Tag Archives: Unjabbed

Jabbening now.

What der füppen?

Österreich sucht Angestellte, die Impf-Verweigerer jagen (Blick)

Meanwhile…

Gulp.

Based on total population

This morning.

….via RTE News:

Speaking on Newstalk, taoiseach Micheál Martin said that reducing socialisation by around 20% to 30%, following public health advice, and continuing momentum with the booster campaign could mean that the Omicron situation could be managed.

He also said it was his view that vaccination should be voluntary and this system has worked very well in Ireland.

The Taoiseach said he accepted that the unvaccinated took up a disproportionate element of the health service, particularly in terms of intensive care, but, he said, on balance the voluntary approach should continue.

Country facing ‘challenging’ January – Taoiseach (RTE)

Via Ireland Vaccine Progress

Meanwhile…

Nine danke.

Clare: “Family of 5. Went into M&S on Grafton St during the summer, spent €300+ on clothes for an upcoming wedding. Tried the café upstairs. Turned away as one of us didn’t have a cert. Asked if we could sit in the outdoor section, was told no, because of an earlier rain shower.”

Sandie Byrne: “Family of 4, would usually eat out a couple of times per week, I now refuse to give money to anywhere that asks for cert – not even for takeaway. In addition eldest is in last year of university, his whole class are planning to leave this “Kip” as soon as they graduate.”

KezG: “Same here cinemas at least 2/3 a month dinner out once a week and would go away for a night once a month to hotel not done this now since July/ august would always buy vouchers for local restaurants at xmas for friends and family but I’m not supporting them at all this year.”

Freedom Over Fear: “Same here we’d go out at least twice if not 3 times per week for food & drinks, one trip to the cinema and shopping for 3 of us ( average spend per outing €100) we don’t bother now we’ve cooking nights, take away nights and movie nights & save a fortune.”

THisisme: “Family of 3. Used to go out to breakfast most wknds. My daughter loves the cinema but can’t go now. I’d fly home (UK) a lot. didn’t fly back the first 18 months & can’t afford all the testing. My parents have missed so much of their granddaughter’s life.”

Ros Hutchinson: “We used to eat out a couple of times a week plus frequent trips to theatres and cinemas.Also multiple weekends away in hotels in U.K. particularly London. Haven’t eaten in a restaurant, attended any indoor events or stayed in a hotel since March 2020.”

Anne O’Brien: “Family of 5 and we’d eat out 2/3 times a week. Also would holiday in Ireland 3 times a year for 3 nights. Tbh, it doesn’t bother me anymore, I buy good wine and make nice food and we have friends over.”

FIGHT!

RollingNews

Istock

Columnist Fintan O’Toole argues that “those who won’t get a shot in the arm” could “end up raising that arm in stiff salute”

This morning.

Via Fintan O’Toole in The Irish Times:

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

…Instead of treating them all as an undifferentiated mass of fools and knaves, it is better to think about their individual motivations.

The fascists can’t be argued with, not least because they don’t actually give a damn either way about vaccines. The issue exists for them merely as another anxiety to be exploited. The point, therefore, is to try to separate the other two groups from these malignant forces.

In dealing with the egotists, it is surely best to appeal to their egos. Telling them that they are stupid and wrong won’t work. Neither, obviously, does the plea to think about other people.

…As for the paranoiacs, the aim should be to work with, not against, their suspicion and mistrust. They won’t listen to official admonitions. But their friends and neighbours can ask them why they are so willing to trust online “influencers” and smooth-talking charlatans.

Try to get them to see that the spread of conspiracy theories is itself a real and well-funded conspiracy. People who take pride in “thinking for themselves” must be urged to actually do so.

Every week, it gets harder for a general public that overwhelmingly understands the need for vaccination to stay patient with those who don’t or won’t. People are dying, not just from Covid, but because the unvaccinated are taking up scarce capacity in our already overstretched hospitals.

But rage, however justified, is self-defeating. It merely drives misguided people towards those who want to turn a biological pandemic into a political plague. It adds to the chances that those who won’t get a shot in the arm end up raising that arm in stiff salute.’

Thud.

Three anti-vaccine types: paranoiacs, egotists and fascists (Fintan O’Toole, Irish Times)

Pics: Wikipedia/European press Prize

The unjabbed should not be entitled to a Pandemic Unemplyment Payment (PUP), says Professor Dermot Cox of the Royal College of Surgeons

This morning.

Via Irish Times:

While there may be short-term benefits in a compulsory vaccination for Sars-CoV-2, in the long-term it may undermine the other important vaccination programmes that we have.

