absolutley, didnt stop them closing schools for months on end tho
reservoirs of infection, petri dishes, stealth bombers in a pandemic world, etcā¦
1 Like
There was a mention of increased ICU beds in the budget. I am not sure of the full details.
If its a case that we need to go into lockdown or stay with restrictions because we are coming into winter and we need to get booster vaccinations into people, then this is it for good. Because how will it be a different situation next winter? People will need booster shots next year also and it will, oddly enough, be winter again next year. So we will be in the exact same scenario once again.
We keep going on about 92% vaccination and high cases, but we still dont have clarity on those getting covid. There is a huge cohort of our population who cant (primary school/younger secondary school) get vaccinated and a large number who wont get vaccinated (my body my choice types). There is a huge amount of covid cases amongst the younger population, but yet we dont have the figures to exactly say what is driving the number of cases. Are they vaccinated or not? Are we just testing more than other countries. And the strain on the hospital is still not being communicated, is it spreading in the hospital, are people in there because they have covid, or are they in there and just happen to have covid.
These things make a huge difference to the strategy, but yet the line keeps changing from nphet. Crucial 2 weeks me bollix, flatten the curve, 90% vaccinated. The end goal keeps changing and the more they keep pricking about the more people are going to just ignore any restrictions and just move on.
They had a semblance of credibility and authority to control when people trusted them, but with so many bullshit figures and the changing of the end goal, never mind the people being made unemployed with this all, means that the longer they keep stringing it out without being clear, the more people will just say fuck it and go back to normal. Particularly young people, and I dont blame them in the slightest.
15 Likes
I donāt believe Leo ever got his figures on how many of the hospital cases acquired it in hospital, or if he did they were never made public.
I would hazard they are so bad that they agreed not to publish them as it would make people reluctant to seek help for other issues.
I say Paul Reid would love to say that. He needs to be luke yourman from DCC
Iād say weāve savage ICU capacity now. Weāve been at this for the guts of two years
It went through my younger lads class a few weeks ago and he got it. Itās the new chicken pox and they are better off getting it young and developing immunity.
Well the picture I showed doesnāt have it within its possibilities.
Even if it did, the range of possibilities forecast is so wide that its hardly useable to drive decision making.
Iām not sure it provides much more value than a coin toss i.e. Something bad might happen or something bad might not happen.
That seems sensible.
Donāt we know some of that? The hospitalisations and ICU cases are obviously the most most concerning and are massively disproportionately caused by unvaccinated people.
There are other areas more debatable but the vaccination stats seems clear and theyāre sort of being thrown in with other things like lockdown as being nebulous or confusing.
Makes sense
RSV is back this year. It can make young kids fairly sick - worse than Covid.
Thereās a few kids on ventilators in Crumlin with it. Risk of hospitalisation for a kid with RSV versus Covid is about 5 times higher.
Can we afford to direct all of our society and health system at Covid. We need to get better at how we assess risk
2 Likes
2 Likes
I suppose the point being that we were told in August that there would be no talk of reopening until we have 90% of adults fully vaccinated. At the time, there was criticism that to get to 90% would take too long. Also, just for reference, at that time it was declared that NPHET would be disbanded in mid October. So here we are now, mid October, 92% vaccinated and NPHET want to extend restrictions until February.
The unvaccinated seem to be causing the issues in hospitals, but again, its not being made clear to what extent the numbers are, nor the actual cause for admission. Some, I acknowledge, will argue that it makes little difference what they are in for, whether because of or just happen to have Covid. However if they are in for another reason, then that technically isnt causing an additional load onto the hospital as they would be in regardless. People will still require hospital admission with or without covid.
If the unvaccinated are the main cause for increased cases and potentially the delay in reopening, then it needs to be clear as to what those numbers are. How many of them could be vaccinated? If it is a large number who are unable to get vaccinated for one reason or the other, then ultimately we are fighting a losing battle as if they cant be vaccinated, and we restrict ourselves due to those who cant get vaccinated, then the whole issue over having 90% of adults vaccinated was irrelevant.
2 Likes
Instead of the hospital figures He went with blame Johnny Foreigner coming in through the airport ā¦ wasnāt there an anecdote of an Arab going to Sligo from Belfast airport ā¦
Yeah I guess Iām in that camp of itās important to know why people are admitted to hospital etc but from a vaccine point of view itās more important to know that unvaccinated people are dominating Covid cases in hospital. Itās not like they can be left untreated for Covid even if they were admitted for other reasons.
I think the idea of disbanding NPHET and predicting the date they could be wound down was a silly mistake.
I donāt think getting to 90%+ is irrelevant at all. Itās been a really good achievement.
Yeah I dont disagree, the vaccine uptake you have to say has been good. But people did it on the basis that getting to the āmagicalā 90% was a step to reopen things. But now its not. Selling people an idea to get things moving after 20 months of restrictions and then when you hit that target it gets taken away again leaves people pissed off, hence the irrelevant point I made.
And similarly, I dont think you can leave unvaccinated untreated or whatever that some may want to do, but it is important to understand the reason for admissions. @Copper_pipe tweet up above seems to indicate that over 50% of those in hospital with Covid did not enter the hospital with Covid. So again, this number is also important. Are they contracting the illness in hospital, or just simply had the illness without realising?
2 Likes
I doubt that was the main reason in fairness.
yeah thats fair enough. But it certainly played a part for a lot of people, put on the green jersey and so forth and get vaccinated for the better cause, not only for your own personal safety.