58 thoughts on “Friday’s Papers

  1. f_lawless

    Here’s some greater context to the current spike in Covid hospitalisations. Apparently nearly all cases are in hospital for some other clinical reason and their Covid symptoms are “very mild” – at least according to the experience of Tony Canavan, CEO of the Saolta Hospital Group in Ireland who spoke yesterday on Morning Ireland.

    There seems to be a serious gap between how the Delta variant is being generally presented in the media and facts on the ground.

    https://podcast.rasset.ie/podcasts/audio/2021/0721/20210721_rteradio1-morningireland-whyarecovi_c21984444_21984454_232_.mp3

    “Our experience across all of the hospitals in our group, has been that the majority of patients currently in hospital who have tested positive for Covid-19 are exhibiting very mild or a very small number are exhibiting moderate symptoms of Covid-19. So in most cases people who are admitted to our hospitals – nearly all of the cases in fact – they are being admitted for other clinical reasons not to do with Covid-19. And therefore their infection with Covid-19 has been picked up by the screening process (upon entry to hospital)

  2. Tommy Bohan

    Just an update – I’m sure very few of you are bothered with!! The “Irish” Daily Mail has broken a new barrier, circulation figures for June were issued today. They sold on average 19,965 per day. It makes me laugh how Broadsheet insist on putting them at the top every time, with the real Irish papers. It’s nothing more than an English paper now with a small amount of Irish news in first few pages. Their sister paper, the “Irish” Mail on Sunday is following it’s collapse in sales also, dropping 2,500+ in one month, now just over 47,000.
    Just to put some context on things, 3 years ago the IDM was selling 50,000+ while the IMoS was selling well over 100,000. The Irish public aren’t so silly after all.

        1. Cú Chulainn

          Well, in that case Tommy, I look forward to your continuing posts on that rag posing as a truly noble Gaelic newspaper… May they rot in sassenach hell..

    1. Slave to the Rhythm

      Tommy I live for these posts- and this one not even on a Sunday! Double delight this week!
      Never change Tommy! Never change!

      1. Tommy Bohan

        I’m just sick of them pretending to be an Irish paper. When they launched here a few years ago they had quite a bit of Irish content. However, the last while they are just like a paper you would find if you were in middle England. It has gone beyond a joke, every day they had Meghan or Harry or Boris on their front page. And just to be clear, I have nothing whatsoever against (most) English, but surely we should be capable of producing our own newspapers? Otherwise it will end up the same way as our club soccer i.e. most Irish people supporting English teams over their own local ones!
        And the Mail charge a premium price for their product, €1.90 Monday – Friday, and €2.20 on Saturday. For what? A small amount of Irish news on the first 3/4 pages, then it’s nearly all just a copy of the UK Daily Mail. They don’t support any specialist writers e.g. gardening in which I’m interested. Nothing against Monty Don but I would prefer to read Gerry Daly or some other Irish person. The same can be said for medical, cooking, etc.
        Anyway, I think you get my drift at this stage. I can give you precise examples of where the Mail titles have used terrible tactics to attempt to get a story out. It’s all down to money with them, I know that’s the case with most papers, but they take it to another level. Rant over!!!!

  3. f_lawless

    It’s notable how corporate media coverage on the current situation in India (origin of the Delta variant) is now very different. According to official data, there has been a steep drop off in cases in recent times yet only a very small proportion of the population is currently vaccinated.

    However, gone is the prominent prime time news coverage with footage from India as before. Instead we get just a few articles dismissive of the official Indian data: “could be a big underestimate”, “an accurate figure may prove elusive”. Those articles all cite the same report which came from US think tank, The Center for Global Development. But CGD is heavily funded by the Gates Foundation.

    Worth a read:
    https://www.theblaze.com/op-ed/horowitz-data-from-india-continues-to-blow-up-the-delta-fear-narrative

    The prevailing narrative .. is that Delta is more serious than anything before, and even though vaccines are even less effective against it, its spread proves the need to vaccinate even more people. Unless we do that, we must return to the very effective lockdowns and masks. In reality, India’s experience proves the opposite true; namely:

    1.Delta is largely an attenuated version, with a much lower fatality rate, that for most people is akin to a cold.
    2.Masks failed to stop the spread there.
    3.The country has come close to the herd immunity threshold with just 3% vaccinated
    4. Most people are now getting cold-like symptoms from Delta, but to the extent countries hit by Delta suffered some deaths and serious illness, they could have been avoided not with vaccines and masks, but with early and preventive treatment like ivermectin…

    1. Cian

      “it’s just a cold”
      “masks don’t work”
      “close to herd immunity”
      “use ivermectin”

      Where (and when) have we heard these before? Oh yes, this time last year. Don’t forget “there can’t be a second wave” and “it’s seasonal” to get a full Bingo!

