SARS CoV-2 coronavirus / Covid-19 (No tin foil hat silliness please)

Given your willingness to sacrifice the enjoyment of life to moderately increase your life expectancy you must be the healthiest person alive.

Given your willingness to see your staff make heavy personal sacrifices in order to keep you living the life you’re accustomed to, you probably shouldn’t weigh in on this.

Also - 10 years isn’t ‘Moderately increase’. It’s 5-20%.
 
I am skeptical that we will see a return to the freedom of travel and ease of movement we have been enjoying for the last 40 years. Airlines have been battered by this, the travel industry has been routed. Going forward portions of the former travelling population will be more conservative, travel insurance will be more complicated, all borders will open again but with a variety of restrictions. There will no doubt be discounted airfares for example to try and lure the travelling public back but those can only last for a short time before the reality of making air travel between countries viable. The cost of flying around the world I think will increase and with that there will be fewer people travelling. I just dont see a return to the normal we got used to.

Ok maybe in certain sectors like aviation it will take longer but it will return.

Day to day now I am working a car commute from home ( pre covid) so dont care about aviation. I used to fly alot but last year or so its just summer holidays and the odd weekend city break. I can live without that.

Watching Bledisloe cup rugby at the weekend tells me we will be ok.
 
Given your willingness to see your staff make heavy personal sacrifices in order to keep you living the life you’re accustomed to, you probably shouldn’t weigh in on this.

Commenting on things in which you are poorly and only anecdotally informed is generally not the best idea. My staff are fully cognisant and comfortable with the expectations for any role within my business and are remunerated according to those expectations. Likewise for every business metric that would infer "heavy personal sacrifices" my division outperforms both industry averages and our own group (staff turnover, employee feedback, staff satisfaction etc).

I also like the snide "in order to keep you living the life you're accustomed to". It works both ways - my work keeps them in employment just like their work keeps me in employment. My remuneration is correlated to my "personal sacrifice" just like my staffs is.
Also - 10 years isn’t ‘Moderately increase’. It’s 5-20%.

"10-15 years? I wouldn't trade 10-15 months."

10 years isn't but 10-15 months certainly is... It's 1% - 1.5% of the average life.
 
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Even in the most pessimistic view the harshest restrictions aren't going to be around forever. If it was a couple of months a year I'm sure people could cope without trading 15 years off their life :lol:

In retrospect i wonder if people would have preferred scheduled circuit breakers from the off so people could have enjoyed themselves a little every now and again.
 
Are there any fines if someone left a tier 3 region and went on holiday in a tier 1 region?
Say from Liverpool to Cornwall?
Not that it's the season but pubs are open in the latter could definetly see many galivanting.

Reading the restrictions seems full of 'Should' rather than 'Must'
 
Even in the most pessimistic view the harshest restrictions aren't going to be around forever. If it was a couple of months a year I'm sure people could cope without trading 15 years off their life :lol:

In retrospect i wonder if people would have preferred scheduled circuit breakers from the off so people could have enjoyed themselves a little every now and again.

100%. I think many assumed they may exist in some form for the rest of the year.

Learn a little, tailor them, go again, learn a little, tailor some more.

Nope.
 
Are there any fines if someone left a tier 3 region and went on holiday in a tier 1 region?
Say from Liverpool to Cornwall?
Not that it's the season but pubs are open in the latter could definetly see many galivanting.

Reading the restrictions seems full of 'Should' rather than 'Must'

Considering you can fly overseas from a Tier 3 region, I doubt it.
 
UK figures - 80 deaths, 18,804 cases. Weekend lag on reporting probably means it'll be over 20,000 cases tomorrow.
 
Looks like Ireland heading back to Level 5 - our very strictest level - until the end of November. Only difference from last March to May is that schools will be staying open (assuming the teachers don’t strike).
 
Looks like Ireland heading back to Level 5 - our very strictest level - until the end of November. Only difference from last March to May is that schools will be staying open (assuming the teachers don’t strike).
Really didn't think they were going to go all out like this. Suppose its not yet confirmed but looks to be what you've said.

Going to be a very a tough time for a lot of people mentally.
 
