Thinly veiled
Heres the thing, thereâs going to come a point when everyone is vaccinated, do you have the bottle to resist the pressure then to ensure I and RTE as a whole can go on creating fear and dread to our lessers throughour society while getting handsomly paid to do so?
You donât have to worry there. Misery porn is a serious weapon in our armoury, with luck weâll get a few more new variants too to keep us going a while longer too oh but I donât want to end on a negative note ha ha ha ha ha #Publicsectorprivilage
Bill Tormeyâs recent outburst against the State pathologist typifies his ability to get noticed and into trouble. He disagrees with Fine Gael on most issues and has no hope of winning a seat for them. By John Byrne.
Bill Tormey likes attention and he has got more than his share of attention in the last few weeks. First a âhitâ on the chief State pathologist, Marie Cassidy, misunderstanding her point and the significance of her report on the causes of death of Brian Murphy, who died in August 2000, following an assault outside Club Anabel in Dublin. Then a shrill appearance on the The Late Late Show â an appearance which diverted attention from his partyâs (Fine Gaelâs) ard-fheis, which had opened that evening in Citywest â and since then a plethora of media outings.
I think that, like everyone in the world, he has been hit by a tsunami with this virus, him even more so in his role as CMO.
I think we are still feeling our way through this for the most part, and that includes governments and health officials around the world. That has to be remembered.
I think he can be overly bullish, possibly arrogant. For instance, his veteoing of the NIAC decision around AstraZeneca went way beyond his reach. Also his carry on in relation to Cervical Check is very questionable, and he was at it again when asked last week at the NPHET press conference.
This isnât a direct criticism of him but I find the lack of governance in general over NPHET and vaccinations extremely frustrating. I think this adds to his sense of arrogance.
But I donât really dislike the guy I have to say. He is the focal point of anger in a lot of this, unjustifiably in my view, when the simple facts are that we are dealing with a global pandemic and there is nothing anyone can do about it.
He has a difficult job, but that doesnât mean he should get an armchair ride. He has a lot of responsibility and influence, the more of each of those you have the higher a standard you need to be held to.
Yes and he didnât want a review of the cervical check to be carried out. Instead he said to Harris who was health minister at the time that he would review it himself.
He also sat on a memo for 2 years fully aware that the cervical check was not fit for purpose and had many flaws. He didnât communicate this to the health minister again. How many women went for checks during this time thinking everything was OK. Surely they should have come up with better solutions for a flawed process like that where life and death boils down to early diagnosis and mitigation. But noâŚ
His past 12 months on covid have been a debacle. He has flip flopped on many issues and downplayed the vaccines but when he stands up there in the cold light of day beside Varadkar or Martin he might as well be wearing a halo such is the contempt large sections of the public have for both. He clearly doesnât want to entertain any hard questions from journalists. You can argue he is there in an advisory role and buck stops with the government but as a man like you who enjoys watching Sopranos, MicheĂĄl Martin is the âUncle Jun Corrado Sopranoâ - basically a lightning conductor to take attention and criticism away from the defacto leader Tony Soprano. Tony Holohan is the defacto leader of this country now. Nothing else matters.
Was he the lad who used to be on that economistâs show on Newstalk back in the mid to late 00s, was on after Off The Ball. The economistâs name was Mark something or other. Same fella predicted a soft landing before the crash.
I was talking to a fella in the States there and heâs off to Austin for the weekend, flying in for a weekend session with his mates. Is it only Europe that has lost its mind
