Author Archives: Bodger

HSE covid advice in Polish

This afternoon.

KN writes:

On December 3,  the Irish Times published an article on Low vaccine uptake among Central and Eastern European communities, stating:

‘The uptake among eastern Europeans living here is much lower, with data compiled by the ESRI indicating that the vaccine take up among people from eastern Europe resident in Ireland is between 56 and 66 per cent, indicating that between almost a half and one third remain unvaccinated.

‘…Meanwhile, the vaccination record of immigrants from other parts of the world is 79-89 per cent – lower than the native population, but far, far higher than those from eastern European countries.’

Last Saturday, in the same paper, Fintan O’Toole wrote:

‘There are, crudely, three kinds of “anti-vaxxers”. In ascending order of purposeful malignity, they are the egoists, the paranoiacs and the fascists.’

I was wondering which category our East European brothers and sisters, many of whose parents lived under totalitarianism, fall under?’

Anyone?

Saturday: We Don’t Know Ourselves

This morning.

Via Reuters:

Brazil’s health ministry said its website was hit on Friday by a hacker attack that took several systems down, including one with information about the national immunization program and another used to issue digital vaccination certificates.

The alleged hackers, calling themselves Lapsus$ Group” posted a message on the website saying that internal data had been copied and deleted. “Contact us if you want the data back,” it said, in an apparent ransomware attack.

The message, which included e-mail and Telegram contact info, had been removed by Friday afternoon, but the web page was still down, while user data in the ConectSUS app that provides Brazilians with vaccination certificates had disappeared.

The government put off for a week implementing new health requirements for travelers arriving in Brazil due to the attack.

Brazil health ministry website hit by hackers, vaccination data targeted (Reuters)

French supplier Alstom has been awarded the DART+ Fleet contract for up to 750 new rail carriages over 10 years

This morning.

Via Iarnrod Eireann:

The largest and most sustainable ever order of fleet for Ireland’s public transport network was confirmed today as Alstom were awarded a contract by Iarnród Éireann (IÉ) for up to 750 new rail carriages over the coming decade.

An initial order has been placed for 95 electrically-powered carriages – made up of 19 five-carriage train sets – are set for delivery from mid-2024, entering service in 2025, and will include a number of battery powered carriages…

Iarnrod Eireann

Today’s irish Daily Mail

This morning.

Via Extra.ie:

Analysing the result of the poll of 1,002 people, Dr Kevin Cunningham, of Ireland Thinks, said there was an interesting gap between the majority of people who think vaccines should be mandatory and the even more support seen in recent months for more restrictions on people who are unvaccinated.

In October, an Ireland Thinks poll found 76% of those surveyed want unvaccinated people to be subjected to continuing restrictions – with just 18% saying the unvaccinated should not face continuing restrictions.

Majority of Irish public support mandatory COVID vaccinations (Extra.ie)

Meanwhile…

Ireland has the highest adult vaccination rate globally, which should bring us pride.

Unfortunately, Ireland has the worst access to healthcare in Europe and completely insufficient capacity at all levels in the system, especially in our ICUs. Addressing this capacity deficit should be our core policy focus.

Aside from the Covid-19 virus, there is also an epidemic of fear and blame, which can lead to intolerance.

I refer especially to the increasing rhetoric around “compulsory vaccination” and views  stating that those who are unvaccinated should “not be entitled to the pandemic employment payment”.

Unvaccinated are already stigmatised and punished, unable to travel, eat out, meet friends in a pub, or attend cultural events. There is also no high-quality evidence that punishing unvaccinated further, in the context of Ireland having a high vaccine uptake, will improve vaccination rates.

As a GP, we do not blame those who have “lifestyle choices” which we might disagree with – those who smoke, drink, use drugs, or commit crimes.

In fact, these patient groups are often the most vulnerable in society and distrustful of the State.

Fear and blame do not mix well with politics – we have seen how their weaponisation contributed to Brexit and Trump.

