China Coronavirus

[Milltown Row2]

if the government put a lockdown over xmas and people adhered to it, you would be on here saying their prediction were wrong and we should have opened up..

i am not sure most people are adhering to the rules and my in laws are case in point. recent close contacts, the person who has covid didnt isolation or stay home from work when told too but did visit the in laws 3 times before testing positive for covid. He told them he was a close contact on the 1st occasion but they still let him into the house after that.

his wife has gone food shopping with the kids since her husband tested positive. An in law went to the local shop yesterday instead of isolating as she got a negative anti body test, didnt have pcr test as no symtoms as yet, doesnt think she done anything wrong.... i imagine they arent the only people acting like this... i read of people stopping for coffee on the way to tests recently too

It's so easy to see who has and who hasn't been abiding by the restrictions. The amount of outbreaks in families is wild. You can see a mile away that they're contributing to their own little pandemic.

In relation to a few other points, It's fair to say the DUP have been absolutely terrible on this including sending MPs to London to vote against the recent ENGLISH restrictions. It would be laughable if it wasn't so serious and I would have a huge bout of schadenfreude if one of them was to test positive and fall ill. But it is wrong to exonerate others. The health service in NI is a complete mess. It's so badly run that if those people were in charge of private companies they'd be sacked or the business would be bankrupt. This is all on top of years of nonsense by both SF and the DUP. SF walking out on the executive for ILA which I still haven't seen. SF also showed complete disregard for the regulations in the summer and no matter what they say it knocked public confidence and strained relations in the executive when what was required was cohesion and unity.

Trailer I used to disagree with pretty much everything you said but now I find myself agreeing lol. I would fully agree with this. The DUP are not 100% to blame but they should take a lot of flak. Sammy Wilson is a real life Angelo. Jim Shannon is clearly a basket case. They just don't help themselves. The SF funeral thing had a big impact too. At least they have stopped now. The DUP still traveling to London is typical of them You would be shocked if it wasn't them.

The stormont executive is actually beyond dysfunctional now. It is actually almost of negative value. The DUP would actually cost lives just to spite Dublin I think. They are beyond ridiculous now.

So for a lot of people there has been no lockdown and they haven't adhered to the rules and the rule enforcers have not really clamped down on the ones breaking lockdown because there is no real direction from either governments.

So how can we view the lockdowns as being a failure if there is a lot of twats walking around not giving a fcuk and saying "I'm alright jack cause I'm under 40 and won't die from this"..

The first lockdown brought about a massive drop in cases to the point of zero, and no deaths because people rowed in behind the advice, then we had the covid deniers and social media telling everyone that it was ok to head out and do what you want as the chances of catching is slim and no illness.

There are so many at fault, and no doubt if I assess myself I could have done better, but due to personal family reasons, I was the main career for dad during his appointments I was in a difficult position.

Big transmissions in hospitals: How did that happen? did someone catch Covid from someone else and brought it into hospital? Or did it just manifest in the hospital?

Growth of the virus in the hospitals and the nursing homes at the start was due to no PPE or poor PPE, also poor sanitizing standards in these areas. Not using the nightinggale hospitals was wrong also regardless of the numbers no covid cases should have entered any hospital bar the the Nightinggale ones.

But for some reason, its still happening in hospitals, why?

Opening up will only make the numbers bigger again, as its the same people who'll transmit this on, those who don't follow the rules, because it doesn't apply to their demographic, again, I'm alright f**k them.

[Angelo]

if the government put a lockdown over xmas and people adhered to it, you would be on here saying their prediction were wrong and we should have opened up..

i am not sure most people are adhering to the rules and my in laws are case in point. recent close contacts, the person who has covid didnt isolation or stay home from work when told too but did visit the in laws 3 times before testing positive for covid. He told them he was a close contact on the 1st occasion but they still let him into the house after that.

his wife has gone food shopping with the kids since her husband tested positive. An in law went to the local shop yesterday instead of isolating as she got a negative anti body test, didnt have pcr test as no symtoms as yet, doesnt think she done anything wrong.... i imagine they arent the only people acting like this... i read of people stopping for coffee on the way to tests recently too

It's so easy to see who has and who hasn't been abiding by the restrictions. The amount of outbreaks in families is wild. You can see a mile away that they're contributing to their own little pandemic.

