I’m been really feeling down all day having made a decision to cancel two different restaurant bookings that we had made with friends because of the rising Covid case numbers and the fact that mum is coming for dinner on St.Stephen’s Day.
Yes, it’s the right thing to do..
It’s more than frustrating as since the 6 week lockdown period we managed to get out just once and now it looks like we are heading into another lockdown at the start of the new year.
I know Ireland is in relatively good shape and I am very lucky and yes, “boo hoo” to me with having to cancel a restaurant booking!! Others have had REAL hardship this year and some haven’t seen family in a long time – it’s been tough.
I’m feeling down because we are missing out on friends, I’m down for the restaurants that have to take cancellations on the chin and the crap year they have had, I’m down for the pubs and the entertainment industry that were wiped out this year, I’m down for those who are sick because of Covid and what about those who have sadly passed this year because of the disease.
More than being down, I’m feeling really angry that the “6 week sacrifice” that we all made and in particular the many businesses that were forced to shut again was fairly worthless because of some poor decision making that left us with high case numbers at the end of that period.
We ignored the opportunity to extend the school’s midterm break at the beginning of lockdown and even when schools had reported cases there was some strange determination to ignore it – this got so ludicrous that some schools with an “outbreak” that wanted to close were instructed to stay open!!
We had takeaway pints being allowed throughout the 6 weeks – what level of stupidity was this?
And as for people coming into the country ..
Instead of being down I think we now need to start getting angry because this could and should have been avoided.
Tony Holohan (Chief Medical Officer in Ireland) and co are blue in the face from telling us all to be careful, wash hands, avoid travelling, stop visiting, reduce contacts, but I swear to god …
..we’ll do all of that, but that must come hand in hand with doing the other sensible things as well
If you have half an hour please listen to Dr. Niall Conroy, Consultant in Public Medicine in Queensland, talking to Eamon Dunphy on his wonderful podcast about how the combination of strong leadership and listening to the doctors suppressed Covid-19 across Australia.
At that time (in September) he suggested that if Ireland did the right things we could be celebrating with friends and family on Christmas day. We didn’t – instead we did a one legged lockdown that has us practically back to square one within a fortnight.
As I said, I’m angry..
In my view the only way to avoid us being in this perpetual yo yo situation until late next year is to do something different, the proven things that have worked in other countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, South Korea and even a place such as the Isle of Man.
The very clever people from the Independent Scientific Advocacy Group (ISAG) have carefully laid out a plan to get us “Back To Normal” for St.Patrick’s Day , which is a real solution to this crisis.
It is sensible, it will protect the health of everyone pre vaccine, it will save lives, it will start to restore mental health issues, it will have all of our businesses operating to their maximum potential under the circumstances, it will save the country a fortune and it will have our health service making up ground on all the other medical procedures that have been delayed.
Click here to read more – it will require a final lockdown (unfortunately we are there again), but then a real strategy to get us “Back To Normal” that works with some basic other things that will shut the back door as well as the front door and provide a real path to normality…
- Proper Suppression
- Travel Quarantine
- Northern Ireland cooperation
- Effective Test and Trace
- Region by Region approach
- Support for those isolated
- International Cooperation (that’s one I have added – we can open up with other countries who take the same approach)
Let’s make sure that most of 2021 isn’t as bad as 2020 – we know what to do.
Greg
Tags: Covid 19, Fuzion Communications, Greg Canty, Independent Scientific Advocacy Group, ISAG, Lockdown
Greg Canty Fuzion Blog 
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