Both countries and companies have taken advantage of the misery of the Covid-19 pandemic, the lockdowns, the loneliness and the misery of millions to burnish their image. China has donated masks and ventilators; companies have offered free stuff like online yoga lessons, audiobooks, museum tours, movies and software. Great PR! But the most audacious offering […]
There’s been a strong reaction to the closure of Bewley’s of Grafton Street, in particular when it was revealed that a primary reason for the closure is the €1,500,000 annual rent bill demanded by the company owned by developer Johnny Ronan. That’s a rent of €28,846 every week; over €4,000 every day. Rent accounted for […]
I will be the first one to hold up my hands and say I wanted a lockdown too. I used the #stayathome #staysafe #quaranteam hashtags that began floating around only a number of weeks ago. I bombarded friends of mine with messages regarding staying home and staying safe. I panic bought Vitamin C and other […]
There is an interesting European collaborative mortality monitoring activity among 24 European countries called Euromomo (website: euromomo.eu). They collate and analyse weekly mortality statistics which are published on their website. The project has weekly mortality data since the beginning of 2016 and the mortality statistics are published below for the full period data is available. […]
On the one hand, this is excellent. As an ex-smoker, I’ve always wanted the excuse to go down and get 20 camel blues from the local shop. And now, for the first time in my life, I can tell my mother I’m doing it for the good of my health: Frontline health workers and patients […]
There’s a very simple solution to this problem, of course. If someone won’t tell the authorities where they’re going to be staying for the next few weeks, the state should flip the table and tell them where they’ll be staying for the next few weeks: Arbour Hill Prison. Or, if you’re not an authoritarian right […]
This film is definitely guilty of railing against the mainstream narrative, much like the viral video of two California doctors calling for the lockdown to be lifted. That too was removed.
Something you don’t see every day: A politician who was explicitly defenestrated by the voters from her seat in the Dáil, back in the chamber just a few weeks later, taking questions like nothing had happened: Here’s something you don’t see every day – a non-TD taking questions in the Dáil. Katherine Zappone presenting this […]
The Financial Times has reported that an assessment of mortality statistics shows that deaths from the coronavirus could be 60% higher then is currently being reported. The FT says that it analysed mortality statistics across 14 countries to compare the number of deaths in excess of normal levels with the number of covid-19 deaths reported. It […]
A stunning graph this, courtesy of US company Kinsa: The blue line in that graph represents people with a temperature in New York City. The red line is deaths in New York City. If you take the temperatures, and shift them 18 days to the right, they line up perfectly with the deaths. In other […]
A few days ago, Dr Michael Ryan of WHO singled out Sweden for praise for its handling of the covid19 crisis. This is significant because Sweden was being pilloried as arrogant at best, irresponsible at worst for its refusal to join most of rest of the world in state enforced lockdown. Sweden’s extensive testing regime […]
‘Normal people’ should see the problem with licking faeces, but maybe I am expecting too much of our health chiefs.