In relation to a few other points, It's fair to say the DUP have been absolutely terrible on this including sending MPs to London to vote against the recent ENGLISH restrictions. It would be laughable if it wasn't so serious and I would have a huge bout of schadenfreude if one of them was to test positive and fall ill. But it is wrong to exonerate others. The health service in NI is a complete mess. It's so badly run that if those people were in charge of private companies they'd be sacked or the business would be bankrupt. This is all on top of years of nonsense by both SF and the DUP. SF walking out on the executive for ILA which I still haven't seen. SF also showed complete disregard for the regulations in the summer and no matter what they say it knocked public confidence and strained relations in the executive when what was required was cohesion and unity.

Trailer I used to disagree with pretty much everything you said but now I find myself agreeing lol. I would fully agree with this. The DUP are not 100% to blame but they should take a lot of flak. Sammy Wilson is a real life Angelo. Jim Shannon is clearly a basket case. They just don't help themselves. The SF funeral thing had a big impact too. At least they have stopped now. The DUP still traveling to London is typical of them You would be shocked if it wasn't them.

The stormont executive is actually beyond dysfunctional now. It is actually almost of negative value. The DUP would actually cost lives just to spite Dublin I think. They are beyond ridiculous now.

So for a lot of people there has been no lockdown and they haven't adhered to the rules and the rule enforcers have not really clamped down on the ones breaking lockdown because there is no real direction from either governments.

So how can we view the lockdowns as being a failure if there is a lot of twats walking around not giving a fcuk and saying "I'm alright jack cause I'm under 40 and won't die from this"..

The first lockdown brought about a massive drop in cases to the point of zero, and no deaths because people rowed in behind the advice, then we had the covid deniers and social media telling everyone that it was ok to head out and do what you want as the chances of catching is slim and no illness.

There are so many at fault, and no doubt if I assess myself I could have done better, but due to personal family reasons, I was the main career for dad during his appointments I was in a difficult position.

Big transmissions in hospitals: How did that happen? did someone catch Covid from someone else and brought it into hospital? Or did it just manifest in the hospital?

Growth of the virus in the hospitals and the nursing homes at the start was due to no PPE or poor PPE, also poor sanitizing standards in these areas. Not using the nightinggale hospitals was wrong also regardless of the numbers no covid cases should have entered any hospital bar the the Nightinggale ones.

But for some reason, its still happening in hospitals, why?

Opening up will only make the numbers bigger again, as its the same people who'll transmit this on, those who don't follow the rules, because it doesn't apply to their demographic, again, I'm alright f**k them.

I'll spell it out for you Einstein......

They are a failure because quite clearly they haven't worked. They have failed to bring down cases, they are not practical and they are not sustainable and cause far more damage than they stop. You've just said why they don't work while saying that we can't view them as a failure. You managed to contradict yourself in one statement.

[Milltown Row2]

24 (Twenty Four) deaths in the North today.

Can you imagine if that was 24 deaths due to traffic accidents? The country would put in measure to stop that, I mean If you had 24 people dying from road traffic accidents the government would put in pace a whole draft of measures to ensure that these accidents would be reduced.

Anyway, putting strict measures in place wouldn't change that stat, MOT, seatbelts, speed restrictions, drink driving penalties, using your phone. None of these have brought about safer driving and less deaths on the roads

[Angelo]

24 (Twenty Four) deaths in the North today.

Can you imagine if that was 24 deaths due to traffic accidents? The country would put in measure to stop that, I mean If you had 24 people dying from road traffic accidents the government would put in pace a whole draft of measures to ensure that these accidents would be reduced.

