Coronavirus - Here come the variants

They sold us the problem. Twould be remiss of them not to sell us the solution

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3200 excess deaths out of the 4800 covid deaths from RTEPT.

Iā€™ll have to take that as fact now.

Wha?

Check out Mark coughlans report on PT

Great report

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I would love to see how the Indo and RTE report that stat.
ā€˜32 people HOSPITALISED, despite being fully vaccinated!ā€™

Will Fat Emperor ever get an interview on main stream media?

I donā€™t know what to believe

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Will he ever get an interview ?

Not even with a rigged presenter

Hold on a minute, your mother is 68, has had a cancer scare, and you tried to talk her out of taking the vaccine? Whatever about yourself, your mother is vulnerable to serious illness or death if she gets covid. So is your father. Why would you advise them not to take it?

Honestly mate, thatā€™s grossly irresponsible. You should pause and take a step back and think about it again.

This thing is going to be with us forever. For most people it wonā€™t matter, it will be like getting a cold or they wonā€™t even notice it, because theyā€™ve had the vaccine.

Your parents will always be vulnerable to dying for the rest of their lives.

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Easing Covid restrictions: Ministers want as wide a reopening as possible in May

Cabinet agrees to proceed as planned with further easing of measures from Monday

Government Ministers have signalled they want as wide a reopening as possible in May as the Stateā€™s vaccination programme continues to suffer from supply shortfalls and restrictions on the use of vaccines.

TƔnaiste Leo Varadkar became the latest Minister to suggest that the reopening of social and economic life in May and June is on track, following optimistic comments by the Taoiseach, MicheƔl Martin, and Minister for Further and Higher Education Simon Harris in recent days.

The Cabinet agreed on Tuesday to proceed as planned with the further gradual easing of a number of restrictions from Monday. This includes the reopening of facilities for outdoor sports, including golf and tennis, and outdoor visitor attractions including zoos and heritage sites.

The maximum attendance at funerals will increase to 25 but the ban on other gatherings remains.

Senior Government sources indicated on Tuesday night that they expect further easing to proceed briskly over the next two months, with the potential for some sectors to be accelerated if case numbers continue to decline.

One source involved in the process said the belief on the political side was that there was declining public tolerance for the continuing lockdown as case numbers, hospitalisations and deaths continue to fall. The Government needs to recognise and take account of this as it makes plans for the coming months, several senior sources said.

It is understood, however, that there is resistance to some aspects of reopening from public health officials who prefer a more cautious timetable, and aspects of the plans remain under discussion. There is expected to be intense behind-the-scenes wrangling before decisions on the May reopening are finalised and announced in the middle of next week.

Intense discussions

There are also intense discussions going on in Government over the vaccination programme. Disruption and delay to vaccine deliveries mean the State will struggle to hit its slimmed-down ambition of 860,000 doses in April, and presents a headwind for the target of giving a single dose to 80 per cent of adults by the end of June.

ā€œWeā€™re working towards that as best we can,ā€ HSE vaccination lead Damien McCallion told the Oireachtas Committee on Health on Tuesday, but he added: ā€œThere are very significant supply challenges.ā€

AstraZeneca again cut its delivery volumes for a shipment scheduled on April 24th from 45,000 to just 9,000, while a delivery of 165,000 doses due on Friday April 30th has been delayed until May 3rd.

The short-term impact will be mitigated by a stockpile of AstraZeneca doses and increased Pfizer deliveries, but it will be another drag on the goal of hitting 250,000 doses administered in a week. Mr McCallion said the HSE will hit that figure, ā€œbut at the moment, we do not have the supply to test the system to get there.ā€

He said the HSE expects to receive 800,000 doses in April, 1.4 million in May and 1.6 million in June. Between 140,000 and 160,000 doses will be given this week.

But uneven progress is causing unrest among coalition backbenchers. Fianna FĆ”il TD for Dublin South West John Lahart said the HSE and Government should ā€œstop promising 250,000 a week and just be straight with people about the vaccine rollout, youā€™ll get more respect for itā€.

On Tuesday, Johnson & Johnson said it was to resume deliveries of its one-shot Covid-19 vaccine to the European Union after the European Medicines Agency (EMA) confirmed its benefits outweighed the risks of blood clots as a very rare side effect.

More data

Chair of the National Immunisation Advisory Committee (Niac) Prof Karina Butler indicated the body would consider the EMA finding and await more data due in the coming days from the EU and UK regulators before making a recommendation for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, and on the question of lengthening dose intervals of the Pfizer shots.

There is impatience in Government about a recommendation on the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which sources say could be administered as early as next week if cleared by Niac, helping to make up for the AstraZeneca shortfalls.

Significantly, Prof Butler said the data would be studied alongside supply forecasts and the wider impact of Niac advice on the programme before a recommendation was given to the Department of Health.

Meanwhile, the Department of Health confirmed on Tuesday that the Stateā€™s chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan had returned to work.

Dr Holohanā€™s wife, Dr Emer Feely, died after long illness in February, and he had been on leave until this week.

OIUTFā€™s greatest nemesis is back. Thereā€™ll be corpses getting reclassified left right and centre.

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Got my second jab of Moderna on Monday evening and Iā€™m not feeling the better for it. Sweats, arm and leg pain, blinding headache. Iā€™ll leave it until this evening (48 hours from jab) and Iā€™m getting on to the GP if I havenā€™t improved.

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Youā€™ll be grand you fanny.

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Are you over 70?

Iā€™m far from it.

Pal of mine had the Moderna in US and was in an awful way for a day or two.

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I didnā€™t think so. May I why you are getting the jab?, you being a young man and all.

I got it because Iā€™m in Group 4 (bad diabetic)

Bizarrely, I did my bloods this morning and they were only 7.4, which is the lowest reading in 9 months. This is weird shit.

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