      1. GiggidyGoo

        Varadkar kinda put paid to your efforts at ‘Data’ yesterday as regards what’s counted as covid patients in hospital.
        Pinch of salt at the ready

          1. GiggidyGoo

            You answered a post that has a link to data from India. You then tried to belittle f-lawless with your usual little snide remarks. The relevance is that his post referred to Data, something you frequently fall down on when push comes to shove.
            You were here for quite a few months, in as first poster a lot of the time on the morning papers, producing various Covid ‘Data’ on people in hospital as fact. They weren’t facts.
            You then, when SOQ pointed out the various flaws with your ‘data’, tried to bully him and belittle him. You continue to do so.

  4. f_lawless

    It’s notable how corporate media coverage on the current situation in India (origin of the Delta variant) is now very different. According to official data, there has been a steep drop off in cases in recent times yet only a very small proportion of the population is currently vaccinated.

    However gone is the prominent prime time news coverage with footage from India as before. Instead we get just a few articles dismissive of the official Indian data: “could be a big underestimate”, “an accurate figure may prove elusive”. Those articles all cite the same report which came from US think tank, The Center for Global Development. But CGD is heavily funded by the Gates Foundation.

    Worth a read:
    https://www.theblaze.com/op-ed/horowitz-data-from-india-continues-to-blow-up-the-delta-fear-narrative

    “The prevailing narrative .. is that Delta is more serious than anything before, and even though vaccines are even less effective against it, its spread proves the need to vaccinate even more people. Unless we do that, we must return to the very effective lockdowns and masks. In reality, India’s experience proves the opposite true; namely:

    1.Delta is largely an attenuated version, with a much lower fatality rate, that for most people is akin to a cold.
    2.Masks failed to stop the spread there.
    3.The country has come close to the herd immunity threshold with just 3% vaccinated
    4. Most people are now getting cold-like symptoms from Delta, but to the extent countries hit by Delta suffered some deaths and serious illness, they could have been avoided not with vaccines and masks, but with early and preventive treatment like ivermectin… “

    1. Daisy Chainsaw

      The Blaze is another right wing outlet, hosting Glenn Beck and featuring the likes of Ben Shapiro, Tomi Lahren and Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes.

      Ivermectin as a treatment has been roundly rejected after the study hailing it as a treatment for covid was described as unbalanced and unscientific.
      https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/frontiers-removes-controversial-ivermectin-paper-pre-publication-68505

      Of course, it’s being cited by the type of people who still think Andrew Wakefield is a genius and not a fraud who faked results for money.

        1. Daisy Chainsaw

          Seriously? Still obsessing over him? Maybe you should get a hobby cos that’s unhealthy.

        1. GiggidyGoo

          Her links are astounding. This particular link is to a commercial magazine – the purpose of its existence is to make as much profit as possible. The ‘about us’ page lists the talents of its contributors / staff. One gem is ‘Jef got her master’s degree from Indiana University studying the mating behavior of seahorses’, and another ‘Midway through her master’s degree in marine science, Amanda realized how few scientists felt comfortable speaking about their work’, and “After undergraduate research with spiders at the University of Oxford and graduate research with ants at Princeton University, Catherine left arthropods and academia to become a science writer.”

          1. GiggidyGoo

            I believe it’s you that is triggered Daisy. We’ve already dealt with that Guardian report a few days ago.

          1. f_lawless

            https://www.newswise.com/coronavirus/joint-statement-of-the-flccc-alliance-and-british-ivermectin-recommendation-development-group-on-retraction-of-early-research-on-ivermectin/?article_id=754488

            “Contrary to the voices quoted in the (Guardian) article, there is no scientific basis to state that the removal of one study from meta-analyses would ‘reverse results.’ Worryingly, this article’s insinuation is reported as if it is fact.

            According to the most recent analyses by BIRD, excluding the Elgazzar data from the cited meta-analyses by Bryant and Hill does not change the conclusions of these reviews, with the findings still clearly favouring ivermectin for both prevention and treatment.

