From top: Tanaiste Leo Varadkar has said all restrictions would be lifted if 100 per cent vaccination is achieved; Eamonn Kelly
It was a week of disappointment and confusion. Disappointment that the promised lifting of restrictions could not go ahead as planned, and some confusion as to why this was so.
A publican said that his business was being held to ransom by the 10% who haven’t been vaccinated. The publican’s assumption appears to be that the restrictions are in place because of the unvaccinated and not because of the virus, which he apparently believes has been nullified by the vaccine.
Naturally, everyone wants the pandemic to be over, but wishing it so doesn’t make it so. Yet, this desire for normality is adding to the confusion, not least in terms of those people who appear to assume that the vaccine is 100% effective and that all other safeguards can now be shelved.
On Saturday the Indo reported that Dr Susan Hopkins told a seminar in Dublin that the pandemic was likely to last at least another six months. At the same seminar Dr Cillian de Gascun said that the current generation of vaccines were “not enough to end this pandemic”, adding that “Pandemic viruses don’t just disappear.”
Confusion
Earlier in the week, the Tánaiste, contributing to the confusion, told the Dáil that he was in no doubt that if there was a 100% vaccination uptake that business would return to normal. But the Tánaiste has a track record in scapegoating minorities and parking blame elsewhere, and it would appear that he was politicising the confusion and essentially framing the unvaccinated 10% as the primary cause of the delay in re-opening the country.
He contradicted this view a day or two later when he said that booster vaccines would be necessary, because the vaccine is not 100% effective.
As for the 10% unvaccinated, it would appear that these are mainly made up of people who have either had the virus and have produced their own anti-bodies and see the risk of vaccine side-effects as an unnecessary one; and people of a certain frame of mind who simply don’t trust the authorities’ making health decisions in their best interests. A stance that is not really so incredible when you consider the shortcomings of privatisation of services that led to oversights in the cervical smear scandal, for instance.
The Sunday Indo then reported that only 30% of pregnant women had opted for the vaccine. Clearly these aren’t “anti-vaxxers” in the classical sense of irrational naysayers, but are simply women concerned for the welfare of their unborn children, reluctant to expose them to a vaccine which is still essentially in trial.
And yet this idea persists that people who haven’t opted for the vaccine are somehow wrong-headed or misled. The Examiner reported that “Professor Pete Lunn, head of the ESRI’s Behavioural Research Unit, said research shows concerns about the speed of vaccine development still linger.” But he also said that the unvaccinated were likely out of touch with mainstream society. Which seems like a nice way of saying that they don’t know their arse from their elbow.
Information
“NIAC Chair Professor Karina Butler” told the Indo that “health officials and Government need to work to ‘fill the information gaps’ so that the 370,000 adults that are not fully vaccinated in Ireland are given the ‘confidence and trust’ about getting vaccinated.”
When Colm Henry of the HSE was asked on Six One News (October14) why Ireland’s covid infection rate is the worst in Europe while its vaccination uptake is the best in Europe, he produced a temporary information gap by initially evading the question, going on to talk about the hospitals being busy with other things at this time of year, and how people need to get vaccinated to help prevent the spread of the virus, in order to alleviate pressure on the hospitals.
He eventually came around to a kind of answer to the question when he said that people need to continue to take the standard precautions like social distancing, hand-washing, mask-wearing and so on.
But his initial evasion and reference to hospitals under pressure implied that the unvaccinated are solely responsible, for not only the latest resurgence of the virus, but also for the ailing health service, which has been systematically picked apart and weakened by neo-liberal politicians, particularly over the last 10 years.
Confusion is also sewn when mainstream reporters routinely lump the covid vaccine in with vaccines in general. RTÉ Six One did something similar on this during the week when they screened an item on the late cervical cancer campaigner, Laura Brennan, who had raised awareness on the HPV vaccine. Somehow the item ended on a kind of ad for vaccines being uniformly “good”.
Lots of Questions
The current climate seems like one of evasion, lack of clarity and a covert presumption to manipulate the population like a herd of cattle. And still questions remain unanswered.
What is a booster jab anyway? Does it necessitate two vaccine jabs and then a booster? Or is it a stand-alone kind of jab, doing the work of what it previously took two jabs to achieve? Will you need another one next year? Or in six months’ time? Or every year?
And what of those people who have developed natural immunity? Does the vaccine interfere with or undermine their natural immunity? Do they need booster shots too? If so, why?
And what of primary school-children? Are they not also susceptible to catching and spreading the virus? If not, what do they have that rest of us don’t have? Some kind of enzyme? Can it be packaged to stop the spread? Or is their supposed immunity baloney?
