“Death free” is obviously an exaggeration, since yes, some people are still dying. But take a good look at this chart. The red line is deaths, the grey line is cases. In every previous wave, deaths surged about two weeks after cases surged. This time? Not happening: COVID deaths lag confirmed COVID cases by 2 […]
It is very important that people do not misunderstand what the headline above means, so let’s be absolutely clear. First, this is a report, albeit one from NBC news, which means that it should be taken seriously. But it is also not 100% fact, or anything like that. Second, their sources are good, but their […]
2020 was a record breaking year for mortality in Ireland. In fact, a government report shows that some of last year’s rates were the lowest of all time. Every May, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) publishes its Vital Statistics Yearly Summary. This report contains data about births, deaths and marriages in Ireland for the previous calendar […]
When we think of “covid cases in hospital”, the average person probably assumes, through more than a year of exposure to talk of covid, that they refer to people who have contracted covid 19, developed symptoms, and gotten so sick that they needed to be admitted to hospital for treatment. And indeed, in many cases, […]
The movies do a strange thing to the human mind. All our lives, we have been taught that the good guys eventually triumph. The stories we tell, the books we read, the legends we pass down from generation to generation mostly have within them a comforting lie: That the heroes succeed. Movies like “Independence Day” […]
A few caveats here: First, Behaviour and Attitudes has consistently found Sinn Fein support higher, and other party support lower, than other pollsters. That does not mean they are wrong, but it is worth noting. Second, they were not hugely accurate at the last general election, though that also does not mean they are wrong […]
Not a name that would well-known, or known at all, in Ireland, Lord Sumption, with his title of Lord, is likely to be given short shrift as a credible commentator on the world, on Brexit, on Covid-19, or even the rule of law. Titles of peerage tend to induce a guttural reaction in Ireland […]
Peadar Tóibín TD has read what he described as a “damning document” into the Dáil record in which he says it appears that the Government moved elderly patients “wholesale out of hospital beds and crammed them into nursing homes just as Covid hit the country”. Over 2,000 people died with Covid in Nursing Homes, but commentators […]
An editor with the British Medical Journal, one of the world’s most respected peer-reviewed publications, has co-signed an article saying that the evidence shows the risks to children from Covid-19 vaccines outweigh the benefits, including any benefits regarding reducing infection for adults. “There is no need to rush to vaccinate children against covid-19—the vast majority […]
The headline to this piece is not, in fact, what the HSE said. In truth, because the HSE must (you’d nearly think there was a law mandating it) present all data in with the most depressing possible spin, they pointed out that 5% of new cases are people who have been vaccinated: #NEW HSE says […]
Poor old Ireland: Varadkar says he believes “we need to get through at least another winter before we can say the pandemic is behind us” – he says vaccinating all adults might not be enough to bring about herd immunity, and teenagers being vaccinated may also be required before any full reopening pic.twitter.com/6hkymiVyIx — Gavan […]
Boris Johnson’s two chief scientific advisors, Professors Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance, were in front of the media yesterday to face a grilling on Johnson’s plans to fully re-open the UK next week. The assembled media (doing their job, to be fair) were very eager to poke holes in the plan, and extract quotes about […]