Anyway, putting strict measures in place wouldn't change that stat, MOT, seatbelts, speed restrictions, drink driving penalties, using your phone. None of these have brought about safer driving and less deaths on the roads

They are half measures.

Strict measures would be chipping cars to max speeds of 20mp, multiplying the number of checkpoints to 50 times the level, upping the driver age to 25 etc, etc.

Half measures for road deaths, draconian measures for Covid.

[imtommygunn]

if the government put a lockdown over xmas and people adhered to it, you would be on here saying their prediction were wrong and we should have opened up..

i am not sure most people are adhering to the rules and my in laws are case in point. recent close contacts, the person who has covid didnt isolation or stay home from work when told too but did visit the in laws 3 times before testing positive for covid. He told them he was a close contact on the 1st occasion but they still let him into the house after that.

his wife has gone food shopping with the kids since her husband tested positive. An in law went to the local shop yesterday instead of isolating as she got a negative anti body test, didnt have pcr test as no symtoms as yet, doesnt think she done anything wrong.... i imagine they arent the only people acting like this... i read of people stopping for coffee on the way to tests recently too

It's so easy to see who has and who hasn't been abiding by the restrictions. The amount of outbreaks in families is wild. You can see a mile away that they're contributing to their own little pandemic.

In relation to a few other points, It's fair to say the DUP have been absolutely terrible on this including sending MPs to London to vote against the recent ENGLISH restrictions. It would be laughable if it wasn't so serious and I would have a huge bout of schadenfreude if one of them was to test positive and fall ill. But it is wrong to exonerate others. The health service in NI is a complete mess. It's so badly run that if those people were in charge of private companies they'd be sacked or the business would be bankrupt. This is all on top of years of nonsense by both SF and the DUP. SF walking out on the executive for ILA which I still haven't seen. SF also showed complete disregard for the regulations in the summer and no matter what they say it knocked public confidence and strained relations in the executive when what was required was cohesion and unity.

Trailer I used to disagree with pretty much everything you said but now I find myself agreeing lol. I would fully agree with this. The DUP are not 100% to blame but they should take a lot of flak. Sammy Wilson is a real life Angelo. Jim Shannon is clearly a basket case. They just don't help themselves. The SF funeral thing had a big impact too. At least they have stopped now. The DUP still traveling to London is typical of them You would be shocked if it wasn't them.

The stormont executive is actually beyond dysfunctional now. It is actually almost of negative value. The DUP would actually cost lives just to spite Dublin I think. They are beyond ridiculous now.

So for a lot of people there has been no lockdown and they haven't adhered to the rules and the rule enforcers have not really clamped down on the ones breaking lockdown because there is no real direction from either governments.

So how can we view the lockdowns as being a failure if there is a lot of twats walking around not giving a fcuk and saying "I'm alright jack cause I'm under 40 and won't die from this"..

The first lockdown brought about a massive drop in cases to the point of zero, and no deaths because people rowed in behind the advice, then we had the covid deniers and social media telling everyone that it was ok to head out and do what you want as the chances of catching is slim and no illness.

There are so many at fault, and no doubt if I assess myself I could have done better, but due to personal family reasons, I was the main career for dad during his appointments I was in a difficult position.

Big transmissions in hospitals: How did that happen? did someone catch Covid from someone else and brought it into hospital? Or did it just manifest in the hospital?

Growth of the virus in the hospitals and the nursing homes at the start was due to no PPE or poor PPE, also poor sanitizing standards in these areas. Not using the nightinggale hospitals was wrong also regardless of the numbers no covid cases should have entered any hospital bar the the Nightinggale ones.

But for some reason, its still happening in hospitals, why?

Opening up will only make the numbers bigger again, as its the same people who'll transmit this on, those who don't follow the rules, because it doesn't apply to their demographic, again, I'm alright f**k them.

