@Phil O’ Meara: As a teacher of 3rd to 6rh classes, I thank you and others like you for making my job easier on days like today.

@Niall Ó Cofaigh: we were told kids were safe and schools.

@Niall Ó Cofaigh: Niall I think you need to turn off RTE. Even if the numbers are correct and I sincerely doubt it, kids are not being hospitalised or ending up in ICU. If they are infected and taking it home well that doesnt matter if the vaccine is effective. This is a total red herring. Just wait its vaccines next for 5 year olds. That’s what this is about…profit.

@Ruairi Colton: 11,702 to be exact. 19 kids in that age group (5-12) hospitalised. Over 18,000 under-18s tested positive for covid in the 14 days up to 28th November. 53 under-18s hospitalised and at least 1 in ICU. As a parent it’s now a race to see which gets to my own kids first, covid or the vaccine. Government failures make it more likely covid will win.

@Mac Muinteoir: The numbers aren’t as clear for young children. A lot of young children are in hospital with rsv at the moment. Some of whom tested covid positive in hospital.

@John brett: Pre Delta information. Things change

@John Murphy: the numbers are as clear as we’ll ever get. But if rsv is a problem, masks would help with that too.

@Ruairi Colton: Maybe you should watch a bit of RTE and do some research and you mightn’t be spouting conspiracy theories. You don’t seem to understand the knock on effect that these high cases among kids is having on the wider population and the HSE. High cases in the community means more hospitalisations and deaths. Vaccine work at reducing severe illness with delta in most cases but one can still be infected. Its all been well advertised at this stage.

@Paul Hedderman: close the schools for December and January- let’s not make young kids wear masks.

@Phil O’ Meara: try it in a few days and they’ll be sent home.

@Ted Logan: so make life harder for all parents because some parents don’t want to make their kid wear a mask for a few hours?

@Ruairi Colton: Tell that to my sister in law who caught covid from her son and are now not able to go and visit her dying husband in hospital.

People like you makes so angry and sad. There are real people behind these numbers.

@John brett:
‘we were told kids were safe and schools.’

The virus changes, so do we.. You were told this at the start and now you want a little safety bubble where nothing ever changes..
In the first half of the year Primary Schools were generally low in infection… That has changed, we are reacting..

Let me save us some time: Your next 10 posts will be ‘We were told…” and it will be answered with, things change… Virus gets smarter, we have to get smarter too..

@Mac Muinteoir: oh stop catastrophizing. According to the CSO, out of the 5707 deaths since March 2020, only 7 have been of people <25yo, let alone in the under 12 range. That's 0.1%. Pretty good odds I would say. I had to read the figure more than once in case I was missing the reason so many peeps were worried about their kids. I have a 10yo daughter and I'm not the slightest bit worried for her health if she catches covid.

@Sam Harms: On the plus side, if the kids are anything like their parents, the school will be a much nicer place to be for the remaining kids on Friday afternoon.

@Sam Harms: I agree, as if clinics weren’t busy enough. People with sick children are lucky enough to get an appointment with a doctor as it is. Most decent people are doing their best to stay away and let them attend for urgent reasons. It’s not fair on the children to drag them into it.

@What’s in a name?: Seriously came for the kids, Asian kids wear them from a early age all the time,does them no harm.

@Daniel Roche: No they dont wear them all the time. They wear them when they have a cold for a day or two.

@Ruairi Colton: so kids aren’t wearing them school in countries across the world.

@xDemo17: parents are so desperate to have their kids out from under their feet that there’ll be mile long queues for the vaccine if this happens!!

@xDemo17: I totally agree and it will be a sad day in Ireland if the government allow this to happen. We are at 570,115 confirmed cases and 5,652 deaths. That’s about 1% death rate of confirmed cases but there is evidence that actual covid infections are far higher – double if not triple the confirmed cases above and possibly even more – who knows??.
The vast majority of deaths (over 90% https://www.hpsc.ie/a-z/respiratory/coronavirus/novelcoronavirus/surveillance/weeklyreportoncovid-19deathsreportedinireland/COVID-19_Weekly_Death_Report_Website_v1.5%2011112021.pdf) are from people over 65 and over 85% of the deaths had underlying conditions.