            This article raise questions of journalistic integrity and we invite the Guardian to make appropriate corrections to the reporting and properly check the veracity of their claims.”

          2. Cian

            Haha,.

            According to the most recent analyses by BIRD (British Ivermectin Recommendation Development Group), excluding the Elgazzar data from the cited meta-analyses by Bryant and Hill does not change the conclusions of these reviews, with the findings still clearly favouring ivermectin for both prevention and treatment.

            no bias there at all.

          3. Daisy Chainsaw

            https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/covid19/90552

            “Everyone in medicine will yell and scream that this paper is not a randomized controlled trial,” or RCT, said the third FLCCC leader, Pierre Kory, MD, a critical care physician who worked most recently at Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center in Milwaukee (more on that below). “We didn’t believe in an RCT.

            Steven Joffe, MD, MPH, a medical ethicist at the University of Pennsylvania, said he doesn’t believe clinicians “should be lowering our standards of evidence because we’re in a pandemic.”

            “This group should be advocating strongly for a large, generalizable randomized trial if they believe so strongly in the efficacy of ivermectin,” Joffe said. “If in fact it is effective, the only way to convince the clinical and scientific community and allow patients all over the world to benefit is to prove the case in such a trial.”

          4. Nigel

            ‘If in fact it is effective, the only way to convince the clinical and scientific community and allow patients all over the world to benefit is to prove the case in such a trial.’

            This seems like such a no-brainer, while all the politicised cutlure-war babble is both meaningless noise and deliberate disinformation without it.

      1. SOQ

        Ivermectin has been approved for use against CoVid-19 in over 20 countries including India, Mexico, Guatemala, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Portugal, Nigeria, South Africa and Egypt. India alone has the second largest population in the world of course.

        Now you can champion big Pharma all you want but you cannot see that there is undue influence being applied then you are being naïve to the point of stupidity.

        1. Lilly

          I have no idea about the other countries you list, but it has NOT been approved for use against Covid-19 in the Czech Republic. Where did you get that info?

          1. Nigel

            That’s a touching faith you have in the governments of those countries in terms of a treatment that is as of yet unproven, considering the incompetence, corruption, bad motivaion and outright malice you attribute to our own. You could be right, of course, and familiarity breeds contempt, though I can think of quite a long lost of obvious questions I’d want to know the answers to before I’d grant that faith myself.

      1. ManT

        Is it? It’s hard to get data on ages in ICU etc. I’d be interested in a link if you had one.

          1. ManT

            Hhhhmmmm. It’s becoming increasingly harder to trust covid hospitalizations numbers given we know how they count them. An irish coroner (with no skin in the game) and now leo varadkars comments yesterday

    2. Lilly

      ‘They could have been avoided… with early and preventive treatment like ivermectin… “

      Based on everything I’ve read, this at least is nonsense.

        1. Lilly

          ‘early intervention with this agent may limit viral replication within the host’

          May limit? Well that’s me persuaded.

          1. SOQ

            Lilly, I assume you are commenting in good faith and like the rest of us, you are reading what you can where you can. However, the medical professionals are most definitely divided on this one, so I would urge an open mind.

            For us lay people something is beyond doubt- the most wealthy and powerful industry in the world- Pharmaceutical- is doing their utmost to discredit this treatment while doctors who are prescribing it say the exact opposite. Bottom line- literally- is, there is no money to be made out of it.

            At present, if you present with symptoms are you told to go home and either cure yourself or wait until your are so sick as to be admitted into hospital, and possibly ICU. Don’t you find it strange that there is no early interventions for CoVid-19 by now?

          2. f_lawless

            Lily you’re giving the impression that you’re not willing to look too hard, if you’re dismissing SOQ’s link based on the first search result.

            I would suggest the reason you believe it’s nonsense is there’s been a sustained effort to discredit the drug by the pharmaceutical industry, corporate media, Big Tech and compromised medical regulators. If it were to gain complete acceptance as an early preventative treatment, then the emergency use authorisation for the Covid vaccines would have been unjustified and the vaccine passport surveillance system would never get off the ground.

            I shared this before, but it’s worth a read:

            ‘Michael Capuzzo, a New York Times best-selling author , has just published an article titled “The Drug That Cracked Covid”. The 15-page article chronicles the gargantuan struggle being waged by frontline doctors on all continents to get ivermectin approved as a Covid-19 treatment, as well as the tireless efforts by reporters, media outlets and social media companies to thwart them.

