At top: Minister for Justice and Equality Helen McEntee. Above from left: Dr Colm Henry, Chief Clinical Officer, HSE; Dr. Ronan Glynn, Acting Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health; and Professor Philip Nolan, Chair of the NPHET Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group at a Covid-19 update in the Department of Health

This afternoon.

Via RTÉ:

NPHET is meeting today and is expected to make recommendations, which would be considered by the new Covid-19 oversight group this afternoon.

The special Cabinet Covid-19 Sub-Committee is then scheduled to meet tomorrow.

Arising from its discussions it is likely that the Cabinet would then make a final decision later tomorrow evening.

Minister for Justice Helen McEntee has sad that if NPHET advises further Covid-19 restrictions for Dublin, the Government will respond accordingly.

Any additional Dublin measures would be in place by weekend (RTÉ)

Gary T writes:

If NPHET advises further restrictions the government ‘will respond accordingly’.

Therefore, why the hell do you have go through two oversight committees and a full cabinet before relaying that advice to the public?

Anyone?

Rollingnews

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51 thoughts on “Vetting NPHET

    1. SOQ

      Not nearly enough.

      How does NPHET’S advice fit into the wider public health policy?

      I suppose the real question should be- is there even a wider public health policy at all anymore?

      1. Papi

        david, are you honestly suggesting we should militarily blockade Dublin? I’m all for it, even pre-Covid, i just want to be clear.

          1. Brother Barnabas

            underpants* too

            (kinda small tight pants that you wear under your actual pants so that you keep your bits packed compact and snug)

      2. Cui Bono?

        Why don’t we protect the old and vulnerable and everyone else get back to normal?

        The army??? this is not a virus with a high IFR.

      3. scottser

        actually david, it’s widely known that it’s dirty culchies that spread the covid up in dublin. i think your idea should work the other way, and our military should block ye bovine lickers out of dublin and protect the countries primary wealth generator.

  1. Daisy Chainsaw

    Lock Dublin down completely for 2 weeks like we all did in March. It’s the only way to stop the rise in cases there.

      1. Fred

        Whoops this post is altered
        Whoops seems like I am banned but I keep changing my username because I’m a very rude person

    1. Cui Bono?

      There’s no need to act like we did back in March because we know so much more about the virus now.

      A positive PCR test does not mean that someone is sick and an actual “case”.

      Protect the old and vulnerable and everyone else needs to get back to normal.

      1. Daisy Chainsaw

        But we’re not protecting the old and the vulnerable as the number of infections and deaths continues to rise.

        1. Cui Bono?

          If we’re not protecting them, then we need to start doing it now.

          Either way we can’t stop society again for a virus with a low IFR.

          People are dying from other causes and more infectious diseases than covid and we’re acting like they don’t exist. It’s crazy.

      2. Cian

        True. But there are real, countable people in hospital due to Covid. And real people in ICU. And real people dying.

        And the numbers in hospital keep rising.

        1. SOQ

          Marginally rsing- the amount who skip ICU is very telling- same as when we actually had a spike.

          Of course we never looked after old people then either- just shoved them into a nursing home without even enough drugs for palliative care. That is the opinion of front line doctor Marcus de Brun of course- and he was there.

          1. Do I need a username?

            That is front-line QUACK Marcus de Brun – get it right – vastly more interested in trying to sate his utterly misplaced ego and desperately gain attention, not for matters of public health but his penchant for right-wing populism (I’m being kind) and his dream of getting a soap-box in the Dáil. He also has the most appalling command of English- his blog is strewn with “big words” that he thinks make him sound clever but inevitably are deployed in the wrong context and meaning.

            Another populist luminary who grossly overestimates his own competence and abilities.

  2. Micko

    From the Indo earlier:

    “We don’t know what NPHET will say to us. If they suggest that we implement new measures, or potentially escalate the Dublin area, then the committee will meet tomorrow and recommendations will be made, ahead of the weekend,” Minister McEntee said.

    “We don’t know what NPHET will say to us”. WTF? She sounds like she’s about to get a dressing down from her employer.

