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Viagra, leprosy and kids who hate school: The week in numbers

Plus: How many hoax calls are made to the HSE ambulance service every day?

EVERY WEEK, TheJournal.ie offers a selection of statistics and numerical nuggets to help you digest the week that has just passed.

0 – The number of topless models who will appear on page 3 of the Irish Sun from now on after the paper scrapped the long-standing feature this week.

2 – The number of cases of leprosy recorded in Ireland in recent months – the first cases of the disease in the country for decades.

9 – The percentage of children in Ireland who say they ‘never like school’, according to a study by researchers at the ESRI.

12 – The average number of hoax calls made to the HSE ambulance service every day. New figures show the HSE received 4,329 hoax calls last year.

14 - The weight in tonnes of a ‘fatberg’ – a mass of congealed fat, wet wipes and sanitary products – discovered clogging up a sewer in London during the week. Ew.

33 – The percentage of women on radio news and current affairs programmes on the country’s three main stations.

49 – The percentage of people who support the abolition of the Seanad according to an opinion poll released on Friday. Just over one third – 36 per cent – said they would vote to keep the upper house of the Oireachtas.

12,000 +  - The number of people who downloaded a document saying they wanted to leave the Catholic Church from the website CountMeOut.ie, before the site announced this week that it is to close down. Founders said changes to canon law made it too difficult for the site to operate.

200,000 – The number of doses of a generic version of Viagra being handed out for free by the government in Argentina.

250,000,000 – The amount in dollars the Washington Post newspaper was bought for by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos this week.

Want more? Check out our previous ‘In numbers’ pieces >

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3 Comments
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    Mute Newto2016
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    Dec 26th 2020, 8:43 AM

    Once care home residents and frontline healthcare workers are vaccinated we should not put up with any more restrictions on our freedoms and livelihoods. The vulnerable can continue to isolate until they are vaccinated – surely that makes more sense than all of us doing it and having hundreds of thousands on the PUP

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    Mute This Interests Me
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    Dec 26th 2020, 9:17 AM

    @Newto2016: Most vulnerable people don’t have the ability to lock themselves away from the outside world. In a lot of cases, they live with other people and/or they are cared for by other people. If the virus is widespread in the community, then those people will pick it up and bring it to them. Saying “go isolate until this is over and it’ll be grand” isn’t realistic and it shows a complete lack of understanding.

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    Mute David Garland
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    Dec 26th 2020, 9:28 AM

    @Newto2016: Anyone thinking these restrictions will be suddenly lifted is deluded. NEPHET now have too much control over our freedoms and the next thing will be, level 3 until everybody is vaccinated and you won’t be able to fly in or out of the Country without a vaccine.. No entry to concerts, football matches without a vaccine. I’d say every flu season from now on masks will be mandatory and social distancing in place. The Government and media have People so afraid they’ll accept anything from now on

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    Mute Daniel Roche
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    Dec 26th 2020, 10:11 AM

    @David Garland: hopefully masks become the norm in winter, they have done a great job with covid and the flu, can’t wait to take the vaccine and no I’m not a sheep.

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    Mute David Garland
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    Dec 26th 2020, 11:22 AM

    @Daniel Roche: Each to their own but I won’t be wearing one once the vaccine is out.. Life has to return to normal and masks etc should be personal choice as should any vaccine. From the very start we were told to wear masks to protect the vulnerable, when they’re vaccinated all restrictions should be lifted. End of Story

    82
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    Mute Jim Buckley Barrett
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    Dec 26th 2020, 11:34 AM

    @Newto2016: you complain about the restrictions on your freedom but suggest that the vulnerable would be locked away, double standards much?

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    Mute Daniel Roche
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    Dec 26th 2020, 12:29 PM

    @David Garland: ya each to there own, I rather care about the great people of our country and the greater good,happy Christmas to you.

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    Mute Niamh Brady
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    Dec 26th 2020, 12:35 PM

    @David Garland: Aren’t you lucky not to be a vulnerable person, hopefully next time we have a pandemic and you might at that stage be classed as a vulnerable person you’re happy to isolate yourself so people can have their “freedom”.

    15
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    Mute David Garland
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    Dec 26th 2020, 1:32 PM

    @Niamh Brady: What are you on about? I said when the vulnerable are vaccinated all restrictions should be lifted.. That’s what should happen..

    30
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    Mute David Garland
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    Dec 26th 2020, 1:35 PM

    @Daniel Roche: Where was your mask previous flu seasons. Don’t get on your high horse saying you care about the great People of our Country because you’ll wear a mask every winter from now on. Good Man yourself. Suppose you want a clap for that

    29
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    Mute Eoin McLove
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    Dec 26th 2020, 7:11 AM

    Hopefully people follow restrictions and Govt enforce them, so we minimise amount of lockdowns until vunerable vaccinated.

