’ lobby which really upsets me 😢
Great article, in fairness if we had the supply of vaccines and they were not being delivered due to incompetence I would totally agree with you but I think this is a vaccine supply issue. They made the decision to join the eu vaccine procurement programme which was a bad call with the benefit of hindsight, but sourcing vaccine by ourselves would have been risky too. Are we doing a lot worse than other eu countries?
The whole message from the Government and particularly NPHET is consistently delivered in an ‘adult to child’ fashion. Another looming battle will be trying to stop people travelling abroad this summer when the EU is proposing a much more liberal, and practical, travel agreement between countries. Ireland is setting records in ‘days closed’ for businesses and schools and no one is asking ‘why’. These records are not badges of honour, though it feels like the state think they are something to be proud of.
This sums up the situation really well for an awful lot of people. Good to have the rational side put forward so well.