@Spartacus Ireland: Of course they can spread covid… They breathe the same air in and out, and touch the same stuff that adults touch… This whole thing with sure there only kids is becoming ridiculous… It need to be addressed

@Dave: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/no-evidence-children-are-covid-19-super-spreaders-says-hiqa-1.4252521

@Spartacus Ireland: yeah that article is from May 2020. We know more now and new variants are around now ye big eejit.

@JustMeHere: https://mobile.twitter.com/rtenews/status/1346858673419726850
Norma “schools safe”?

@Spartacus Ireland: from January. Keep trying.

@Spartacus Ireland: So what? I’ve asked this before in the comments section on many articles but what is it people think NPHET are doing? What motive beyond simply protecting public health is there for having vaccinations for kids and younger age groups? What’s the conspiracy here? Or what is the issue people have? It’s happening everywhere. People need to get off the FB tin foil hat groups. If it’s so unsafe why have over 90% of the adult population taken it? I’d love one good answer of what the issue is on this. What do NPHET themselves have to gain? If anything them and NIAC are exposed to risk so if anything they are acting with extreme care.

@WadeBoggs: Don’t imagine they have anything to gain, but the ‘dogs on the street’ knew that schools and kids spread COVID but yet they insisted kids were different, schools were different, why did they do that?, doesn’t mean we can’t point out the change of tune when we hear it

@WadeBoggs: It’s to promote pharma and vaccines as the only solution to this virus. They will not tolerate any discussion of other treatments and natural immunity. Trust the science they say, sponsored by big pharma. If this was all truly about saving lives, Pfizer would be investing their massive profits in hospitals and health care systems around the world…

@Rob: How can you exaggerate on serious illness or fatality as that can be the outcome of catching Covid-19.

@Spartacus Ireland: Or the fact that they tried their best to keep them in school for the good of the kids and their parents who need to work. Another consideration is that there is a much more transmissible variant that wasn’t around last school year. Kids in school equals spread. 19% of cases these days are 5 – 12 year olds and theyre passing it to their families….. You can easily go back and check the rates of 5 – 12 year olds catching covid last school year on the hpsc website if you’re such a sceptic and compare it to now.

@Gary Kearney: how many children have died of covid?? Zero, so they are exaggerating the outcomes in that age group

@Gary Kearney: In kids? Got any stats to support your comment?

@WadeBoggs: well NEPHET may have nothing to gain but the mixed messaging about masks not being necessary – later reversed, children not spreading it – later reversed and the vaccine preventing transmission – later reversed hasn’t helped to instil a sense of confidence in what they are saying.

@Spartacus Ireland: Under the old variants I would say yes but clearly Delta behaved differently. And when is the outcome of a pandemic known with absolute certainty? Can things not change and evolve? Also big Pharma sponsored approaches? Are the WHO saying use Ivermectin? I mean this is New World Order / Lizard people levels of conspiracy. People think they know more than actual experts because of one thing – Google. Doctors and medical practitioners always had a tough job but now every idiot with an iPad is lecturing them on experimental treatments. Forget RCSI and medicine and placements in hospitals. Get your medical training from spending 7 hours a day on the internet.

@Paul Keenan: 99% recovery rate in all those infected up to age 60. Courtesy of the CDC

@Rob: Pfizer are a business not a charitable organisation. They exist to make money for shareholders. They develop treatments for disease and illness and in return for risking capital their shareholders benefit. How many drugs do Pfizer develop that don’t work or are written off? Their R&D spend is huge.
They developed a blockbuster drug years ago to treat cholesterol called Lipitor. Saved thousands of lives and actually impacted Irelands GDP when it came off patent. Was that also a conspiracy? Or did it save lives?

@WadeBoggs: So our public health is not their primary motivation, making money for their shareholders is. Thanks for confirming that, I was under the illusion that they wanted to protect us, not profit off us

@Rob: 99% recovery rate for those aged up to 60,,,that is so, so 2020 @@
Can you tell us what is the ‘recovery rates’ for those who are immunocompromised aged up to 60 ? Do they also go back to their pre covid health ? tia

@Dave: delighted are you Dave?

@Francis Mc Carthy: Immunocompromised and other medically vulnerable should absolutely be protected from this virus, but not at the expense of everyone else, especially kids given what was announced today. Sad and all as that is.