People have a right to maintain the confidentiality of their health record and to refuse to receive any medication or treatment no matter how illogical the reason, but society also has a right/obligation to protect itself.

The classic example is smoking. People have a right to smoke but society has insisted that they cannot do it in work, restaurants, public transport etc. Furthermore, we require them to make a financial contribution to their future care in the form of a heavy tax on cigarettes.

Just as with smokers, society has the right to protect itself from infection with Sars-CoV-2 by isolating those who refuse to disclose their vaccine status.

Furthermore, they should not be entitled to the pandemic employment payment as they are not contributing to the fight against Covid-19.

People have a right to dine in a restaurant without being exposed to cigarette smoke or being infected with Sars-CoV-2.

Prof Dermot Cox
School of Pharmacy
and Biomolecular Sciences,
RCSI, Dublin.

Irish Times Letters

Um.

Irish Times on Monday; Dr David Robert Grimes

Three days ago, physicist and conspiracy averse controversialist Dr David Robert Grimes, writing in the Irish Times, called for compulsory jabs for Ireland’s ‘anti-vax cohort’ arguing:

‘…others have a reasonable expectation that they should not be needlessly exposed to avoidable dangerous pathogens, nor should selfish stances be allowed imperil the freedom of others.’

Meanwhile…

…this morning, via Irish Times Letters:

In 2013, David Robert Grimes wrote in The Irish Times to support the introduction of same-sex marriage on the grounds that people “have the right to lead their lives in any way they choose” and that we should not “presume to dictate to others” in relation to the issue.

In 2018, he wrote in your newspaper calling for the repeal of the Eighth Amendment, on the grounds that society should “not seek to impose their morality upon others”, and that we should “leave that decision to the individual concerned”.

However, in his latest contribution to your newspaper he calls for compulsory vaccination for those who have so far refused to be vaccinated.

Can Dr Grimes please explain to me as a woman why my decision on whether to marry and have children should be left for to me to decide, but in the case of vaccinations, the State should be allowed to dictate to me what I can and cannot do?

It seems that there is none so illiberal as a liberal whose views you do not align with.

Sarah Anne Cleary, Roscommon

Meanwhile….

David Robert Grimes weakens his argument on mandatory vaccination by invoking the England and Wales Vaccination Act of 1853 and a decision of the US Supreme Court in 1905, both of which permitted compulsory vaccinations. Surely the modern Irish legal framework is of more relevance to his proposed course of action?

The right to refuse medical treatment – dismissed by Dr Grimes as a “tired and debunked old canard about liberty” – is enshrined in the Constitution.

In 1996, the former chief justice Susan Denham said this right is “a matter of choice…. not necessarily based on medical considerations. Treatment may be refused for other than medical reasons, or reasons most citizens would regard as rational”.

This right may only be overridden in circumstances where there is a grave and immediate threat to life.

It is against this backdrop which proposals on compulsory vaccinations should be judged, not against laws which were introduced during the early reign of Queen Victoria at a time when notions of individual rights and personal autonomy were in their infancy.

Dr Grimes correctly suggests that medicine should be left to doctors. He should take a double-dose of his own advice, and leave the law to lawyers.

Barry Walsh, Dublin 3

Ouch.

Irish Times Letters (Irish Times)

Small anti-vaccine cohort can’t hold society hostage (David Robert Grimes, Irish Times, December 6)

This morning.

The traditional Irish Christmas.

Roast ostrich, stuffing and all the trimmings.

Róisín Ingle: My unvaccinated relative arrives soon. It’s time for ostrich therapy (Roisin Ingle, Irish Times)

Meanwhile…

Gulp.

Shutterstock

Meanwhile…

Booster queue at Croke Park vaccination centre last week

This afternoon.

Dáil Eireann.

The Taoiseach has told the Dáil that tens of thousands of people are not turning up for booster vaccines.

Micheál Martin revealed that in the week beginning 22 November, some 208,000 vaccine appointments were offered and just 80,000 people tuned up.

He added that last week 180, 000 booster appointments were available and only 93,000 attended.

However, it is not clear if some of those missed appointments were double bookings.

The Taoiseach said the same urgency does not seem be there around boosters compared to earlier vaccines.

Thousands of missed vaccine booster appointments, Taoiseach tells Dáil (RTÉ)

Earlier…

Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly

This afternoon.

Meanwhile…

Gulp.

Meanwhile…

Um.

KN writes;

This is the Moderna world…

Earlier: Losing Count

Meanwhile…