As Covid-19 becomes endemic in our future society – hopefully a normal circulating respiratory virus – we need tolerance and respect for different viewpoints, and we should counter blameful policies which lack evidence.

Dr Mark Murphy, Dublin 8.

Irish Times Letters

Meanwhile…

Yesterday.

Meanwhile…

Ah here.

Queues for the booster shot at the Croke Park vaccination centre

This morning.

Via RTÉ:

A plan for an updated Covid-19 booster programme is due to be published this week in an effort to ensure 1.5 million people have received a third Covid-19 jab by Christmas.

Thousands of people were given Covid-19 booster jabs at walk in HSE vaccination clinics across the country throughout the weekend.

Some had to queue for several hours to avail of the third dose of the vaccine, while other centres had little or no wait times, for those eligible for the jab.

Updated plan to ensure 1.5 million get booster jab by Christmas (RTE)

Meanwhile…

Yesterday.

Meanwhile…

Friday.

Newstalk.

Um.

Meanwhile…

Anyone?

Meanwhile…

Ah here.

Tributes to singer and French resistance agent Joséphine Baker at The Panthéon

Paris, France.

Ultan Mashup writes:

Visited Joséphine Baker’s tomb, new inductee to the Panthéon in Paris. Some lady, look her up. Staggering ceremony. Nobody does this stuff like the French. Irish cultural centre around the corner if you’re in the area…

Joséphine Baker?

Last night.

Napoli star Piotr Zielinski had to leave the pitch after struggling to breathe in a game against Empoli in the Italian first division.

Via The Sun:

Napoli midfielder Piotr Zielinski was taken off after just 19 minutes against Empoli as he appeared to be struggling to breathe.

The Pole went to the touchline and motioned to his neck and chest.

Zielinski, who put on a coat and was taken into the dressing room, was then replaced by Lorenzo Insigne.

A statement released by Napoli later confirmed Zielinski had some breathing difficulties, but subsequent tests came back negative.

Napoli midfielder Piotr Zielinski taken off after 19 minutes against Empoli after appearing to be struggling to breathe (The Sun)

Meanwhile…

Manchester United defender Victor Lindelof before having to leave the field against Norwich on Saturday

This morning.

Via Ken Early in the Irish Times:

…A collision, a fright, a problem – thankfully behind us? The times being what they are, the story couldn’t end there. You knew before looking how Lindelof’s collapse was going to be interpreted by the sense-makers and meaning-diviners of social media.

Sure enough, there was a tweet from Trevor Sinclair, scorer of Goal of the Season in 1997, and latterly combining football punditry with vaccine-scepticism: “Nothing to see here #Lindelof”. It was obvious that Sinclair’s post was a reference to his previously-aired suspicion that the Covid vaccines are causing a spate of collapses among football players.

But what about Sinclair’s premise – which you can find echoed by thousands on social media – that these cardiac collapses are becoming more common?

Back in November, Sinclair had been talking to Jim White and Simon Jordan on TalkSport about the collapse of Scotland midfielder John Fleck playing for Sheffield United against Reading. “I think everyone wants to know if he’s had the Covid vacc- . . . ” was as far as Sinclair got before the stream went dead, TalkSport’s producers having apparently hit the dump button.

Refusing to be silenced, Sinclair tweeted: “Everyone I speak to about these heart problems suffered by footballers (which worryingly seem to be happening more regularly) are they linked to Covid vaccines or not??”

No, these alleged heart problems are not linked to the vaccines, according to medical and scientific experts – as though the word of such experts matters in convincing the sceptics…

…But what about Sinclair’s premise – which you can find echoed by thousands on social media – that these cardiac collapses are becoming more common? The claim has been fact-checked by news agencies including AFP and Reuters and found to be false – not that news agency fact-checking can be expected to convince anybody who doesn’t want to be convinced.

Um.

Ken Early: Don’t make players pawns in sad and bitter Covid culture war ( irish Times)