I heard some background noise there

The nightingale hospitals IMO were more a PR thing. You can see that the numbers of ICU beds jump up and down so the capacity can be increased / reduced.

I think a large majority of people could have done better but I do think the government up here have been an utter failure on it too.

Opening up is a massive quandry now especially with schools. I suspect we're in this until March at least.(I suspect north and south).

There were 50 on ventilators the other day. It sounds pretty much like you'e 50:50 at best when you're on those. Sadly there will be those kind of numbers for this week anyway I imagine.

[93-DY-SAM]

While some posters believe covid is no threat to anyone under 40 the numbers who are currently in hospital would show this clearly isn't the case.

It is statistically proven - 3 deaths from 46k cases in the north.

A 0.0064% fatality rate.

So quit pedalling misinformation.

Angelo, you continually miss, or choose to ignore the point.
Deaths are not the only statistic to worry about.
Hospitals are inundated with Covid patients. That statistics show that in this wave the age profile of hospital admissions is much lower than it previously was.
Not all hospital admissions will die now, or in the previous wave. But they still need hospital care and in many cases intensive care.
Lockdown is simply a tool to use when things are at their worst to relieve the pressure on the hospital systems but will inevitably also save lives.
I haven't seen anyone say it will stop the virus 100%.
I'd like to know what your definition of "works" is? You have a very blinkered one sided view on the need for lockdowns that doesn't seem to acknowledge at all the need to protect the hospitals as well as the lives of those vulnerable people in society.

This is spot on. Far too many people are focused on the death rate or did they die of covid or with it as if that justifies something. There is also a rush to compare this with other illnesses when it isn't like any of these. There is an absolute failure to understand that hospitals are overflowing with COVID patients who require extensive medical treatment and because of this valuable bed space that is needed for all the other day to day stuff the health service is not there. Lockdowns would not be needed if people heeded the advice to social distance, wash their hands and wear a mask. These things won't make COVID go away but they have enough of an impact to ensure the majority of people can get on with their day to day business to a manageable level. It also means hospitals are not overrun and can continue to operate to an effective degree dealing with all the normal things they do.

But no, there are far too many people who know better and adopt the feck everyone else, I'm alright attitude. It is because of this we need lockdowns. No sane person or government wants to be doing these things but they are a last resort to prevent hospitals from being completely overwhelmed. Doctors and nurses are already fearing court cases and investigations if they have to make difficult decisions to save one person over another. It's a vicious circle but people have the ability to drastically change things. They should have enough wit at this stage to do the right thing.

[Angelo]

While some posters believe covid is no threat to anyone under 40 the numbers who are currently in hospital would show this clearly isn't the case.

It is statistically proven - 3 deaths from 46k cases in the north.

A 0.0064% fatality rate.

So quit pedalling misinformation.

Angelo, you continually miss, or choose to ignore the point.
Deaths are not the only statistic to worry about.
Hospitals are inundated with Covid patients. That statistics show that in this wave the age profile of hospital admissions is much lower than it previously was.
Not all hospital admissions will die now, or in the previous wave. But they still need hospital care and in many cases intensive care.
Lockdown is simply a tool to use when things are at their worst to relieve the pressure on the hospital systems but will inevitably also save lives.
I haven't seen anyone say it will stop the virus 100%.
I'd like to know what your definition of "works" is? You have a very blinkered one sided view on the need for lockdowns that doesn't seem to acknowledge at all the need to protect the hospitals as well as the lives of those vulnerable people in society.

This is spot on. Far too many people are focused on the death rate or did they die of covid or with it as if that justifies something. There is also a rush to compare this with other illnesses when it isn't like any of these. There is an absolute failure to understand that hospitals are overflowing with COVID patients who require extensive medical treatment and because of this valuable bed space that is needed for all the other day to day stuff the health service is not there. Lockdowns would not be needed if people heeded the advice to social distance, wash their hands and wear a mask. These things won't make COVID go away but they have enough of an impact to ensure the majority of people can get on with their day to day business to a manageable level. It also means hospitals are not overrun and can continue to operate to an effective degree dealing with all the normal things they do.

