It wonât be like that though. The latest line Iâm hearing is âNo sensible person ever thought that vaccines would be the silver bullet to end the pandemic butâŚâ Complete gaslighting. No matter what restrictions they implement theyâll never get to 100% vaccinated. Also, whatâs actually the R number for a vaccinated person going to the barber compared to an unvaccinated?
Another thought Iâve just had is that, as regards hairdressers, the unvaccinateds will just start going to black market hairdressers where nobody is vaccinated and everyone is an idiot, just the biggest gobshites in town basically. Non-vaxxs will be their own little ethnic grouping nearly. Covid rates in these communities will be off the charts. Hairdressers arenât dangerous for non-vaxx at the moment but they will be soon. Also the shite talking that they will get up to amongst each other will be so outrageous as to be fairly dangerous.
I donât think anyone did think vaccines were the silver bullet. The initial effect was probably stronger than expected alright and maybe briefly gave rise to that, but they were never going to wipe the thing out immediately. But vaccines do have us operating pretty much as normal. Iâm in favour of being able to continue to operate pretty much as normal.
The key thing that is happening now is that we are in winter.
People are congregating indoors in large numbers with no ventilation with piped in air conditioning which is even worse than nothing.
This was always going to be the challenging time. And the next few weeks, particularly in the run up to Christmas, is going to be even more challenging.
This shouldnât be a surprise, particularly with those tasked with monitoring and predicting the impact of this virus. I think that they are now fully aware of the problem and information is being drip fed to limit the outrage (primarily political) such as âcanât rule out further restrictionsâ, âsocialising at an unsustainable levelâ so that when restrictions inevitably hit then we have been warned.
Also the previous NPHET modelling which suggested that this âwaveâ would ease off by the end of this month is bollox to me. Waves have only eased off when there has been an intervention - restrictions, vaccines. It doesnât just magically stop. Interesting that Nolan has been asked to check it again - again all part of the drip feed of information.
I would be very wary of the information we are receiving at the moment.
In retrospect, it would have been the right thing to do to highlight the problem with Christmas this year in advance and advice people accordingly. Here we are now though with restrictions likely and plans being thrown up in the air again at the last minute.
Youâre not wrong, itâs also coinciding with waning effectiveness. I donât know if weâre facing into more restrictions, I think that theyâre likely to be less intrusive ones if anything, more vaccine passes or back to full working from home where possible or that kind of thing.
How does that logic apply to children, who we know have reduced development of COVID-19 and are not susceptible to infection in the first instance? Donât fall into the trap of equating a positive PCR with pathogenesis. When young children get a positive PCR test from a nasal swab, in all likelihood this is purely because of environmental exposure to the virus. It does not mean that they are sick. Vaccination does absolutely nothing to prevent this.
I have heard of numerous cases, anecdotally, of kids infecting parents and grandparents, some quite viciously.
I am not disputing what youâre saying but I wonder if leaving schools untouched in terms of restrictions/vaccines is advisable given the incredibly contagious nature of this thing.
Thatâs the exact cohort we should be looking to build natural immunity in. People that can get over the virus with minimal impact. People that are in the at risk categories (overweight, comorbidities, etc.) should be protected, but not by introducing mandatory vaccines and vaccine passports to get into pubs or restaurants. Iâve been on record from the start that I do not agree with making sweeping changes to society to create a new normal in order to protect people that are at risk. Instead, we should be facilitating those people to protect themselves while society gets on with the old normal.
How many very sick old people would you have seen drinking in a pub? And if a sick old person is that reckless with their own health, why should people that are more responsible with their own well-being be forced into taking a vaccine? There are multiple ethical questions at play here, but theyâre not going to get sorted on TFK.
I agree with this. Ireland is beyond ridiculous at this stage. If you are vulnerable to Covid then use your own discretion at this stage to protect yourself. This perpetual locking down and restricting of people, the media, is driving people insane.
