The plan to re-open schools was released yesterday to great fanfare, and contains lots of big announcements, which are neatly summarised here, courtesy of the journal.ie: 1,080 extra teachers will be added to post-primary schools at a cost of €53 million to help reduce class sizes. Additional substitution, supervision, guidance counsellors and psychologists will also […]
My background is in investment risk management, particularly in the quantitative analysis of defined benefit pension scheme assets and liabilities. To put that in English: I’m a spreadsheet monkey. When I have a problem, and if I have enough time on my hands, I usually start with Microsoft Excel. Well, I’ve had a lot of […]
It’s only been a few months, but it sure does feel like the Covid crisis is dragging on forever. Anything that can bring it to a relatively swift conclusion sometime next year would be a tremendous victory for the world, and a monumental scientific achievement. And our neighbours over at the University of Oxford certainly […]
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Dubbed “deaths of despair”, opioid deaths are a significant reason why the life expectancy of Americans is falling. In 2017, the rate of drug overdose deaths (21.7 per 100,000) had increased to 3.6 times the rate in 1999. The demographic of America’s opioid epidemic is non-Hispanic white Americans, Native Americans and the working class, and […]
On the one hand, you have to admire the sheer chutzpah of “if we can’t sell pints, nobody should be able to have one”. But on the other hand…… don’t they have a point? Head of the Vintners Federation of Ireland (VFI), Padraig Cribben reacted to the news that pubs will not be allowed to […]
It’s now approaching six months since Covid-19 turned our world upside down, although China and other Asian countries have been tackling the novel coronavirus since late last year. Prediction and speculation are the stock-in-trade of fools but I think we’ve all been tempted to dust down our crystal ball and ponder what the future holds. […]
Well, we’ve come a long way from the days of “facemasks might make things worse”, haven’t we? The Government has announced that face coverings must now be worn in all shops, retail settings and shopping centres. It said the strong advice is for people to start obeying the guidance immediately, but said regulations will take […]
A new study has found that patients hospitalised with Covid-19 were much less likely to die if they were treated with the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine. Treatment with hydroxychloroquine cut the death rate significantly in sick patients hospitalized with COVID-19 – and without heart-related side-effects, according to a new study published by Henry Ford Health System […]
High death tolls have been one of great scandals of the Covid 19 pandemic. By May, a third (46,400) of all coronavirus deaths in the United States were among nursing/care home residents and workers. In New York state the toll was increased by thousands of recovering Covid cases being released from hospitals to nursing homes. In Britain, […]
It’s a relatively slow news day, so let us place on record our thanks to the British Prime Minister for this tasty and controversial content: Face masks will become mandatory in shops across England, ministers are to announce on Tuesday, following mixed messages, a cabinet split and mounting pressure on Boris Johnson to change public […]
Aontú Leader Peadar Tóibín has said the mismanagement of the covid-19 pandemic in nursing homes is a “national scandal” and called for a public invesigation into the matter. The Meath West TD also criticised the response of Tánaiste Leo Varadkar during Leaders Questions, and stated that the families of victims, and residents of nursing homes […]