But no, there are far too many people who know better and adopt the feck everyone else, I'm alright attitude. It is because of this we need lockdowns. No sane person or government wants to be doing these things but they are a last resort to prevent hospitals from being completely overwhelmed. Doctors and nurses are already fearing court cases and investigations if they have to make difficult decisions to save one person over another. It's a vicious circle but people have the ability to drastically change things. They should have enough wit at this stage to do the right thing.

Yet we only gave a shit about this when Covid came around?

It's almost like we don't have a very contagious virus that comes around every winter, puts the health service under enormous strain and kills people.

When it was called flu, it was grand for people to die.

This is a health service failing.

You can ignore the data all you want but Covid is not a threat to u40s. It is a threat to the elderly and vulnerable and they have been failed by the state due to an understaffed and underresourced health system.

The education of the children, the physical and mental wellbeing of the island, the economy, employment, vulnerable groupings who need support services have all been cast aside, sacrificed - for what end I ask?

[dublin7]

24 (Twenty Four) deaths in the North today.

Can you imagine if that was 24 deaths due to traffic accidents? The country would put in measure to stop that, I mean If you had 24 people dying from road traffic accidents the government would put in pace a whole draft of measures to ensure that these accidents would be reduced.

Anyway, putting strict measures in place wouldn't change that stat, MOT, seatbelts, speed restrictions, drink driving penalties, using your phone. None of these have brought about safer driving and less deaths on the roads

I know it's off topic but even with the lockdowns road deaths in Ireland were higher in 2020 than they were in 2019. That's a strange and worrying statistic.

Getting close to the 100K mark for confirmed cases in NI now as well. Just gone past 96K and at the current rate the 100K mark will be reached by the weekend. That's a depressing and sobering landmark.

 

[general_lee]

The education of the children, the physical and mental wellbeing of the island, the economy, employment, vulnerable groupings who need support services have all been cast aside, sacrificed - for what end I ask?

I thought it was pretty fundamental - the hospitals will not cope if we pretend covid doesn't exist and let things continue as normal. They can barely cope as it is and it's almost a year since the outbreak. I support a return to normality as soon as possible but covid deniers really need to catch themselves on

[Angelo]

The education of the children, the physical and mental wellbeing of the island, the economy, employment, vulnerable groupings who need support services have all been cast aside, sacrificed - for what end I ask?

I thought it was pretty fundamental - the hospitals will not cope if we pretend covid doesn't exist and let things continue as normal. They can barely cope as it is and it's almost a year since the outbreak. I support a return to normality as soon as possible but covid deniers really need to catch themselves on

I'm not a Covid denier. I think Lockdowns cause far more harm than good.

Every winter hospitals are under pressure with seasonal flu, every winter we are happy to enjoy our freedoms and live our lives with deaths spiking and flu killing off the elderly and vulnerable so I ask why did we start caring about Covid.

We have 4k deaths from cancer every year - we know the harm the likes of fast food, smoking and alcohol have with cancer, heart disease and other health problems. Are we serious about fighting cancer or heart disease or do we just not care as much as we do about Covid? If we are then why do we only take half measures? We all know young people who died in road traffic accidents, mother and fathers who bury their children as a result on this but have we ever taken draconian measures on this?

What is so special about Covid that we take this action on this cause of death when we could do so much more for other things that kill people too.

[dublin7]

The education of the children, the physical and mental wellbeing of the island, the economy, employment, vulnerable groupings who need support services have all been cast aside, sacrificed - for what end I ask?

I thought it was pretty fundamental - the hospitals will not cope if we pretend covid doesn't exist and let things continue as normal. They can barely cope as it is and it's almost a year since the outbreak. I support a return to normality as soon as possible but covid deniers really need to catch themselves on

I'm not a Covid denier. I think Lockdowns cause far more harm than good.

