Professor Philip Nolan, Chair of NPHET Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group (IEMAG)

This morning.

RTÉ Radio One’s Morning Ireland.

NPHET believes even the severe measures coming into effect today and just after Christmas will ‘not be enough to bring the reproduction number down as low as it needs to go’.

Via RTÉ News:

The chair of NPHET’s Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group, said “we are in a surge” and the virus is spreading rapidly.

Professor Philip Nolan said he does not think the measures being introduced from today will be enough to bring the virus under control and this time it is coming “really fast and really hard” and the next few days will determine what happens in January.

He urged people to keep numbers to a minimum and not to spend too much time together as it is long gatherings in indoor settings where control of the virus is lost.

Prof Nolan said if people have been out and about a great deal recently they should stay away from loved ones who may be vulnerable.

Minister who tested positive for Covid after shopping trip ‘followed all rules’ (Independent.ie)

Sam Boal/RollingNews

Meanwhile…

Turn that frown upside down.

FIGHT!

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Don’t Forget Your Ruler If You Want To Go To Work Hail Fellow, Well NPHET Unseemly ‘Revise Current Policy And Consider An Alternative Strategy Tailored To Our Nation And Its People’

54 thoughts on “Lower!”

  1. Nigel

    Not to resort to personal invective in reference to the grifters who have decided to sabotage public health measures to bolster their brand while wrapping themselves in the rhetoric of martyrdom but what a useless shower of venal twits. Bah humbug.

    1. Daisy Chainsaw

      This. A friend is buying her mother because she died from/with/of Covid19, but narcissistic disease peddlers have their stupid slogans while they revel in killing others with their wilful ignorance.

    2. John Smith

      @Nigel
      ‘Bah humbug’

      (From your in-put over the months, I presume you are using this about the smiley logo, not the Nolan comments.)

      Be careful about the expressions you use, Nigel. Look where ‘bah, humbug’ comes from. Scrooge, the miser, said it about Christmas and ended up celebrating a lavish Christmas and being good and generous because he realised he had been wrong.

      1. Nigel

        Oh sod, now I’m going to be visited by the three ghosts of Christmas Apocalypses – pandemics past present and yet to come. ‘You there boy, which pandemic is it today?’ As Tiny Tim was heard to wheeze while coughing up blood – ‘God infect us, every one!’

        That smiley logo is sinister as feck.

    1. John Smith

      @millie bobby brownie
      ‘I’m not sure you know this, but Ebenezer Scrooge is a fictional character.’

      Yes, and it a well-known story, therefore it is also well-known that, in that sense, Scrooge’s use of the expression back-fired on him. If you think something really is ‘humbug’, it is better not to use an expression that suggests – from it’s literary history – that you will be proved wrong!

      1. millie bobby brownie

        I can say ‘Yer a wizard Harry’ as many times as I want, John, and it sure as snow won’t make me or anyone else I I know a wizard.

        Sometimes a line from a book is simply that.

    2. ReproBertie

      Not just a fictional character but a fictional contrarian who insisted on going against the general public mood for his own selfish reasons. He soon learned he was only harming himself by being so miserable and negative all the time and he was much the better for the lesson.

      Merry Christmas to all!

  3. Nigel

    Also nice job co-opting the language of anti-Trump, anti-right wing, anti-corporate-pollution-and-destruction movements in the name of a cause supported by Trump, the right, and disaster capitalists everywhere, namely undermining collective actions for the public good.

  4. Dan

    Ivor Cummins is a total hack – the idea that masks don’t prevent the spread of the virus is so insane, it’s a bit like saying umbrellas don’t stop you from getting wet. Wearing a mask is the easiest of the current restrictions and not wearing one causes the disease to spread quicker and will only drag everything out longer. But hey, I suppose when you are getting your scientific information from YouTube videos and have the IQ of a sleeping dog, there’s no real hope of any sense.

    3. E'Matty

      There is no scientific evidence to support your idiot claim of masks preventing the spread of Covid. The virus particles are much smaller than your gimp mask and simply pass through the mask as you breath. The WHOs own Committee, which looked into masks, did not recommend them. The WHO revealed its decision to recommend mask wearing was due to ‘political lobbying’. Indeed, we are simply seeing political agendas being progressed under the guise of Science.

      As for IQ, mine is in the 99th percentile. Where’s yours? You’re an unthinking herd animal so I will guess somewhere in the 60th percentile. A worker, not a thinker.

      2. millie bobby brownie

        Oh, the smuggery strikes again.

        You really are the smartest boy in class. So much smarter than all the other boys and girls, especially those nasty scientists and evil epidemiologists, but you know better, fresh off your post doctorate in bullshit and self delusion.

          4. SOQ

            And there we have it. Refusing to even listen to a world expert in infectious diseases and epidemiology after calling someone else a bullshitter.

        2. E'Matty

          Oh look, a herd animal once again proudly displaying her unquestioning subservience to supposed authority. That is what differentiates the enlightened from the herd. Look as you time and again champion following your supposed betters. You actually see virtue in this unquestioning obedience. The enlightened do not follow. The intelligent do not abdicate responsibility for thought to others. You’re a dumb herd animal. Just accept it. Don’t try be clever. It doesn’t suit you.

          1. millie bobby brownie

            What a misunderstood genius you are, with your 99th percentile IQ and even bigger ego.

            I don’t try to be anything other than I am actually, as opposed making empty boasts about my intellectual abilities to overcompensate for my insecurities, like your good self.