    Also, 31 members on NPHET – how can they decide on anything?

    Too many cooks all in the similar diciplines.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Public_Health_Emergency_Team_(2020)#Members

    1. GiggidyGoo

      How does NPHET decide though? Do they have Zoom meetings? Does one of them suggest something, and they vote on it? I can’t see a large grouping like that being able to discuss this properly.

  3. Joe

    The new Covid-19 oversight group is a joke, a further drain on tax payers and jobs for FFFGGP cronies.
    House parties? It is simply a ploy and a deflection by the useless FFFGGP government to blame the rise in infections on them. Once children were brought back to school coupled with gastro/pizza pub restaurants etc re-opening the infection rate was bound to increase. Workers have also returned to workplace hubs of infection with little or no visits by HSE inspectors. No wonder household infections have risen.

    Lio Varadkar was caught rapid by Pearse Doherty exposing the lack of testing in the various meat plants and the failure to close them down. Government strategy was to close entire counties rather than protect workers and citizens rather than the meat plants. https://twitter.com/i/status/1306565947831062528
    Worse, the government has suspended testing in meat plants to keep their meat baron pals happy.

    Rather than quickly suppress the infections at source FFFGGP will just criminally fudge everything with the new piecemeal Covid “Level” closures and citizens will die..

  4. username already in use

    What I love about this organization is that it issues “scientific advice” without a single relevant scientist member. You couldn’t make this up. They say the three things that matter in property are location location location. Apparently the 3 things that matter in epidemiology are politics politics politics. And no, medical doctors are not scientists. And the kind of craven servile medics that usually get into bodies like this are hardly likely to stand up for any kind of reasoned scientific choices. Wonder why people are walking around wearing plastic visors and thinking they are as good as face masks? Or why, when the most vulnerable organ is the nose, many mask wearers leave the nose uncovered? Politics Politics Politics. FG and FF are a far more toxic combination than anything involving the left. When will their constituencies finally get sick of civil war based patronage politics and corrupt cronyism? At this point it should be simple self preservation. The demographic profile of their supporters would suggest that the most vulnerable people to Covid are supporting an administration that is damaging the interests of the over-50’s more than I would have believed possible. What a useless shower of deplorables…
    Science and the experience of countries where it has been dealt with successfully should show clearly what Ireland needs to do. Its not about suppression. Its about elimination. But so long as there isn’t even one competent scientist on NPHET the medics will continue to think that its the flu… Politics Politics Politics.

      1. Pat

        Taiwan is the obvious answer. I spent from February to August there and then came home to an Irish shitshow in Ranelagh. I think the entire country is out of its mind… And in the absence of any serious mitigation strategy it seems likely that within a few months there will be thousands of fatalities (again).
        Don’t bother with the racist guff about the Asians being different. Taiwan is much more open and cultivated place. It’s positively anarchic at times. The difference is cultural but it’s not about discipline. It’s about sanity. Saints scholars and schizophrenics… that’s Ireland.

    1. Micko

      I don’t think that we can eliminate this thing @username

      Not while we share a land border with another country and not while we need tourism.

      We’re not New Zealand unfortunately.

      Their tourist economy is worth 41 Billion and 60% comes from domestic travel.

      They can afford to close their borders.

    2. Cui Bono?

      Well it does have a similar IFR to the flu but they’re aren’t treating it like that. They’re acting as if it’s got a 1% IFR which we’ve known for months that it doesn’t.

  5. Brughahaha

    No Problem , shut down Dublin , just 1 caveat , could the cabinet and NPHET teams also reduce their wages to €203 for the duration of Dublins lockdown. Always too easy to suggest financial pain for others while your own income remains untouched.

  6. Eoin

    Infections are up and deaths and hospitalizations are way down. So either the disease is loosing potency or the increase in infections is due to an increase in testing. Therefore further lockdowns etc. are not in line with the science and must be for some other reason.

    1. George

      Or what’s actually happening: we are better at treating the illness and the age profile of those infected has significantly reduced due to preventative measures.

      Most people getting it now are under 45.

      Nothing you have said is even remotely related to science.

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