Every winter hospitals are under pressure with seasonal flu, every winter we are happy to enjoy our freedoms and live our lives with deaths spiking and flu killing off the elderly and vulnerable so I ask why did we start caring about Covid.

We have 4k deaths from cancer every year - we know the harm the likes of fast food, smoking and alcohol have with cancer, heart disease and other health problems. Are we serious about fighting cancer or heart disease or do we just not care as much as we do about Covid? If we are then why do we only take half measures? We all know young people who died in road traffic accidents, mother and fathers who bury their children as a result on this but have we ever taken draconian measures on this?

What is so special about Covid that we take this action on this cause of death when we could do so much more for other things that kill people too.

You can choose to drink alcohol. If you drink excess amounts alcohol it will only damage your body and nobody else. If individuals (especially young people) refuse to follow lockdown rules, wear masks etc and ignore all medical advice they can pick up covid and pass it on to an infinite amount of individuals and cause an infinite amount of deaths for innocent people.

Why should families have to bury other family members due to someone else's selfishness and disregard for human life?

[Angelo]

The education of the children, the physical and mental wellbeing of the island, the economy, employment, vulnerable groupings who need support services have all been cast aside, sacrificed - for what end I ask?

I thought it was pretty fundamental - the hospitals will not cope if we pretend covid doesn't exist and let things continue as normal. They can barely cope as it is and it's almost a year since the outbreak. I support a return to normality as soon as possible but covid deniers really need to catch themselves on

I'm not a Covid denier. I think Lockdowns cause far more harm than good.

Every winter hospitals are under pressure with seasonal flu, every winter we are happy to enjoy our freedoms and live our lives with deaths spiking and flu killing off the elderly and vulnerable so I ask why did we start caring about Covid.

We have 4k deaths from cancer every year - we know the harm the likes of fast food, smoking and alcohol have with cancer, heart disease and other health problems. Are we serious about fighting cancer or heart disease or do we just not care as much as we do about Covid? If we are then why do we only take half measures? We all know young people who died in road traffic accidents, mother and fathers who bury their children as a result on this but have we ever taken draconian measures on this?

What is so special about Covid that we take this action on this cause of death when we could do so much more for other things that kill people too.

You can choose to drink alcohol. If you drink excess amounts alcohol it will only damage your body and nobody else. If individuals (especially young people) refuse to follow lockdown rules, were masks and ignore all medical advice they can pick up covid and pass it on to an infinite amount of individuals and cause an infinite amount of deaths for innocent people.

Why should families have to bury other family members due to someone else's selfishness and disregard for human life?

But why should you have a choice to drink alcohol?

Alcoholics clog up the health system, they take up hospital beds, they take up state resources that could be going to more worthwhile causes, they contribute to violent disorders late at night.

So why do we accept alcohol and its many damaging impacts on society, the same with smoking, the same with fast food, the same with cars on the roads?

We take half measures on all these things but go draconian on Covid.

You could ask why do people have to choose to bury their loved ones because a selfish man hopped in behind a wheel after drinking a shitload of alcohol. It's very, very easy for me to show up your hypocrisies.

[Milltown Row2]

if the government put a lockdown over xmas and people adhered to it, you would be on here saying their prediction were wrong and we should have opened up..

i am not sure most people are adhering to the rules and my in laws are case in point. recent close contacts, the person who has covid didnt isolation or stay home from work when told too but did visit the in laws 3 times before testing positive for covid. He told them he was a close contact on the 1st occasion but they still let him into the house after that.

his wife has gone food shopping with the kids since her husband tested positive. An in law went to the local shop yesterday instead of isolating as she got a negative anti body test, didnt have pcr test as no symtoms as yet, doesnt think she done anything wrong.... i imagine they arent the only people acting like this... i read of people stopping for coffee on the way to tests recently too

It's so easy to see who has and who hasn't been abiding by the restrictions. The amount of outbreaks in families is wild. You can see a mile away that they're contributing to their own little pandemic.