@Rob: Protecting our health is their method of making money so of course our health is their concern but they are a business. A quoted business whose purpose is to generate return for stakeholders and shareholder are stakeholders. Come on man how old are you?

@Paul Keenan: there is nothing in the article that suggests children are dying or going to die from covid. It is highlighted time and time again that symptoms are mild. What it does say is cases are high in this age cohort. Which stands to reason as this age cohort is largely unvaccinated. However the danger is that allowing the virus to continue to spread in this age cohort you give it a breeding ground to continue to spread and mutate meaning the the vulnerable vaccinated may not be as protected as we would like them to be, meaning we need to continue to monitor and tweak the vaccines and in the meantime vulnerable people continue to get sick or die before their time and covid and non covid related health services are under pressure We don’t have mandatory vaccination here especially for children so there is a perfectly reasonable suggestion that in order to keep kids in education and reduce the spread through this cohort you minimise their contacts outside of school and the home. The ridiculous removal of close contacts in kids allowed it to spread through this age group so it’s time for a bit of back tracking to resolve it. It would however be nice to here the gov for once say hey we got it wrong this is what we’re doing to fix it.

@WadeBoggs: Its trying to protect our seriously pi-ss poor health service from collapse. To protect those who mismanaged it for decades. To cover for the multitude of inept health ministers who did nothing to improve it. Those who never queried how the billions were spent. Maybe this is the answer you were looking for because most people know this is the reason.

@Gerry from the Block:

@Gerry from the Block: brilliant

@Steve: no point in vaccine so

@Seán Kinsella: so in the last 2 weeks, for kids aged 0-4, 4% of those who got covid were in hospital. For kids aged 5-12, 3.3% of those who got covid were in hospital. So if every kid in a class of 30 got covid, 1 would end up in hospital.

@Mac Muinteoir: actually, that’s completely wrong! Totally misread the information.

@Steve: over 90% of us vaccinated. Almost all (97%) of those who contracted COVID-19 in September and October and admitted to an ICU and who reported being vaccinated had an underlying health condition. Not ideal, but when do we all move on from this? It would be more helpful if we all took some responsibility and not send our kids to school or take them to parents when when sick. Anyway – not going to solve this difference of opinion in the comments of the journal. Masks are advised for third class and up when in school, but maskless pints with the lads are grand.

@Richarddoherty: clueless Richard.

@Gary Kearney: there is usually an imbalance of a few between each days totals and admissions and discharges and, before the cyber attach, the ICU deaths were also published. But not any more. https://www.hse.ie/eng/services/news/newsfeatures/covid19-updates/coronavirus-daily-operations-updates.html – the older reports include ICU covid deaths and extrapolating from this we can guess the missing numbere are deaths. For what it is worth most covid cases do not end up in ICU and most covit deaths are not from ICU. Before ICU the patient is assessed and many are not suitable for ICU or invasive ventilation.

@SM: brilliant

@SM: brilliant

@Gerry from the Block: well. That didn’t work. Now did it?

@john smith iv: Haha, the darned interweb done let me down real bad..

@Shane McCarrick: Best write up on it and why it’s concerning:

https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/new-concerning-variant-b11529

@SM: I think it was Rodimus Prime who beat Unicron. Optimus had been killed in a fight with Megatron.
A second cousin of Omicron I believe he was. He was up to no good anyway aswell. They’re all part of the “Cron” family from out Ballinasloe way.
Wonder if Rodimus is knocking around and he could come back and give us a dig out.

@john smith iv: lol

@David Jordan: thanks David. Gauteng case rate increase is phenomenal. Anyone know if that exponential increase is continuing?

@WadeBoggs: excellent work lol

@Anna Carr: If its sreading between the age group they are suggesting they will need to close the schools to try and stop the spread… Further more if the parents are catching it and have no symptoms, its going to just get worse…

@Anna Carr: Masks, social distancing and hand sanitizer until scientists figure it all out.

@Anna Carr: main thing is don’t panic, our case numbers and positivity rate are now trending downwards, so that’s good news :)

@Anna Carr: The Pied Piper?

@Anna Carr: Some lad on here said the omicron variant wasn’t too severe so I’d say we should be grand. He sounds like someone we could trust.

@Splat: They are testing it at present. Their are positive news with symptoms but they are worried about 3 sections of it which are very important in have mutates and that is the worry. They have said it may have mutated to protect itself and make it less harmful but the mutation could be worse.