Sinn Fein? They have gone away, you know.

[balladmaker]

Whatever about what Michelle O'Neill did yesterday John O'Dowd has blown it out of the water. . . what in God's name is he hoping to achieve with a statement like that when we need politicians working together??

So badly advised I mean even the wording of the statement jesus!

I actually thought it was a parody account when I saw the tweet

Why? Do you disagree with what he said?  Spelling aside, I think he hit the nail on the head.

[marty34]

I'm not a big fan of O'Dowd or Sinn Fein in general, but it's hard to disagree with what he is saying. The British government seem to be content to have what will amount to a cull of the elderly and the sick. For all their faults, Leo and Co. are trying to save lives here in the south.
We need a joint approach on this Island, but unionists in the north just cannot see the bigger picture.

Fair play to O'Dowd.  Language was strong but hopefully it focuses the minds.

Schools should just uni-laterally close.

I understand and largely agree about closing schools but it needs to be appreciated how big a step it is and a number of ducks need put in a row first. They will close soon but it appears that it will last for a number of months. There are GCSE & A Levels to be addressed. These things determine university places etc. There will be some shitstorm to come when "our Ciara should've got into her course but they made a balls of it..." etc. Inquiry after inquiry and at the end of the day the gov will get it in the neck.
Now, is this more important than people's lives? No. Are they guessing how much time they can buy to allow them to have a look at solutions to problems such as above? Probably.

They'll go on predicted grades I say.

This will not, by all accounts, be over in a few weeks. In a few weeks, it'll be Easter.

[AFM]

I'm not a big fan of O'Dowd or Sinn Fein in general, but it's hard to disagree with what he is saying. The British government seem to be content to have what will amount to a cull of the elderly and the sick. For all their faults, Leo and Co. are trying to save lives here in the south.
We need a joint approach on this Island, but unionists in the north just cannot see the bigger picture.

Fair play to O'Dowd.  Language was strong but hopefully it focuses the minds.

Schools should just uni-laterally close.

I understand and largely agree about closing schools but it needs to be appreciated how big a step it is and a number of ducks need put in a row first. They will close soon but it appears that it will last for a number of months. There are GCSE & A Levels to be addressed. These things determine university places etc. There will be some shitstorm to come when "our Ciara should've got into her course but they made a balls of it..." etc. Inquiry after inquiry and at the end of the day the gov will get it in the neck.
Now, is this more important than people's lives? No. Are they guessing how much time they can buy to allow them to have a look at solutions to problems such as above? Probably.

They'll go on predicted grades I say.

This will not, by all accounts, be over in a few weeks. In a few weeks, it'll be Easter.

They wont go on predictive grades, there is only about 4 weeks teaching left for GCSE students, Google classroom self study, exams in large hall well spread out.

[ardtole]

I think the problems surrounding gcses and a levels will turn out to insignificant in the greater schemes of things. And I say that as a parent who has a child doing their leaving cert this June.

Again I hope I am overreacting but I think it's much safer to err on the side of caution than face the terror of a possible worst case scenario.

Worst comes to the worst the kids can go to university a year later, their grandparents might see them graduate, keep following Boris's approach (225 uk scientists writing to him today concerned about his interpretation of medical advice) and a lot of their grandparents may not see Christmas.

[Itchy]

I'm not a big fan of O'Dowd or Sinn Fein in general, but it's hard to disagree with what he is saying. The British government seem to be content to have what will amount to a cull of the elderly and the sick. For all their faults, Leo and Co. are trying to save lives here in the south.
We need a joint approach on this Island, but unionists in the north just cannot see the bigger picture.

https://www.itv.com/news/2020-03-14/elderly-to-be-quarantined-for-four-months-in-wartime-style-mobilisation-to-combat-coronavirus/

Could be/within the next 20 days. They could also be dead within the next 20 days.

Or Boris's Herd Immunity might actually work and I might win an All Ireland with Down before I'm 60.

It may work, it may not. Time will tell. They have a strategy they think will minimise the impact. Do you have a strategy or plan for winning that 6th one.

Define work. Is say 50k dead old people and an immune remaining population to be defined as a good outcome?

You basing your figures on a crystal ball? I'd have more faith in world leading scientists than the Shinners, Facebookers and Tweeters. We'll all know the outcome in about 6 months. If it "works" the likes of you will say the numbers were suppressed and it it's fake news and if it doesn't then the Brits will be in the shit but Boris will still have a few years to go.

You dont need scientists to read my question above. I'll ask again define "if it works", how many dead people in the UK = success for you and these great scientists that Boris has (and evidently no one else in the world has). Nothing to do with Sinn Fein/Dup, Catholic/Protestant, Unionist/Nationalist. The scientists will tell you the virus doesnt care about your politics.

Here are some factual numbers

12m people over 65 in the UK
Lets assume 50% of them get this virus (that is the estimate I've seen from experts if you do nothing) but it seems estimates on this vary hugely as experts are not sure. However, I havent seen or read anyone quote a very low number.
Mortality rate is 0.8% in countries when you can treat people it has risen to 6% when the health service crashes to overloading. The WHO estimate it at 3.4% overall. But for the craic lets use the lower number.