In relation to a few other points, It's fair to say the DUP have been absolutely terrible on this including sending MPs to London to vote against the recent ENGLISH restrictions. It would be laughable if it wasn't so serious and I would have a huge bout of schadenfreude if one of them was to test positive and fall ill. But it is wrong to exonerate others. The health service in NI is a complete mess. It's so badly run that if those people were in charge of private companies they'd be sacked or the business would be bankrupt. This is all on top of years of nonsense by both SF and the DUP. SF walking out on the executive for ILA which I still haven't seen. SF also showed complete disregard for the regulations in the summer and no matter what they say it knocked public confidence and strained relations in the executive when what was required was cohesion and unity.

Trailer I used to disagree with pretty much everything you said but now I find myself agreeing lol. I would fully agree with this. The DUP are not 100% to blame but they should take a lot of flak. Sammy Wilson is a real life Angelo. Jim Shannon is clearly a basket case. They just don't help themselves. The SF funeral thing had a big impact too. At least they have stopped now. The DUP still traveling to London is typical of them You would be shocked if it wasn't them.

The stormont executive is actually beyond dysfunctional now. It is actually almost of negative value. The DUP would actually cost lives just to spite Dublin I think. They are beyond ridiculous now.

So for a lot of people there has been no lockdown and they haven't adhered to the rules and the rule enforcers have not really clamped down on the ones breaking lockdown because there is no real direction from either governments.

So how can we view the lockdowns as being a failure if there is a lot of twats walking around not giving a fcuk and saying "I'm alright jack cause I'm under 40 and won't die from this"..

The first lockdown brought about a massive drop in cases to the point of zero, and no deaths because people rowed in behind the advice, then we had the covid deniers and social media telling everyone that it was ok to head out and do what you want as the chances of catching is slim and no illness.

There are so many at fault, and no doubt if I assess myself I could have done better, but due to personal family reasons, I was the main career for dad during his appointments I was in a difficult position.

Big transmissions in hospitals: How did that happen? did someone catch Covid from someone else and brought it into hospital? Or did it just manifest in the hospital?

Growth of the virus in the hospitals and the nursing homes at the start was due to no PPE or poor PPE, also poor sanitizing standards in these areas. Not using the nightinggale hospitals was wrong also regardless of the numbers no covid cases should have entered any hospital bar the the Nightinggale ones.

But for some reason, its still happening in hospitals, why?

Opening up will only make the numbers bigger again, as its the same people who'll transmit this on, those who don't follow the rules, because it doesn't apply to their demographic, again, I'm alright f**k them.

I heard some background noise there

The nightingale hospitals IMO were more a PR thing. You can see that the numbers of ICU beds jump up and down so the capacity can be increased / reduced.

I think a large majority of people could have done better but I do think the government up here have been an utter failure on it too.

Opening up is a massive quandry now especially with schools. I suspect we're in this until March at least.(I suspect north and south).

There were 50 on ventilators the other day. It sounds pretty much like you'e 50:50 at best when you're on those. Sadly there will be those kind of numbers for this week anyway I imagine.

I've turned the background noise off, its easier than reading through a whole lot of shite!

[dublin7]

The education of the children, the physical and mental wellbeing of the island, the economy, employment, vulnerable groupings who need support services have all been cast aside, sacrificed - for what end I ask?

I thought it was pretty fundamental - the hospitals will not cope if we pretend covid doesn't exist and let things continue as normal. They can barely cope as it is and it's almost a year since the outbreak. I support a return to normality as soon as possible but covid deniers really need to catch themselves on

I'm not a Covid denier. I think Lockdowns cause far more harm than good.

Every winter hospitals are under pressure with seasonal flu, every winter we are happy to enjoy our freedoms and live our lives with deaths spiking and flu killing off the elderly and vulnerable so I ask why did we start caring about Covid.

