Anyone entering the State from overseas will be subject to mandatory quarantine, either in a hotel or at home, with some exceptions, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has said | Follow live updates: https://t.co/QnLXAnXNb9 pic.twitter.com/0n99ENFZWX
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) January 26, 2021
Last night.
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said that anyone entering the State from overseas – with some exceptions – are now required to quarantine for the first time.
However, the requirement may take several weeks to become operational.
Via RTÉ News:
Mr Varadkar said some of this quarantining will be done in hotels, some in people’s homes.
Legislation will be needed to underpin the move to hold Irish and EU citizens without a negative Covid test in hotels.
It has also been confirmed that those returning from overseas to the State via Northern Ireland will be subject to the same legal requirements.
Fines for those outside the 5km travel limit who are intending to travel abroad will be increased from the current €100….
Anyone?
Arrivals from overseas face mandatory quarantine (RTÉ)
If the passenger locator forms are still being filled out on paper there is no way this isn’t just a smoke and mirrors announcement.
I had to fly a few months ago for essential travel and had to fill out all of my information on websites before entering the EU and UK. But when I got to Ireland it was a slip of paper that was handed to immigration officers at Dublin Airport. I don’t see how these forms could be reasonably recorded and stored in a way that is meaningful and accessible.
OCR would be the way they could be but they probably aren’t doing that.
They could, but if they were actually doing that they’d realize it was so much more painful than just whipping together a digital system, which is how you know no one has ever looked at those forms a second time.
Good piece by Dr. Malcom Kendrick who draws on historical examples to explain the process by which medical ideas which lack scientific evidence can sometimes take hold among the mainstream, become conventional wisdom, and lead to disastrous consequences.
https://drmalcolmkendrick.org/2021/01/27/does-lockdown-work-or-not/
“Step one = we have a serious disease that is killing lots of people.
Step two = it creates great fear, and the medical profession has nothing much in place to deal with it.
Step three = a charismatic leader emerges to decree that he (almost always a ‘he’ up to now) knows how to treat it/control it, etc. This is ‘the idea’.
Step four = The ‘idea’ is enthusiastically taken up around the world and becomes mainstream thinking.
Step five = the ‘idea’ becomes standard practice.
Step six – the ‘idea’ is taught to medics and becomes accepted truth, a fact.
Step six = anyone who goes against the ‘idea’ is ruthlessly attacked.
There is always, of course, the possibility that the ‘idea’ is the best thing to do. This happens from time to time. However, there seems to be little or no correlation between the enthusiasm, and speed, with which ideas are taken up, and the likelihood they are correct.
The problem, as I came to recognise, lies between step two and step four. By which I mean that a charismatic figure convinces everyone that they have the answer, before there is any evidence to support it. The person may not be charismatic, simply someone who has the ability to grab attention and push the ‘idea’ forward.
..Another thing that leads to disaster, which is perhaps of even greater importance, is that the ‘idea’ must sound like the most obvious common sense. It should trigger a response along the lines of ‘Yes, of course, that sounds perfectly reasonable’. Once that’s been achieved, the ‘idea’ drops neatly into people’s minds, settles down, and grows roots, creating not a ripple of cognitive dissonance.
..More is better… this is another of the deadly repeating themes of ‘the idea.’ The idea can never be wrong, it is just that people are not doing with sufficient vigour. If women are still dying from metastatic breast cancer, even after radical mastectomies (and they were), the answer could not possibly be that the procedure doesn’t work. The answer is that we are not being radical enough: ‘Hack away more, and then more.’”
what is your point
plenty of evidence to say this is effective
the countries who have implemented strict quarantine are in a much better place than those who have not
is that what your rather long winded post is trying to argue against
That’s the point: -the danger of putting faith in the idea that these non-pharmaceutical interventions such as blanket lockdowns and quarantines, etc have the power to “keep the virus under control” when it’s not backed up by sound empirical evidence. When the interventions don’t have the desired effect, the response of the faithful is that we need to go harder.
Rather than looking at all of the evidence comprehensively, there’s a tendency to cherry-pick certain countries to fit a preconceived conclusion and ignore the experience of those countries which run counter to the conclusion. It’s easy to point to NZ and say “look! proof strict quarantines are the solution for us all” but then that would be to ignore the experiences of countries such as Canada, Peru, Argentina, Israel – to name a few – which imposed strict quarantines or even total bans on anyone crossing the border sometimes for multiple extended periods in the last 10 months. They aren’t currently in a much better place.
Please consider setting up a blog if you wish to write essays that nobody is going to read.
A great and interesting comment, thanks f_lawless..
Lockdown works to reduce the number of people with an infectious disease.
There is scientific evidence.
Do you doubt this?
Granted, lockdown also causes many other problems. The questions are:
– do the benefits of lockdown (less Covid) outweigh the risks of lockdown (stress, closed schools, etc)
– are there other options that have the same benefits but fewer risks? (or slightly lower benefits but much fewer risks)
”It has also been confirmed that those returning from overseas to the State via Northern Ireland will be subject to the same legal requirements.”
I missed this important part, anyone know if the North are on board and will be policing it at points of entry or is it just the wishy-washy, you’re subject to these requirements but we’re (stupidly) going to trust you and not check?
NI has been asking the Irish government to share information on Passenger Location Forms since last summer.
Zero.Nada.Zilch.
Keystone Kops
So the cops will call to your door and you just don’t answer.
Brilliant old Ireland.
Then you get fined.
No you don’t.
Fixed it for you
but they will now, is that the point
There are many points, not just one. You’re entitled to your own obviously. Free country etc.
If they call to your door and the idea is that you’re isolating, then there’s the get-out. ‘Sorry, I’m not coming out of isolation to see a keystone Kop who is going to be in contact with all and sundry’ Can you be fined for wanting to protect people from the possibility of catching Covid?
Keystone Kops
Ah I think there’s plenty of ways around it.
€100 on a WiFi video camera doorbell thing would work a treat. ;)
Or just don’t answer the door. “Sorry Guard, the doorbell is broken / I was in bed with the wife / in the toilet sick with the “covid runs” / playing an immersive VR game. Take your pick.
Point is, this will only scare people who are already scared of going on holiday in the first place or those who can’t be bothered of the hassle.
Do you think any one of those people coming home from the sun over the last few weeks give a crap about the guards or what the neighbours say.
A box ticking exercise – just to placate the people calling for it on social media.
“Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said that anyone entering the State from overseas – with some exceptions – are now required to quarantine for the first time.”
This is not law yet, Leotheliar strikes again
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said that anyone entering the State from overseas – with some exceptions – are now required to quarantine for the first time.
IS now required to quarantine.
you are wecome
But I don’t want to be wecome. It sounds dirty.
Try getting a passport. The office is STILL closed. Can’t get a drivers license either.
Not true.
if you have a real *need* for a passport or a driving licence you can get them.
Existing driving licences have had their expiry date extended.
Is the office shut?
If the answer is yes, than you’re wrong Cian.