Author Archives: Bodger

Copper Face Jacks, Harcourt Street, Dublin 2 tonight

Tonight.

Nightclubs and late venues around Ireland should only allow entry to people who have purchased tickets in advance, according to new guidelines published this evening.

They cannot be sold at the door. The same rules will also apply to underage events such as teenage discos.

Ticketing will be required for the purposes of contact tracing for all nightclubs and venues and will be the subject of regulations to be put in place next week.

RTÉ understands the tickets will only be on sale in a digital format and not printed.

A valid Covid-19 Digital Certificate, with photo identification, is required for admission to all venues operating for the purposes of live entertainment and nightclubs.

Tickets will be required for entry to nightclubs (RTÉ)

Earlier…

‘sup?

Confused?

You should be.

This morning.

Via Irish Times:

‘…The resulting hotchpotch of restrictions and protocols has become the focus of debate in advance of the reopening, with publicans and venue owners complaining of anomalies and inconsistencies in the new rules. The Vintners’ Federation asked earlier this week how it was safe for 200 people to be dancing in a nightclub when eight people cannot throw darts in a pub.

Such questions are understandable, and some of the concerns will have been addressed by the guidelines issued by Government yesterday after consultation with the industry. But to expect that there will be no inconsistencies – that there will be “equality of treatment” as another industry group put it – rather misses the point.

At many stages in the pandemic, it has been Government policy, based on public health advice, to differentiate between settings depending on the nature of mixing that takes place there and the needs of individual businesses.

The overall aim is to keep opportunities for disease transmission as low as possible without allowing businesses go to the wall. On paper the more sensible precautionary step would be to halt the reopening of indoor gathering spaces entirely.

It may yet come to that if current trends persist, but for now differentiation – and, yes, some inconsistency – is the compromise.’

Irish Times editorial.

So there.

Anomalies Are Part Of The Deal (Irish Times)

Yesterday: Are You Keeping A ‘Good House’?

RollingNews

Dr Anne Moore (above), UCC School of Pharmacy

Earlier.

Dr Anne Moore, senior lecturer in Biochemistry and Cell Biology at University College Cork (UCC), spoke with Bryan Dobson on RTE Radio One’s News at One about covid vaccine efficacy or lack thereof.

Dr Moore said:

“As time goes by…straight after immunisation, you’ve a very, very strong immune response that, over time, will just, naturally, most vaccines will do this, all vaccines do this, whereby the immune response will just settle down to kind of a threshold level. So at the very start, just after vaccination, you’re very highly protected, you’ve a very strong response at even getting infected.

“But these vaccines aren’t made or designed to prevent transmission. So over time, that ability that they have at a community level, to decrease the amount of community transmission, is decreasing so it’s one of the reasons why we’re seeing more transmission in the community. Because vaccines, they’re not designed to do that.

“They did have that effect, and they do very early after vaccination. But as a population, as more of us go further in time from our last vaccination, those vaccines, we have less of that ability to prevent transmission and virus loads in our naval cavities are going up slightly and we’re passing it on more.”

Later

“Ultimately what we need is a vaccine that prevents transmission, similar to what we saw, you know, with Polio vaccines. The oral Polio vaccine, you know, was so much better at preventing transmission, compared to an injected one. So there’s still a lot of work to be done in making the perfect vaccine. The ones we have are great, they’ve fantastic ability to keep people out of hospital; but they’re not going to prevent transmission in the community and we need to be aware of that.”

Anyone?

Earlier: Sick leave

Pic: Tomas Tyner/UCC

Bendy. flying people.

This afternoon.

Meeting House Square, Temple Bar, Dublin.

Acrobats Ria Murphy (top and pic 2), Beverley Grant (pics 3 and 4) Sophia Bikova (above and pic 5) of Aerial Cirque performing as part of Dublin Alive, Dublin City Council’s local live performance programme, funded by Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sports and Media.

Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland

Y.4.2 aka Delta Plus reportedly contains mutations ‘that might give the virus survival advantages’

This afternoon.

It’s having kids.

Via i Paper:

The new offshoot of Delta, AY.4.2, has been upgraded to a “variant under investigation” by the UK Health Security Agency.

The so-called “child of Delta”, which is a sublineage of the variant, has become increasingly common in the UK and accounts for more than 6 per cent of new cases, with 15,120 confirmed infections so far.

Officials said the variant, given the official name VUI-21OCT-01, may have increased growth rate compared to the original Delta variant. Some scientists believe it is up to 15 per cent more infectious than Delta, but this has not been confirmed.

Covid: New ‘Child of Delta’ strain upgraded to ‘variant under investigation’ as UK cases rise (iPaper)

Previously: Covid-19: New mutation of Delta variant under close watch in UK (BBC)

Above from left: Nicki Killeen, HSE National Social Inclusion Office/Drugs.ie; Aidan Thompson, DJ and Promoter; Fionnuala Moran, Presenter RTÉ Pulse; Robbie Kitt, DJ and Musician; and Kasey Keating Brady, DJ and HSE Dental Nurse

This morning.