Do we think Boris will follow Wales into a 2 week national lockdown? Would be difficult to admit he was wrong and Keir Starmer was right though.
 
Looks like Ireland heading back to Level 5 - our very strictest level - until the end of November. Only difference from last March to May is that schools will be staying open (assuming the teachers don’t strike).
Leo looks a right clown aftet this. I guess being cosied up big business lobbyists only stretches so thin
 
Do we think Boris will follow Wales into a 2 week national lockdown? Would be difficult to admit he was wrong and Keir Starmer was right though.

genuinely don’t think there’s any need to lock down nationally, where I live we peaked at 64 cases per 100,000 and we are coming back down, what’s the point in closing stuff here and wasting money on supporting us when we don’t need it? The current measures are working in many places so seems mad to cripple them just because
 
Ok maybe in certain sectors like aviation it will take longer but it will return.

Day to day now I am working a car commute from home ( pre covid) so dont care about aviation. I used to fly alot but last year or so its just summer holidays and the odd weekend city break. I can live without that.

Watching Bledisloe cup rugby at the weekend tells me we will be ok.
I really hope Im completely wrong. Maybe we will return to the old normal but I dont see it as a fast return, anyway fingers crossed your thoughts are on the money.
 
Looks like Ireland heading back to Level 5 - our very strictest level - until the end of November. Only difference from last March to May is that schools will be staying open (assuming the teachers don’t strike).
Amazing that it's come to this. A shocking failure of our government to not use the last nine months to increase ICU capacity, implement better tracing, have tests at airports etc. A total shambles. There should be an election after this.

Unbelievable that we are going to be the first country in Europe to go back into a full lockdown after being the last fecking country in Europe to go out of it. We are a laughing stock.
 
Leo looks a right clown aftet this. I guess being cosied up big business lobbyists only stretches so thin

The Tánaiste is to blame? How’d you figure that out?

One of the most boring things in this whole poxy pandemic is the way people need to blame whichever politician they like the least for fecking everything.

There are no easy decisions here. Jumping straight to stage 5 from stage 3 would have been a huge call and I can understand why the government wanted to see if slightly tighter restrictions for a couple of weeks might delay the inevitable. “Big business” is keeping a lot of people in jobs and will be even more badly hurt if we end up locking down longer as a result of this delay.

The one thing I think people can be legitimately pissed off about is the death by a thousand cuts we get with each decision, thanks to all these fecking leaks to the press. Blows my mind that we have people in positions of power that have access to such sensitive information and they can’t keep their gobs shut. Infuriating.
 
The Tánaiste is to blame? How’d you figure that out?

One of the most boring things in this whole poxy pandemic is the way people need to blame whichever politician they like the least for fecking everything.

There are no easy decisions here. Jumping straight to stage 5 from stage 3 would have been a huge call and I can understand why the government wanted to see if slightly tighter restrictions for a couple of weeks might delay the inevitable. “Big business” is keeping a lot of people in jobs and will be even more badly hurt if we end up locking down longer as a result of this delay.

The one thing I think people can be legitimately pissed off about is the death by a thousand cuts we get with each decision, thanks to all these fecking leaks to the press. Blows my mind that we have people in positions of power that have access to such sensitive information and they can’t keep their gobs shut. Infuriating.
Well he did speed through the phases so everything would be open just before he stepped aside and unnecessarily jumped on NPHET on national tv 2 weeks ago making them out to be heartless animals who didnt care if people lost their jobs.
I dont see the difference between this week and that, are they more prepared for level 5 now? Are workers suddenly more secure?
They also inferred that NPHET leaked the recommendation so who leaked this development?
Its all unnecessary grandstanding.
 
genuinely don’t think there’s any need to lock down nationally, where I live we peaked at 64 cases per 100,000 and we are coming back down, what’s the point in closing stuff here and wasting money on supporting us when we don’t need it? The current measures are working in many places so seems mad to cripple them just because
The current measures are working in many places so seems mad to cripple them just because

So which of the current measures is actually working and where.
Because in virtually every part of the UK, cases are on the increase.
 
So which of the current measures is actually working and where.
Because in virtually every part of the UK, cases are on the increase.