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    Mute Eoin McLove
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    Dec 26th 2020, 7:16 AM

    @Eoin McLove: hopefully too, we stay away from numbers like Sweden (70 dead every day).
    .
    That would really slow down roll out

    62
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    Mute Boyd Gray
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    Dec 26th 2020, 7:22 AM

    @Eoin McLove: Amazed at how easily some Irish people rolled over and allowed their government to strip them of their rights and freedoms, first for three weeks, now for 15 months. Baaaaaaaa.

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    Mute JedBartlett
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    Dec 26th 2020, 7:24 AM

    @Eoin McLove: They’ve already indicated we’ll be in level 5 until the nursing homes are vaccinated anyway. They’ve not said it directly but the dates marry up. Leo said possibly end of Feb for lifting level 5 and the HSE have said they’ll have the nursing homes vaccinated by the end of Feb.

    We’ll see how they handle the remaining vulnerable in society after that I suppose

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    Mute Eoin McLove
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    Dec 26th 2020, 7:50 AM

    @Boyd Gray: you’d think if Govt brought in masks faster and enforced restrictions, we’d have avoided some of the lockdowns alright.
    .
    Which country’s approach would you recommend?

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    Mute Francis Mc Carthy
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    Dec 26th 2020, 8:14 AM

    @Eoin McLove: That very edgy guy would recommend two countries ; U.S.A & America

    30
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    Mute Liam Meade
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    Dec 26th 2020, 8:19 AM

    @JedBartlett:
    We the citizens are the biggest contributers to the health of the vulnerable but for the sake of a bit of turkey and pointless Xmas tat from China the heart ache continues.

    44
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    Mute JedBartlett
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    Dec 26th 2020, 8:31 AM

    @Liam Meade: I presume you spent yesterday alone in your bedroom so?

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    Mute Sean Lucas
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    Dec 26th 2020, 9:16 AM

    @Eoin McLove: Why Sweden? They have one of the lower death rates recently of 5.2 per 100,000 in the last 14 days. Higher than here but nowhere near as bad as Czechia, Poland, Italy etc etc. In fact most countries have a higher death rate than Sweden.

    48
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    Mute BenG
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    Dec 26th 2020, 10:10 AM

    @Boyd Gray: ooh we got a free spirit man of the land here,no one will tell him what to do. mman,your are so cool..

    22
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    Mute Damo
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    Dec 26th 2020, 10:14 AM

    @Boyd Gray: what a hero

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    Mute Gerry Ryan
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    Dec 26th 2020, 10:28 AM

    @Boyd Gray: you’ve been to the Troll school

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    Mute Tony Kennedy
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    Dec 26th 2020, 11:00 AM

    @Boyd Gray:
    What way would you have handled it ?

    9
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    Mute Paddy Kennedy
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    Dec 26th 2020, 12:01 PM

    @Eoin McLove: You really are nothing but a poisonous t*roll hiding behind a fake name.

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    Mute Santi Charlie Bravo
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    Dec 26th 2020, 11:40 AM

    The goverment has lost the people through sheer mismanagement, theres a reason why the WHO said lockdowns should be used as a last resort, because people get complacent and worn out by them, we’ve just headed into our 3rd lockdown in 9 months, people won’t listen anymore, politicians and NPHET have bottled it, lockdowns arent a solution anymore because people dont abide by them simple as, the more they lockdown in the future the less and less people are going to comply.

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    Mute Cookie
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    Dec 26th 2020, 10:02 AM

    Let’s hope so.

    Election in September 2021 can follow so we can judge this government’s performance.

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    Mute J Flood
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    Dec 26th 2020, 10:11 AM

    Better get more than 10K vaccines and soon!

    27
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    Mute Gooster Games
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    Dec 27th 2020, 5:01 AM

    @J Flood: true. With double shots thats 5,000 people. Not gonna go far….

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    Mute Damon16
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    Dec 26th 2020, 1:59 PM

    Look at the graph for Covid deaths since March
    Look up the number of Covid ICU admissions since March

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    Mute The Irish Bull
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    Dec 26th 2020, 12:34 PM

    Oh, is Mickey retiring?

    9
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    Mute Margaret Doyle
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    Dec 26th 2020, 3:04 PM

    Well I hope they will include carers at home looking after disabled Children and Adults. After all our Children are mixing with others and health care staff at day service. If carers end up sick it’s going to cost the Country a lot of money to look after the Children and Adults they care for. So M. Martin think on.

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    Mute trebloc01
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    Dec 26th 2020, 8:45 AM

    Just like he promised Chez

    6
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