Yesterday.

East Pier, Dun Laoghaire, County Dublin.

ONE METRE!

Rollingnews

Meanwhile…

This morning.

Glendalockdown.

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37 thoughts on “Pier Review

  1. Amy.

    It’s going soon going to hit Ireland very hard. And when it does, good luck. Our health service will breakdown very quickly.

    1. some old queen

      You forget that half of our health system is private and at any given point the government has the power to nationalise all private hospitals – Harris has already alluded to doing this- and they will.

      1. Amy.

        They will me backside. Could you see FG letting working class people into Blackrock Clinic? They’d rather see them die.

      2. Newname

        Germany 30 intensive care beds per 100k, Italy 12, Ireland 7. There is a 1 to 2 week lag for the full effect to be felt with incubation period.
        From Italian perspective, Ireland is not ready. I only hope the full scale of heartbreaking events we see here don’t get felt at home, but there’s no real reason to think they won’t.

  2. Lilly

    I’m beginning to envy people who live in the back of beyond. The local park is packed too.

  3. Madam X

    We need a total lockdown enforced by the Gards and Army before these idiots kill our elderly.

    1. Ringsend Incinerator

      The Guards and the Army have more serious work to do. How about community patrols that take on every numpty in a pink gym + coffee beanie and white runners or to call in an Americano Sniper to cull crowds of millennials in coffee places…

      1. class wario

        gym+coffee is surely the most loathsome branding to emerge the last few years. just everything about it just makes my skin crawl

  4. class wario

    I try to go for a brisk walk before starting work every morning now and a run every 2nd day and am always sure to maintain distance when there is people on the road. It’s a bit worrying seeing not only this but other spots around Dublin fairly busy this weekend. The ability to distance adequately is badly compromised by greater volumes of people. Friend was telling me Terenure was jam packed at lunch time, loads getting takeout coffee, roadworks ongoing etc

    1. Rosette of Sirius

      That’s what I thought. Family clusters and lots of distancing. With that said, waaaay too many folks for my liking. I’m lucky that I live where I live – the backroads around the Moyglare Stud. Lots of space to ramble and only the odd Lycra clad cyclist to contend with.

  5. alovelyhorse

    So envious of my friends who live in the countryside at the best of times but urban cramped high density living at times like this is a nightmare

    1. Janet, I ate my avatar

      not much urban cramp in Ireland in fairness, you are never far from a large open green space, most of it is bland suburbia or the arse end of nowhere

  6. f_lawless

    At this stage are we still allowed to give consideration to opinions of qualified experts who might go against the general consensus? I think it’s healthy to do so. Maybe others disagree.

    I just watched this (short) interview with retired German microbiologist, Dr. Sucharit Bhakdi, former head of the Institute for Medical Microbiology and Hygiene in Mainz – . “One of the most highly cited medical research scientists of Germany” – and thought it was worth sharing.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBB9bA-gXL4&feature=emb_logo (might need to click subtitles)

    He believes that in this unfolding situation, the far greater tragedy will be the devastating societal impact that the currently adopted measures will cause in the longer term. He says that the novel coronavirus is essentially no different from other known corona viruses in that, according to current statistics, the virus is not generally causing fatalities in those with no preexisting conditions nor in young people.

    Also, of the 2,200 who die every day in Germany on average, many of these will have been carrying one or more of the common corona viruses. These deaths are not labeled as “corona deaths” so similarly, he says, it’s wrong to now start labeling those deceased who had tested positive for the new corona virus as confirmed “corona deaths”.

    The higher numbers of deaths in China and Italy he attributes to long term exposure to “horrendous air pollution”. North Italy has the worst air pollution in Europe. (Iran’s cities have notoriously bad air pollution too for that matter).

    Anyway time will tell. It’s not an in-depth enough interview to be able to draw too much conclusions from. I just thought it was interesting that such a renowned expert in his field would air such a different opinion.