          2. E'Matty

            Not at all Millie. I am simply refuting the slurs and insults you and the other silly booper-pies hurl at anyone who dares question the mindless consensus. Dan labelled us as having the IQ of sleeping dogs (whatever that is even to supposed to mean). I have the confidence and self knowledge to not suffer the same intellectual inferiority complex your kind display as a badge of honour. Just like you do above, your kind always demands everyone submit to a higher authority. “Listen to the experts” you cry, though really you’re saying “obediently and unquestioningly submit to the dictats of those who hold themselves out as voices of authority”. It’s not that you listen to the various experts (only the current government approved “experts” are deemed valid by you), consider the facts and evidence presented, and then, this part is key, make up your own mind on the subject matter. You completely abdicate the responsibility for thinking for oneself and seek to demand everyone else does the same. Democracies are not based on unthinking, unquestioning obedience to authority as you seem to believe. In decades gone by in this country, it was people like who when the Church sought to dictate every aspect of how we live whether it be contraception, marriage or abortion, your kind would likely say “Oh, so I suppose you know more about morality than the Bishop. He’s a man of God. As if you know more than him on morality”. And how ridiculous we all know that to be now. Blind obedience to authority is the greatest danger to democracy and has always been the means of control of every oppressive ruler.

          3. Brother Barnabas

            so the ratlickers see themselves as enlightened intelligentsia… mind boggling level of delusion

        1. E'Matty

          Merry Christmas to you too Repro! Though I think you’ll find that no, the evidence does not support that claim. The numerous studies on mask wearing and efficacy in preventing the spread of viral infections, find masks to be ineffective.

          The argument has even switched to arguing that they stop spit when we sneeze or cough. That’s about the extent of their effectiveness. The idea those without the virus or asymptomatic people should all now be walking round hiding behind these ridiculous masks is laughable nonsense. As I said, the WHOs own advisory committee on masks concluded against advising masks (The science side) but this was overruled by lobbying (the political side). Political agendas are being presented as scientific imperatives.

          1. ReproBertie

            “The argument has even switched to arguing that they stop spit when we sneeze or cough.”

            LOL! Credit to you E’Mattty, you do come out with some very amusing nonsense.

            Had you read the article and the reports it links to you’d have read this from back in June. “In summary, there is laboratory-based evidence that house- hold masks have some filtration capacity in the relevant droplet size range, as well some efficacy in blocking droplets and particles from the wearer. That is, these masks help people keep their droplets to themselves.”

            “The argument“. Now that’s funny.

  5. ce

    Ivor – my favourite Complex Problem Solver,,,

    Beyond the diet books what other complex problems has he solved?

    Genuine question – can’t see much else on the site

    1. Brother Barnabas

      I’d guess he’s solved the complex problem of how to pay off his mortgage quick smart… laughing his way to the bank at the expense of duped fools

      1. ce

        Good point – take my money

        …. now I’m actually going to hoover

        I hope you all have a relaxing relatively argumentative-free Christmas

  6. SOQ

    Oh dear, the vitriol in this thread. And all because you don’t want people expressing their disgust at this madness. Straight up question here lads- for all of you who are spitting feathers above- how many of you have lost your job or about to lose your business or had missed cancer screenings or treatments because of this carry on?

    But no it is the people who point this out who are selfish apparently. And as long as it is someone else’s lives being ruined, sure what harm? Me not we all the bloody way.

    1. Brother Barnabas

      says the guy who actively campaigns against people even making the minuscule concession of wearing a mask for the good of others

      a liar, a sham and a sh 1t

    2. ReproBertie

      “how many of you have lost your job or about to lose your business or had missed cancer screenings or treatments because of this carry on?“

      No question on how many of us have lost loved ones to Covid though.

      Merry Christmas SOQ.

      1. SOQ

        I can only speak for myself- I have lost two- one a family member and the other a friend. Both had treatments for other conditions delayed so they are victims of CoVid-19 too- or more importantly, the criminal negligence, which is ongoing.

        Maybe that somewhat explains my anger at this stupid virtue signalling these days.

  7. Zaccone

    The numbers in ICU are actually going down. We’re at 25 now, nowhere near the peak of 150 last Spring.

    NPHET can keep up the fear mongering as much as they like but compliance goes down every week as more and more people do the research and see they’re just not at risk from this if they’re under 70. People all over the country are celebrating Christmas as normal tomorrow, and NYE will be the same.

    1. Cian

      Yes ICU usage is low.
      But the Covid hospitalization have jumped back (from a low of 190 twelve days ago back up to 255 today. This will most likely have a knock on effect on the ICU usage over the next week.

      I’m going to go out on a limb and predict ICU will exceed 50 by the middle of January and hospitaliastion goes over 400.

  8. Micko

    It’s the conversation of the year eh?
    Masks or no masks. Lockdowns or no lockdowns

    Respected experts and pundits on both sides arguing and presenting evidence for both cases.

    Clearly they can’t both be true, who the feck knows sure.

    I suspect the real answer is somewhere in the middle of the two extremes.

    It’s a weird world at the mo. Just do your own thing and everything will be fine.

    Anyway, just to give us all hope – here’s a nice report about some local people who are dropping off food to the truckers stuck at Dover. Very nice stuff.

    Merry Christmas – Ya Filthy Animals!! :p

    https://youtu.be/HeVMGH72AcI

    1. Janet, dreams of an alternate universe

      yes , what are you waiting for … HAPPY CHRISTMAS to touuuuuuu, I sang that last bit

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