And where are the media reports of people with vaccine side-effects? Are there none? There must be some. All studies admit that statistically there are some, no matter how small that number may be. Are their stories to be concealed in the wider interest of achieving a 100% vaccine uptake?
Professor Kingston Mills told RTÉ that booster jabs are necessary due to waning vaccine immunity. Does natural immunity also wane? If so, is the rate of waning of natural immunity different from waning vaccine immunity? Which is best: natural or artificial immunity? Are political choices between the two shaped by market considerations?
False Impressions
These are valid questions and they are not really being addressed. Instead, it seems as if a false impression is being deliberately cultivated at official level that “antivaxxers” are causing the pandemic to continue, by holding everyone back from achieving the magic 100% vaccine uptake.
That 100% vaccination target is a simple statistical goal, the type of thing that politicians love to get behind. But it is as if all other questions are being side-lined in favour of pursuit of that one statistical goal, which is itself undermined by the simple fact that the vaccine is less than 100% effective.
Eamonn Kelly is a Galway-based freelance Writer and Playwright. His weekly round-up appears here every Monday.
Previously: Eamonn Kelly on Broadsheet
Earlier: Derek Mooney: This Week’s Reopening Must Go Ahead
great piece,
thanks for balancing out that tripe I read earlier today.
I’m looking at you Derek, absolute bull
+92%
Someone yesterday was arguing for the banning of baptisms because, I assume, they felt that religion was the problem. And yet, here we are, afraid to question the new religion which wraps itself in science but uses frig all of it in practice.
A commentator on here has been predicting this unvaccinated scapegoating for months now.
That not one single journalist has questioned the lack of scientific evidence around infection transmission and Vaccine Passports, is all you need to know.
‘A commentator on here has been predicting this unvaccinated scapegoating for months now.’
Yeah, it took a while for it to become a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy. Now it’s just feeding your sense of grievance and unfocused anger.
The commentator was not me- but, the fact you are resorting to ad hominem attacks to defend the indefensible, really says it all.
It is disgusting behaviour- especially as vaccinated can be just as infectious- there is zero science behind it.
Amazing. Everything you just said is wrong.
+1
Great piece Eamonn
Although I fear a cancelling may be coming your way as you have dared to ask questions.
Well done.
+1
Great article again Eamonn, I’d too like to see Varadkar being publicly challenged on his assertions.
I’d like to see him publicly flogged, it’s that kind of Monday
+1
Thoughtful, timely and insightful article. Thank you!
Deserves a wider (and more receptive) audience.
Keep up the great work.
I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning?
Yes yes Nilbert. Everyone who thinks differently to you is a Trump supporter (even though he was the president of completely different effin country)
Now, where did I put my Qanon membership card, my annual fees are due.
Yep you can just drink the bleach directly Nilbert…its grand
All very fair and sensible-minded questions that anyone with an interest in how society functions should want to see addressed.
And most, if not all, of these questions have been raised here with the resultant pile-on from the government bots and shills.
+1.
But rarely without ridiculous conspiracy theories of mind control and mass population culling.
On que.
He’s from Barcelona.
+1
Everyone in my house was vaccinated during the summer but we’re all home having to isolate after my wife tested positive and was in bed for a few days with a very bad cough and feeling generally unwell.
I know being vaccinated should stop you becoming seriously ill but seems to do nothing to stop the virus spreading.
I’d love to know what we’re going to do about that.
+1
He cannot even blow his nose properly
Seems to always be picking it or rubbing it dry. Columbian variant perhaps?
Peruvian marching powder
Maybe it’s Richie Boyd Barrett getting up it
…good piece Eamonn…as someone put it in an earlier comment, we are concentrating on the wrong thing…why are people who are double jabbed becoming infected…the anti-vaxxers and ratlickers are only a tiny minority, even among the unvaccinated…their alignment with facists has probably only added to the resolve and solidarity among the 92%…we must stop demonising the unvaxxed and concentrate on why the vaccines seem to be losing their efficacy…
exactly
If what I posted in the papers is true, you may want to consider who is actually aligned with the fascists- the real ones I mean, not some stupid PC label.
https://www.tiktok.com/@patriotmama1776_2a/video/7018998122206530822
They lose efficacy because they’re a treatment, not a cure. It’s in pharma’s interest to treat everything as a subscription service.
This might actually be a good thing as it means the immune system may return to default after some time. I haven’t seen one good reason as to why interfering with it in this manner should be allowed. Repeated meddling with T-Cells on/off can lead to a host of issues worse than the virus & (more profit).