Well I’m taking where I live in Cheltenham as an example, ours are dropping, Gloucester is stable and cases are so low in both itd be mad for us to be shut down and need support money that could be used to better effect elsewhere
 
Well I’m taking where I live in Cheltenham as an example, ours are dropping, Gloucester is stable and cases are so low in both itd be mad for us to be shut down and need support money that could be used to better effect elsewhere

Other regions didn’t factor in the lag time. Not saying you’re wrong but would be interesting to see what would happen if just one area was omitted from national measures.
 
Well he did speed through the phases so everything would be open just before he stepped aside and unnecessarily jumped on NPHET on national tv 2 weeks ago making them out to be heartless animals who didnt care if people lost their jobs.
I dont see the difference between this week and that, are they more prepared for level 5 now? Are workers suddenly more secure?
They also inferred that NPHET leaked the recommendation so who leaked this development?
Its all unnecessary grandstanding.

His comments on NPHET were almost as annoying as the leaks, I agree. Playing the disagreements out in public helps nobody.

It’s funny that Varadkar is getting shit from you now for speeding through the phases too quickly in summer, on the same page that @Massive Spanner is also giving him shit for Ireland coming out of the first lockdown slower than most other EU countries. That’s why everyone making decisions in this shit show is in a lose lose scenario. Every move they make will inevitably piss a load of people off.
 
I still don’t see why schools stay open for level 5, especially when Halloween is a great chance to do a “circuit breaker”
 
I note that this lockdown is recommended to last six weeks, while the advice previously rejected by government was asking for four. Is it too simplistic to say the delay in acting on NPHET added two weeks?

I also wonder about the economic effect of lockdown being pushed closer to Christmas. This one will in effect end a month later than the prior recommended one.

Normally I'd be inclined to say there was nothing government could have done that wouldn't have resulted in criticism but given Leo was happy to criticise NPHET for not thinking through their recommendations, it's probably fair to ask how well thought-through the government's plan was too. After all, they were explicitly told level 3 wouldn't work and would just result in a delayed introduction of Level 5. As a wise man once said, chat shit get banged.
 
I still don’t see why schools stay open for level 5, especially when Halloween is a great chance to do a “circuit breaker”

Does seem like they’re missing a trick to not stick an extra week on the half term break.

I guess they’ve decided that the data shows schools are not a significant contributor and it’s in the interest of society to keep them open. They should be a bit more explicit about that second bit, mind you.

I actually think we need some sort of people’s forum. To decide what our priorities are going to be while we live with this fecking thing (as it looks like eradication is off the table). I’d like to see amateur sport a bit higher up the list of priorities than it is anyway. Not sure what the sacrificial lamb would be to allow this. Come down harder on companies insisting people still come to work in the office?
 
I still don’t see why schools stay open for level 5, especially when Halloween is a great chance to do a “circuit breaker”

This is what they said about schools a few days ago:

HSE Chief Clinical Officer Dr Colm Henry said there was a lot of anxiety when schools were reopening, but international evidence at the time suggested that communities were more likely to pose a risk to schools rather than the other way around.

This appears to have been borne out here too, with little evidence of onward transmission of Covid-19 in schools, and lower positivity rates in school communities than the general population.

Dr Henry said it appears widespread community transmission is a threat to schools but that schools are not a threat to communities.

Responding to a suggestion that schools could be a source of unexplained household outbreaks, Prof Nolan said that it was very unlikely.

"There's really no significant chance both from the statistics and public health investigation that there is a link between schools and that number of [unexplained] household outbreaks,"

Dr Glynn observed that while there has been an increase in the number of cases in school-aged children, the rate of increase in this group is lower than in the wider community.

So that's the reasoning behind it, I suppose.
 
Does seem like they’re missing a trick to not stick an extra week on the half term break.

I guess they’ve decided that the data shows schools are not a significant contributor and it’s in the interest of society to keep them open. They should be a bit more explicit about that second bit, mind you.

I actually think we need some sort of people’s forum. To decide what our priorities are going to be while we live with this fecking thing (as it looks like eradication is off the table). I’d like to see amateur sport a bit higher up the list of priorities than it is anyway.
I also want them to address the other elephant in the room, why are the airports not more stringent in checking people?