We have 4k deaths from cancer every year - we know the harm the likes of fast food, smoking and alcohol have with cancer, heart disease and other health problems. Are we serious about fighting cancer or heart disease or do we just not care as much as we do about Covid? If we are then why do we only take half measures? We all know young people who died in road traffic accidents, mother and fathers who bury their children as a result on this but have we ever taken draconian measures on this?

What is so special about Covid that we take this action on this cause of death when we could do so much more for other things that kill people too.

You can choose to drink alcohol. If you drink excess amounts alcohol it will only damage your body and nobody else. If individuals (especially young people) refuse to follow lockdown rules, were masks and ignore all medical advice they can pick up covid and pass it on to an infinite amount of individuals and cause an infinite amount of deaths for innocent people.

Why should families have to bury other family members due to someone else's selfishness and disregard for human life?

But why should you have a choice to drink alcohol?

Alcoholics clog up the health system, they take up hospital beds, they take up state resources that could be going to more worthwhile causes, they contribute to violent disorders late at night.

So why do we accept alcohol and its many damaging impacts on society, the same with smoking, the same with fast food, the same with cars on the roads?

We take half measures on all these things but go draconian on Covid.

You could ask why do people have to choose to bury their loved ones because a selfish man hopped in behind a wheel after drinking a shitload of alcohol. It's very, very easy for me to show up your hypocrisies.

Do alcoholics clog up the health system? How many alcoholics are in hospital beds in NI right now?Please provide the numbers to back up this claim.

Could you also please use up to date facts. You keep claiming 3 deaths out of 46k cases of covid, but case numbers are up to 96k now so you're just pedaling misinformation

[93-DY-SAM]

The education of the children, the physical and mental wellbeing of the island, the economy, employment, vulnerable groupings who need support services have all been cast aside, sacrificed - for what end I ask?

I thought it was pretty fundamental - the hospitals will not cope if we pretend covid doesn't exist and let things continue as normal. They can barely cope as it is and it's almost a year since the outbreak. I support a return to normality as soon as possible but covid deniers really need to catch themselves on

I'm not a Covid denier. I think Lockdowns cause far more harm than good.

Every winter hospitals are under pressure with seasonal flu, every winter we are happy to enjoy our freedoms and live our lives with deaths spiking and flu killing off the elderly and vulnerable so I ask why did we start caring about Covid.

We have 4k deaths from cancer every year - we know the harm the likes of fast food, smoking and alcohol have with cancer, heart disease and other health problems. Are we serious about fighting cancer or heart disease or do we just not care as much as we do about Covid? If we are then why do we only take half measures? We all know young people who died in road traffic accidents, mother and fathers who bury their children as a result on this but have we ever taken draconian measures on this?

What is so special about Covid that we take this action on this cause of death when we could do so much more for other things that kill people too.

You can choose to drink alcohol. If you drink excess amounts alcohol it will only damage your body and nobody else. If individuals (especially young people) refuse to follow lockdown rules, were masks and ignore all medical advice they can pick up covid and pass it on to an infinite amount of individuals and cause an infinite amount of deaths for innocent people.

Why should families have to bury other family members due to someone else's selfishness and disregard for human life?

But why should you have a choice to drink alcohol?

Alcoholics clog up the health system, they take up hospital beds, they take up state resources that could be going to more worthwhile causes, they contribute to violent disorders late at night.

So why do we accept alcohol and its many damaging impacts on society, the same with smoking, the same with fast food, the same with cars on the roads?

We take half measures on all these things but go draconian on Covid.

You could ask why do people have to choose to bury their loved ones because a selfish man hopped in behind a wheel after drinking a shitload of alcohol. It's very, very easy for me to show up your hypocrisies.

It isn't a hard concept for anyone to understand. While all these things are problems which undoubtedly place extra resource on the health service none of them on there own or even combined are pushing the health service over the brink to where it is today. Hospitals are under a different league of pressure to the normal winter season. You can dress it up in whatever way suits your narrative but the simple fact is we have never had anything on this scale before.