            Because of ivermectin, Capuzzo says, there are “hundreds of thousands, actually millions, of people around the world, from Uttar Pradesh in India to Peru to Brazil, who are living and not dying.” Yet media outlets have done all they can to “debunk” the notion that ivermectin may serve as an effective, easily accessible and affordable treatment for Covid-19. They have parroted the arguments laid out by health regulators around the world that there just isn’t enough evidence to justify its use…’

          3. Lilly

            @f_lawless – I simply don’t have time to read reams of stuff about Covid, but it seems whenever I ask for info from people presenting themselves as well informed, it either proves to be false or faff. Believe me, I’ve done some digging on Ivermectin. I’ll read the article you mention later, thanks.

          4. Nigel

            It would be nice to think it is effective but unfortunately ‘there’s been a sustained effort to discredit the drug by the pharmaceutical industry, corporate media, Big Tech and compromised medical regulators’ doesn’t constitute a valid clinical scientific finding, but rather a form of blather indistinguishable from a near-infinite number of crackpot claims being made since this all started. Perhaps if it hadn’t been hailed as a miracle cure long before any realistic medical assessment of its efficacy could be made, skepticism about it might not be so high. In other words, reactionary contrarian conspiracy-mongering which siezes opportunistically on any subject to generate fake news and disinformation has probably done far more to supress this as a treatment – if it should turn out to be a viable treatment – than ‘the pharmaceutical industry, corporate media, Big Tech and compromised medical regulators.’

  5. GiggidyGoo

    Rancour as major housing plan inadvertently left out someone from their share of the pie, more than likely.
    Or else, the usual Keystone Kops efforts.
    Handy that it’s announced as the politicians go on their summer holidays.

    1. Slave to the Rhythm

      What exactly is the plan anyway Giggigy? Have any details of it been leaked to date that you know of?

  6. Junkface

    So there are areas in Co.Louth that have no water available in their homes. In one of the wealthiest countries in Europe in the 21st century! How can Ireland be this bad at managing such a basic as water supplies? It is ridiculous. Some new leadership and ideas are needed at Irish Water, what the hell are they doing? Find new reservoirs or build them to manage extra demand during hot spells in the summer.

    This will probably become a water charges issue again, so maybe they should just say how much money they need at Irish Water to keep the water supply healthy.

    1. Johnny

      REG: They’ve bled us white, the bastards. They’ve taken everything we had, and not just from us, from our fathers, and from our fathers’ fathers.

      LORETTA: And from our fathers’ fathers’ fathers.

      REG: Yeah.

      LORETTA: And from our fathers’ fathers’ fathers’ fathers.

      REG: Yeah. All right, Stan. Don’t labour the point. And what have they ever given us in return?!

      Housing

      Water

      Power

      – what has FFG done for Ireland,other than sell its assets and future.for some dollars and dinner.

      this is bad, real bad, much worse than covid or the flu.

      -State development agency IDA Ireland has told the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities (CRU) that last winter’s warnings sparked concerns among multinationals employing 257,000 people here.-

      https://www.irishtimes.com/business/energy-and-resources/whitegate-and-huntstown-plants-may-reopen-to-meet-energy-needs-1.4628073

      Absolute damming report on Ryan and the CRU

      …if you think the water situation is bad,the grid is at or near capacity and completely stressed,rolling blackouts are coming to you soon,the IT also had a very disturbing pieces yesterday.

      It is a report on Irl policy makers in Ryan’s hook up (data connection) policy dept which have gone rogue.

      This is an attempt by the IDA to highlight their ‘concerns’ at Ryan and his dept, and how it has already affected inward investment,and of course influence irelands energy policy,the grid is a big hot mess its going start impacting negatively your day to day live soon,real soon like today soon.

      Thanks FFG.

      https://www.idaireland.com/newsroom/publications/ida-ireland-cru-data-centre-submission.pdf

  7. millie bobby brownie

    For the day that’s in it. Amy Winehouse gone 10 years today. The older I get the more I appreciate how talented she was and how timeless some of her songs are. This is one of my favourite videos of her performing one of her best songs, though admittedly not my favourite of all her songs.

    https://youtu.be/aatZ9VSF7Mc

    1. Junkface

      She was amazing. I saw her playing live once. She captured everyone’s undivided attention at a smallish gig, her singing was incredible and she was really happy at the time. Such a shame what happened to her.

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