I mean they say we as an island can’t lock our borders but why can’t we make it harder for people to travel?
 
This is what they said about schools a few days ago:

HSE Chief Clinical Officer Dr Colm Henry said there was a lot of anxiety when schools were reopening, but international evidence at the time suggested that communities were more likely to pose a risk to schools rather than the other way around.

This appears to have been borne out here too, with little evidence of onward transmission of Covid-19 in schools, and lower positivity rates in school communities than the general population.

Dr Henry said it appears widespread community transmission is a threat to schools but that schools are not a threat to communities.

Responding to a suggestion that schools could be a source of unexplained household outbreaks, Prof Nolan said that it was very unlikely.

"There's really no significant chance both from the statistics and public health investigation that there is a link between schools and that number of [unexplained] household outbreaks,"

Dr Glynn observed that while there has been an increase in the number of cases in school-aged children, the rate of increase in this group is lower than in the wider community.

So that's the reasoning behind it, I suppose.
He wants to try standing in our school playground at pickup time
 
I note that this lockdown is recommended to last six weeks, while the advice previously rejected by government was asking for four. Is it too simplistic to say the delay in acting on NPHET added two weeks?

I also wonder about the economic effect of lockdown being pushed closer to Christmas. This one will in effect end a month later than the prior recommended one.

Normally I'd be inclined to say there was nothing government could have done that wouldn't have resulted in criticism but given Leo was happy to criticise NPHET for not thinking through their recommendations, it's probably fair to ask how well thought-through the government's plan was too. After all, they were explicitly told level 3 wouldn't work and would just result in a delayed introduction of Level 5. As a wise man once said, chat shit get banged.

I don’t think the previous level 5 recommendation came with a time frame?

Mind you, the government made a big deal at the time about the problems of going into level 5 without a clear strategy for what happens if the “circuit breaker” doesn’t turn things round. So it’s a bit fecking rich to jump to level 5 now, while still no clearer on what the exit strategy looks like.
 
I don’t think the previous level 5 recommendation came with a time frame?

Mind you, the government made a big deal at the time about the problems of going into level 5 without a clear strategy for what happens if the “circuit breaker” doesn’t turn things round. So it’s a bit fecking rich to jump to level 5 now, while still no clearer on what the exit strategy looks like.
The previous one actually came with a recommendation of 4 weeks
 
I don’t think the previous level 5 recommendation came with a time frame?

Mind you, the government made a big deal at the time about the problems of going into level 5 without a clear strategy for what happens if the “circuit breaker” doesn’t turn things round. So it’s a bit fecking rich to jump to level 5 now, while still no clearer on what the exit strategy looks like.

Mentions a four week time period here anyway.

Tbf at this point it seems a lockdown was inevitable and it might be that a four week one would have screwed enough businesses that another two weeks ultimately won't make much difference anyway. I'm just hoping we can get through Christmas at a relatively low level.
 
Mentions a four week time period here anyway.

Tbf at this point it seems a lockdown was inevitable and it might be that a four week one would have screwed enough businesses that another two weeks ultimately won't make much difference anyway. I'm just hoping we can get through Christmas at a relatively low level.

Looks like that’s the plan.


In a letter to the Minister for Health following their last meeting on Thursday, the National Public Health Emergency Team warned the Government that a six-week period was the minimum needed to bring the number of new cases every day to an acceptable level.

Its modelling suggested that a three-week lockdown, reducing the R rate to 0.5, would reduce daily new cases to 250-300. Releasing the lockdown would "very likely lead to rapid re-escalation in disease trajectory, such that, approx 1,000 cases a day expected by mid-December".

However, the letter said that reducing the R rate to 0.5 for six weeks would reduce the daily case numbers to 50-100 a day meaning that once restrictions were lifted, cases would not be going above 300 a day until early January.

Also.

In recognition of the impact on children and young people of restrictions, non-contact training can continue for school-aged children, outdoors, in pods of 15. All other training activities should be individual only.

feck yeah.
 
Also, I think I would feel a lot better about this whole thing if they also introduced harsher punishments and clampdowns on the anti-mask protestor types. I am absolutely not above small, vindictive pleasures at this point.