So 12m people x 50% x 0.08 = 480,000
Or 12m people x 10% x 0.08 = 96,000

All big numbers - Is that success?

The plan in the rest of the world is to get the 50% way down by social distancing , closing schools etc. To stretch this out so that hospitals can cope and mortality rates are at 0.8% and not at 6%. To hold out until there is a vaccine and we stop 50% of the world catching it.

The UK is the only country with the "herd immunity" approach - unproven and not supported by the WHO.


Mortality Rate - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/13/how-many-will-die-of-coronavirus-in-the-uk-a-closer-look-at-the-numbers

Amount of people infected - https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-expert-opinions/

[Tony Baloney]

I don't know if it's right or wrong. Neither do you. Nobody does. We'll know in a year when we've gone through another winter. What I do know is that I'd follow the advice of leading scientists, before that of a load of arseholes writing under a story on Facebook, that this is a medical experiment. The oul ones are mostly Tory voters so there is no way Boris is knocking them off.

[ardtole]

What would worry me about the uk approach so far, is turn on sky sports news, how many professional football teams in the last 2 or 3 days have had members of staff testing positive for covid 19?

I'd imagine these clubs have the medical  resources to regularly test and check all their staff. So far to me a disproportionate amount of athletes seem to have tested positive compared to the whole population.

We are also told the virus can lie undetected for a couple of weeks also, so if more testing across the uk was carried out, I'd imagine we would see a lot more cases.

[Itchy]

I don't know if it's right or wrong. Neither do you. Nobody does. We'll know in a year when we've gone through another winter. What I do know is that I'd follow the advice of leading scientists, before that of a load of arseholes writing under a story on Facebook, that this is a medical experiment. The oul ones are mostly Tory voters so there is no way Boris is knocking them off.

You accept that uk is only country following this "herd immunity" approach though? So from that we can extrapolate the brits think they have better scientists than anywhere else in the world. So they either do or they don't.  I think they are arrogant and this is part of he "we are free from the EU so can do our own thing" mentality. I fear it will be catastrophic and the north should follow the EU approach.

[armaghniac]

Boris us not making the catastrophic decisions in NI, the DUP are.

[Rossfan]

Why aren't the 4 other Parties over ruling them?

[screenexile]

Whatever about what Michelle O'Neill did yesterday John O'Dowd has blown it out of the water. . . what in God's name is he hoping to achieve with a statement like that when we need politicians working together??

So badly advised I mean even the wording of the statement jesus!

I actually thought it was a parody account when I saw the tweet

Why? Do you disagree with what he said?  Spelling aside, I think he hit the nail on the head.

1. His choice of language was atrocious
2. Sinn Fein are part of Government surely there are other avenues he can go through to make his point
3. We don't need politicians engaging in hyperbole, panicking people, falling out when we need to stick together
4. He should know better!!

[marty34]

Whatever about what Michelle O'Neill did yesterday John O'Dowd has blown it out of the water. . . what in God's name is he hoping to achieve with a statement like that when we need politicians working together??

So badly advised I mean even the wording of the statement jesus!

I actually thought it was a parody account when I saw the tweet

Why? Do you disagree with what he said?  Spelling aside, I think he hit the nail on the head.

1. His choice of language was atrocious
2. Sinn Fein are part of Government surely there are other avenues he can go through to make his point
3. We don't need politicians engaging in hyperbole, panicking people, falling out when we need to stick together
4. He should know better!!

Fair play to him!

[smelmoth]

Whatever about what Michelle O'Neill did yesterday John O'Dowd has blown it out of the water. . . what in God's name is he hoping to achieve with a statement like that when we need politicians working together??

So badly advised I mean even the wording of the statement jesus!

I actually thought it was a parody account when I saw the tweet

Why? Do you disagree with what he said?  Spelling aside, I think he hit the nail on the head.

1. His choice of language was atrocious
2. Sinn Fein are part of Government surely there are other avenues he can go through to make his point
3. We don't need politicians engaging in hyperbole, panicking people, falling out when we need to stick together
4. He should know better!!

Fair play to him!

. In what sense?

[smelmoth]

I don't know if it's right or wrong. Neither do you. Nobody does. We'll know in a year when we've gone through another winter. What I do know is that I'd follow the advice of leading scientists, before that of a load of arseholes writing under a story on Facebook, that this is a medical experiment. The oul ones are mostly Tory voters so there is no way Boris is knocking them off.

You accept that uk is only country following this "herd immunity" approach though? So from that we can extrapolate the brits think they have better scientists than anywhere else in the world. So they either do or they don't.  I think they are arrogant and this is part of he "we are free from the EU so can do our own thing" mentality. I fear it will be catastrophic and the north should follow the EU approach.

What is the EU approach?

[smelmoth]

Boris us not making the catastrophic decisions in NI, the DUP are.

What are you basing this on? What is the correct approach and why?