Lockdowns – at every level – have real consequences, and one of those consequences is that hundreds of thousands of people have been living on a subsistence payment since March. You’d have to wonder how many of the TDs, or NPHET reps, or over-paid RTÉ hosts, would be so stridently in favour of keeping the country and […]
Dr Martin Feeley was sacked by the HSE despite a lifetime of service to healthcare, an achievement previously recognised in his appointment as clinical director of the HSE’s Dublin Midlands Health Group. His offence was to state that, in his medical opinion, for most people Covid-19 was no worse than the flu, and that the […]
The average American Republican who does not subscribe to European, progressive, green-tinted views on climate change has a number of stock arguments. The science, they’ll say, is inexact, and far from settled. Projections of doom in a few years’ time are worst case scenarios. Even if the carbon levels in the atmosphere could be reversed, […]
While there were differing views on the necessity and proportionality of the NPHET recommendation to move the country to Level 5, there was very little debate around the manner in which that decision made its way into the public domain. Sent out on a fairly miserable Sunday evening, weather wise at least, it landed […]
For the first time in 30 years the number of people in extreme poverty globally, is rising. Extreme poverty, as defined by the World Bank, entails surviving on less than $1.90 a day. The consequences of the global shutdown on global poverty are causing problems that will result in many deaths. We should be […]
Thankfully, the Government remembered who elected them and rejected the NPHET call for Level 5 restrictions. It was clear that the leaking of the proposed lockdown last night had elicited a pretty wide ranging rejection. Unlike the announcement of the first lockdown in March when people were naturally in a state of shock and in […]
This might help out those in Government who don’t want to move to stage five. It will also, paradoxically, strengthen NPHET by showing that Holohan still has considerable influence, even without a stage five lockdown: Breaking – the GAA is set to announce the immediate suspension of club games at all levels across the island […]
Last April, when we were under strict lockdown and confined to a radius of two, later four, kilometres from our homes, cases of covid19 were running at figures similar to what they are now. And that is without factoring in the lack of widespread testing back then. Back then too schools were shut and hospitals […]
The Irish commentariat is united this morning, in its view that Dr. Tony Holohan has finally gone too far. Level five? He must be joking, is the general tone in the newspapers, on the radio, and on social media. That’s understandable, and it might even be correct. Be in no doubt: Level five would represent […]
Last night we heard that NPHET is recommending that a full Level 5 lockdown be implemented, which caused the head of the HSE, Paul Reid, to say that while there were concerns ‘about trends on Covid19’, there were also “impacts of severe and regular restrictions in society on the public health, wellbeing, mental health and […]
Yes, he’s at it again. On Friday, our greatest public intellectual, (with apologies to Fintan of the Times and the existential Jedward brothers) Ryan Tubridy, decided to speak directly to the public about President Trump’s failure to condemn white supremacy. Except, of course, Trump has done so. After Charlottesville, he unequivocally condemned white supremacists, and […]
Today I thought that I’d draw your attention to a particularly repulsive ad that graces a bus stop in Vancouver. The ad features a picture of a cute baby, smiling, looking with joy out at commuters. Underneath it, the ad says: “The most loving gift you can give your first child is not to have another.” […]