The Grand Social, Dublin.

With the night-time economy reopening, the HSE has launched a new drugs harm-reduction campaign, reminding people who choose to use drugs: ‘If You Go, Go Slow’. HSE Drugs.ie unveiled the campaign at a live panel event, which brought together the HSE, DJs and event industry representatives.

Also: if you are offered an experimental injection from a stranger, possibly in a tent, just say no.

Pause.

FIGHT!

Sasko Lazarov/Photocall Ireland

 

This afternoon.

Liam Herrick, executive director of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) has written to Minister for health Stephen Donnelly about the necessity of the vaccine pass.

The ICCL has said the pass system has been developed without any ‘meaningful consideration of human rights’.

Mr Herrick writes:

We ask you, Minister, to please clarify the following:

What is the purpose of the Government’s vaccine certificate system?

The purpose matters because it affects the proportionality and necessity of the measure. If it is to persuade people to get vaccinated, this raises concerns about the future ramifications or possible expansion of “health passports” and the subsequent impacts of such on everyone, vaccinated or unvaccinated. If it is to reduce transmission, the certificate system should include testing.

Why is testing still being omitted from the certificate system?

There is a provision in the Act [Health (Amendment) (No.2) Act 2021] to allow for a “permitted person” to include someone who can show proof of a negative test. It’s utterly unclear why this hasn’t been provided.

Where is the evidence that the immunity certificate system to date has worked in curbing the transmission of Covid-19?

It is vital that this evidence is forthcoming, given the context of extremely high rates of vaccination in the population generally and particularly the age cohorts accessing hospitality.

This is also vital, in the context of persistent transmission of Covid between vaccinated people in all settings.’

Anyone?

Full letter here

Irish Council for Civil Liberties

This afternoon.

Fergus Keane writes:

Today is FREEDOM DAY when C19 restrictions finally end and we can wander our city streets again to drink, dance and SPEND!

During the C19 epidemic the Irish government considered hiring Influencers to communicate public messages. The idea was quietly shelved at the time.

Now that the panic is over, our once deserted Dublin city centre is opening up again. Two of Dublin’s top influencers have been commissioned at enormous expense to welcome you back to drink, shop, take selfies with cops, and most importantly, spend in our city centre once more. Full information film coming soon.

FRO Films

From top: Dr Patrick Greene, CEO and Museum Director. Above from left: Aileesh Carew, Director of Sales and Marketing, EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum; Minister for Tourism Catherine Martin; Dr Greene; Caroline O’Keefe, Dublin Manager, Fáilte Ireland; and Niall Gibbons, CEO of Tourism Ireland

This morning.

Custom House Quay, Dublin 1.

EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum in Dublin has been voted as Europe’s Leading Tourist Attraction at The World Travel Awards for the THIRD year running.

Of the online vote, Darragh at EPIC sez:

“We are very proud that EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum has been voted a winner in the 2021 World Travel Awards, keeping the title of Europe’s Leading Tourist Attraction in Dublin for the third year in a row.

Thank you. Whatever way you have spread the word about us online, thank you. Thanks for the tweets, the mentions, the shout outs, the inclusions, the event listings, the photos, the features. Thanks to you and your colleagues and all those who supported us. This award is above all a great testament to your continued encouragement, and I’d like to personally thank everyone who took the time to vote for us – we couldn’t have done it without you.”

In fairness.

EPIC The Irish Emigrant Museum

This evening.

You tell ’em, Bill.

Earlier…

HSE CEO Paul Reid at Dr Steevens’ Hospital, Dublin yesterday

This morning.

Via Independent.ie:

With more than 1,800 HSE staff out due to Covid-related issues around the country, University Hospital Limerick and Galway University Hospital confirmed yesterday they had to cancel surgeries.

In some cases they even had to close wards due to the increase in Covid-19 patients at a time of growing levels of respiratory illness and emergency attendances.

Surgeries cancelled as 1,800 health workers now out due to Covid, HSE chief calls for booster shots (Independent.ie)

Meanwhile..

….via RTÉ News”

Health Service Executive CEO Paul Reid has said there is a “significant proportion” of healthcare staff who are not able to work because of Covid-19 infections.

Speaking on Morning Ireland, he said that from his perspective he is anxious to see booster vaccine campaigns for health care workers, adding that the National Immunisation Advisory Committee (NIAC) continues to assess the evidence relating to booster shots.

He said his concerns relate to healthcare workers becoming ill with Covid-19 and the subsequent impact on the health service and “secondly, what we are seeing is emerging outbreaks within healthcare settings.”

‘Anxiety’ among healthcare staff as case numbers rise (RTÉ)

Meanwhile…

*scratches head*

RollingNews

Meanwhile…

Um.