    1. Newname

      Look at the videos from Bergamo then and tell us that is normal. I can’t say how angry this makes me. 1 page of obituaries in the local paper to 10 in the space of a couple of weeks. To continue with this “it’s just a flu” crap now is offensive to the dead and grieving, or to people struggling to breathe in icu. Or to the hospital workers burning out trying to care for them.

      1. f_lawless

        The thing is I never said the deaths of the elderly shouldn’t be taken seriously nor did the microbiologist being interviewed. Framing what I wrote as ” ‘it’s just a flu’ crap” is a lazy, dismissive strawman response.

        He’s making the case that according to official data, the virus is not killing young people nor people with no concurrent illness. Italy’s national health authority recently released a report stating that the average age of those who have died was 79.5 and that 99% of the people who died had one or more preexisting condition: (See here: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-18/99-of-those-who-died-from-virus-had-other-illness-italy-says).

        Therefore the case being made is that the extreme measures of bringing much of the world to a near shutdown are overly alarmist and unwarranted .In his words, “the horrifying impact on the world’s economy will threaten the existence of countless people”. The suffering we’re seeing now by those severely affected by Covid-19 will probably be dwarfed in comparison by the suffering unleashed if the global economy collapses. Businesses are already going to the wall, jobs lost, savings and pensions wiped out a break down of the “social contract” – that’s the road we’re currently on!

        1. Newname

          Lazy and dismissive? Get over yourself would you? You’re having a chilled out discussion on whether all these controls are really needed.
          Here there are 5476 dead. 3000 in icu. You think any health system can cope with that? People don’t stop getting other illnesses requiring icu care during this time, how easy do you think it is to isolate them within a ward filled with a highly infectious disease?
          What is the age profile of people getting serious pneumonia, requiring icu care, and surviving with permanent lung damage? Tip. It is lower.
          This is the time to follow the rules. Because while nobody underestimates the effect on the economy. While everyone is also worried about that. It is relative. Italy hasn’t thrown the economy under a bus for nothing.
          And your dithering and searching for the 1 person who thinks maybe it has gone too far is very upsetting for someone hearing ambulances outside every ten minutes.

    2. Steph Pinker

      Thanks for that, f_lawless. I concur with much of what he’s said, unpopular as it is at the moment.

      1. Newname

        It isn’t unpopular because of group think, it’s unpopular because it goes against the current evidence for how overwhelming this is to a health system and economy.

  7. f_lawless

    Obviously I would wonder why more experts aren’t saying the same. But in the current climate, I think one can’t discount groupthink as a factor. Professionals who publicly air doubts they may have about the current narrative and approach will inevitably be condemned for putting lives at risk and will see their professional reputation damaged. I note that Dr. Bhakdi is already retired.

    And it’s also worth bearing in mind that the World Health Organisation has had a checkered past when it comes to declaring pandemics. Just over a decade ago it was marred in controversy by declaring the Swine Flu to be a pandemic. It was subsequently investigated by the “Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe”, a human rights watchdog, regarding its motivations for doing so. The chairman of the investigation, Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg, called it a “false pandemic” and “one of the greatest medicine scandals of the century.” saying that the integrity of the WHO was being compromised by the countries and organisations who finance it and by pharmaceutical industry lobbyists.
    https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/specialseries/2018/12/trustwho-business-global-health-181205092342434.html

    I see Dr. Wodarg is also sceptical of the WHO’s Covid-19 narrative: Worth a look: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnlT3rPNUp0

  8. Truth in the News

    Dr Bhakdi comes across a quite sincere in his opinions however the German he speaks
    needs better translation as there are slight glitches in particular in his pronunciation
    of certain phrases, his concern appears to be in relation to what is the precise number
    deaths that are attributable CV 19 and what ones are related to other Corona Viruses
    or forms of infuenzia out the 2200 group aged over 65 years, however he produces no
    figures for age group under 65, as this would be more relevant as a large proportion
    of the infections are in the age group just over 40 years

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