Yes it certainly is a great funding model for big Pharma, but what happens if you stop?
My fear would be that you become prone to some sort of ADE, so in order to stay alive- you would have to take them for the rest of you life.
And, at some stage, the state is going to step out of the funding arena because public health could not keep that going indefinitely, in which case- you are on your own. This may all seem ‘conspiracy’ to the lazy of mind but just look at the US right now.
$3-500 for a EpiPen, thousands for just one trip in an ambulance and if you don’t have insurance, twenty grand a night for a hospital bed is not uncommon.
LOL;
The US is a total outlier in healthcare. But yeah, that is where Ireland must be heading.
That’s exactly where we are headed and we’re well in the way already. If you don’t have health insurance in Ireland you end up on a massive waiting list.
Demonise the unvaccinated, it will keep the heat off the incompetent, how many x health ministers sit in the current Govt ?
How long have they had to even contemplate plan B ?
meanwhile ….
A primary school in Co Wexford has closed until after the mid-term break after more than 30 cases of Covid-19 were detected at the school.
The principal of the school said the outbreak shows that there are “serious flaws” in HSE guidance for schools.
“Trust us we know the science”
Good piece but that is a complete whitewash of the harm being caused by the unvaccinated.
Vaccinated can be just as infectious so what harm exactly?
It’s like talking to a brick wall at times.
FACTS:
CDC definition of vaccine:
Then:
the act of introducing a vaccine into the body to produce immunity to a specific disease.”
Now:
Vaccine: A preparation that is used to stimulate the body’s immune response against diseases.
SO, covid vaccine isn’t a vaccine, everyone has an equal chance of contracting, becoming ill from and spreading Covid 19.
In Ireland, less than 500 of those who died with covid had no pre-existing medical condition.
All NPHET members are HSE employees, therefore they have a vested interest in maintaining social restrictions
Our Health system has been mismanaged by Fianna Fail and Fine Gael for 100 years.
Lies
All true Cian, I’m sorry the truth doesn’t suit your narrative
It’s a perfect set-up for two lots of chancers. The government get to blame someone for their failings and the unvaxxed radical-types get to finally claim they’re the victims and the real target of this whole global pandemic after all.
I think of it this way – the global financial system was on the brink of collapse prior to the pandemic. In a bid to consolidate their their power and wealth, the globalist predatory elite set have been using not only the impending financial collapse, but also the pandemic (plus the threat of an escalating global biiowarfare arms race) as pretexts to coerce governments of the world into implementing a new supranational totalitarian system incorporating (central bank) digital currencies, ubiquitous surveillance, rapid deployment of vaccines, etc. Each individual is to have a digital profile maintained and monitored in real-time with AI technology.
A cornerstone of this system has been to get the public to opt in en masse to being issued unique blockchain digital identity in the form of a vaccine passport. That’s the initial springboard. Over time it will be expanded beyond vaccine status. Politicians have convinced themselves what they’re enforcing is all in the name of “the greater good”.
The group of unvaccinated are currently useful to the Irish government as a foil in order to maintain the pretext for the continuation and consolidation of this vaccine pass system. The message in recent days has been “We don’t want another lockdown so we have to redouble and expand our efforts to enforce the vaccine pass system” – as if it were a binary choice. It’s the old divide and conquer strategy – keep the public fighting among themselves.
If and when that narrative becomes completely impossible to maintain, then I predict it might pivot to something like “This is an unpredictable and dangerous virus. The pharmaceutical companies are already working rapidly to produce the latest vaccine for the latest variant. Citizens will need the latest booster in order to maintain valid vaccine passport status”. What the government will never do is to publicly admit their own failings. The only acceptable criticism of the Covid vaccine roll out is that it’s not being done fast enough. It’s unacceptable to publicly consider whether the program of mass vaccination is the very thing driving the evolution of the virus and leaving the population susceptible to emerging vaccine-resistant variants.
Recent post from Geert Vanden Bossche-
“Keep looking at snapshots and you’ll never see where this pandemic is headed”
https://www.geertvandenbossche.org/post/keep-looking-at-snapshots-and-you-ll-never-see
…step away from the horse wormer…
…step away from Castleblaney….
The leaky vaccines don’t work and passport systems have no scientific basis for their implementation.
I have yet to read one person putting forward any semblance of a cohesive argument that vaccine passports have scientific merit- and that they reduce the transmission of SARS-CoV-2.
Combine that with the fact that in Ireland, previous infection and subsequent immune response is not accepted as proof of non infectivity, while vaccinated shedders are given free reign to spread at will.
