Fascinating stuff here from noted stats nerd David Higgins: I should have made a chart of this days ago! The numbers new cases admitted to hospital with COVID-19 in Ireland peaked over a week ago. 30 March – 13131 March – 9801 April – 10702 April – 7903 April – 8504 April – 62#FlattenTheCurve pic.twitter.com/VlEARoWjtp […]
My colleague, Tim Jackson, has written a really phenomenal piece this morning on the belated acquittal of Australian Cardinal, George Pell. You should read it all, but one line stood out: It’s well known that many clerics across the world committed the most heinous crimes against children in the mid-to-late 20th century, but the targeting, […]
This, from the US Surgeon General (their top medical officer) is so easy and helpful that it’s amazing that we haven’t seen something like it from Irish authorities. Watch, it’s literally 30 seconds that could, if you’re an at-risk person, save your life: #DYK? CDC’s recommendation on wearing a cloth face covering may help protect […]
Credit to whatever low-paid research nerd at C-Span who is spending the crisis sitting at home and watching old political clips for coming up with this gem: President George W. Bush in 2005: "There is no pandemic flu in our country or in the world at this time. But if we wait for a pandemic […]
Top work from Niamh Horan at the Sunday Independent yesterday, reporting that one of the biggest potential problems with the Covid-19 outbreak is being addressed: Irish billionaires who were in Ireland the day the lockdown came into place will get a free pass to stay here for as long as it lasts. The Sunday Independent […]
There are few people braver, and more deserving of our thanks as a nation, than those who are getting up every morning, and going to work in Ireland’s hospitals, where they are at genuine risk of contracting a life threatening illness, and dying, in the course of trying to save the lives of others. Should […]
Good news, if you are a migrant living illegally in Ireland who wants to claim the new and improved €350 a week social welfare payment as a result of Coronavirus: The Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection wishes to confirm that there are no plans in place to share data we receive as part […]
Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, in Ireland, with the Coronavirus and yesterday’s jobs figures and the nurses and the doctors getting sick for lack of personal protective equipment, and the people waiting weeks on a test and another week for results….. here comes a truly monumental problem just to make things […]
In the midst of terrible unemployment news, and rising death tolls, and a shortage of testing, and a shortage of protective equipment, and general awfulness, it’s actually a relief to know that some things are as stupid as they normally are. Here’s the latest row, courtesy of Virgin Media’s Gav Reilly, who really does an […]
The unemployment figures for March are out, and they’re not pretty. Basically, unemployment has more than doubled: “The unadjusted Live Register total for March 2020 is 205,209. When seasonal effects are taken into account, the seasonally adjusted Live Register total for March 2020 was 207,200 which was an increase of 24,400 from February 2020. Outside […]
We’re obviously all looking for some good news and there is in fact some good news here, but as with all good coronavirus news, it should be treated with extreme caution, unfortunately. The American Federal Drug Agency (FDA) has approved the use of two anti-malarial drugs, chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, for the treatment of Coronavirus after […]
Nobody’s talking about it, but the biggest problem with “getting back to normal” once the Coronavirus crisis has passed its peak here in Ireland will be the simple fact that it’s a global illness, and it’s progressing around the world at a varying pace. Imagine for a moment that we arrive in early June (being […]