It is no wonder that people are diving down all sorts of rabbit holes- because what the Ugly Sister government is doing, makes no logical sense.
The vaccines work in that they stop people getting really sick when infected. Why is that so difficult for you to grasp?
Why is it so difficult for you to grasp that your argument is the back end of a Brazilian bum lift?
The vaccines don’t work- it’s a cold- love your outfit- gorgeous thing you are nearly wearing.
You’re talking out the back end of your Brazilian butt lift as usual. The numbers infected versus the numbers in hospital would beg to differ. But hey, there’s no arguing with the supreme authority that is SOQ.
as above- I have yet to read one person putting forward any semblance of a cohesive argument that vaccine passports have scientific merit- and that they reduce the transmission of SARS-CoV-2.
Please Lilly- step forward and do so?
Who’s talking about vaccine passports? You stated that vaccines aren’t working. I pointed out that they are and how. Stop muddying the waters.
Make a copy of f_lawless post, print it off, email it to yourself, keep a record of it because he’s on the money.
Jaysus
It only makes logical sense for those that stand to benefit. Hence the 24/7 psyops. Along with the propaganda you also have black propaganda i.e. Project Veritas etc – make both side of the dialect argue while the brokers move everything into place.
Adding to f_lawless’ points – we’re in the New Normal, the prelude to WEFs Great Reset “2030 – you will own nothing..” etc. How do you get entire populations to give up all property rights? You don’t give them a choice.
Nations are going to be running up massive deficits in the coming years, ostensibly fighting the ‘virus’ with all it’s attendant cost’s, vaccines, PUP, stimulus cheques & MFT economics. Then, the winners will cash in their chips & let Fiat collapse – with all the debt loaded on to the citizens. A jubilee of sorts will be announced that is contingent on relinquishing any & all future property rights. Everything will be rented, you are now a customer that can be denied service, not a citizen with rights.
The only consolation is that their helpers in media, politics etc will find themselves in the same boat. I doubt your getting into the club with less than 100 million & I bet the financial elites find their useful idiots as smarmy & contrived as we do.
Could we not just all tell our new overlords to fupp off?
There is 5 million of us…
We could, but as a country we’re heavily compromised. A lot of our employment / tax base is US – medical / pharmaceutical industries, Big Tech etc. The EU also has a massive influence on how we do business. It’s no coincidence that most countries are tied up in almost inexplicable knots of foreign trade, lettuce from Israel, Irish lamb to NZ etc. No government want’s to touch these deals as they’d have mass unemployment on their hands.
Hypothetically, if some ‘savior’ did present themselves & manage to round up some goons, seize power & declare sovereignty – the result would be total exclusion. No international banking, no foreign employment, no international trade. It would be three months before we were internally broke & the lights went out.
People would be clapping and cheering as the Black Hawks landed on the grounds of Áras an Uachtaráin – and we’d be back to square one, only with a heavier hand.
Personaly, I wouldn’t mind a situation a la Cuba – poor but free. But imagine trying to get the populace to give up their way of life, the foreign holidays, The Kardasians & Tik-Tok – not happening. I’ve explained the concept of medicinal slavery to people – access to the system based on regular ‘shots’ & honestly, don’t seem to care.
Enjoyed that article.
The issues that have dogged the so called main stream media in recent years have been brought into very sharp focus in recent weeks.
Last year and into the beginning of this year the focus was on the received facts of the pandemic where as the last few months has seen the focus turn to the grinding of axes by media personalities such as the often mentioned Pat Kenny and Joe Duffy, looking for the unvaccinated to be ostracized and held up as exemplars of uninformed or worrisome vaccine hesitant people who can be converted to the righteous cause of vaccine fanatics at the acceptable end of the scale or anti social cretins looking for any excuse to derail society at the other end of the scale.
The notion of journalistic integrity seems alien to these individuals who have thrown common sense to the wind in favor of shouting down the unclean unvaccinated scourge.
Some of what has been said on the airwaves in this country in recent weeks has been bordering on incitement against a newly minted underclass of the unvaccinated. How far will this go in the coming weeks? Radio is a powerful medium, especially when the voices coming through it are as well respected and recognizable as aforementioned presenters. They need to remind themselves of how what they say can influence the opinions and sometimes the actions of the general public.
The narrative of “the damned unvaccinated” needs to stop, simply because it has no basis in fact. A greater degree of impartiality on our airwaves is badly needed. Let’s report facts, not opinions hiding behind a veil of scientific acceptability.