I have emailed the HSE multiple times for specific data on vax status, underlying conditions, and the age of the people that are being admitted to Hospitals and ICU but they will not provide this information for whatever reason.

If you look at the HSE website, the reports that unvaxxed are taking up a proportionally higher amount of ICU beds are all based on the figures from April 2021 when very few people were vaccinated anyway. The reports below say they’re weekly but they’re not:
https://www.hpsc.ie/a-z/respiratory/coronavirus/novelcoronavirus/surveillance/vaccinationstatusweeklyreports/
I have heard news reports and heard Tony and Paul mention the higher proportion of unvaxxed but still haven’t actually seen any official figures to show this.

What we need to do is firstly have good accurate data and then have a debate on what needs to be done with vaccines, lockdowns, face masks but we need to have strong representation on both sides of the fence. I don’t think RTE has had anybody on debating the use or efficacy of these vaccines yet which is pretty shameful.

@xDemo17: when the pandemic does?

@Robert Cormican:
Why do you want HSE to provide all this details…
They provide a limited data set from April through to 2 weeks ago and you can break that down into a weekly set if you want…
Ireland’s data pool can be too low…
Let me tell you ICU beds are being clogged by unvaccinated… They have pretty consistently been at 70% of the beds… That also makes them much younger as vaccine penetration is almost 100%> 60 yrs of age.
Yes, more data would be useful but we have to balance that with people having to do there jobs…
The HSE much like every other health system in the world is uncomputerised and divided into silos… That is a sad fact for these type of Health systems around the world… A full Electronic Patient Record system is considered by some as the holy grail of healthcare which will lead to massive advances in Health…

@xDemo17: right there!

@xDemo17: it would have to be mandatory vaccines for adults before that could happen. I’m vaccinated, and my adult son made his own choice to get vaccinated, but I’m in two minds about whether my younger ones (9yrs & 14mths) should ever have it while so young. My 9yr old has asthma but wears her mask in school, no bother. If they aren’t suffering by wearing them, and we see a reduction in numbers for the younger age groups (time will tell), then the idea of mandatory vaccinations for then should never need to be mooted.

@O Swetenham: That was understood but my point is just because they do it doesn’t mean we should. Also, how does he know the kids are fine? Does he know every child in Asia?

@JedBartlett: it’s not just Asia though, kids in North America have been wearing them too.

@JedBartlett: As a former teacher in Asia they were 100% fine from grade 3 up, and did it before the virus hit their borders as a precaution. Irish kids are not special exemptions and frankly its astonishing how slow we are at adopting the practice compared to even Europe.

@JedBartlett: As a former teacher in Asia they were 100% fine from grade 3 up, and did it before the virus hit their borders as a precaution. Irish kids are not special exemptions and frankly its astonishing how slow we are at adopting the practice compared to even Europe. It should have been done when they transitioned from remote learning to in person teaching.

@JedBartlett: let’s use a like-for-like comparison so. They’ve been wearing them in Spain, Italy, France, Germany, etc. Are you saying children in Ireland are unable to manage doing something kids across the continent have been doing for over 1 year? The mind boggles

@albhbc: My boss in the US was shocked to find out it wasn’t the case here, as his kids have been wearing masks to school the whole way through. Same with my sister’s kids in New Zealand. It’s no big deal at all, and they’ve all got fun masks to wear to school. Kids generally have no issue with it untless their parents tell them to

@JedBartlett: if what they do in Asia works, then yes.

@JedBartlett: Probably in this instance….YES

@Elaine Phelan: he clearly doen’t live in a red state.

@christopher dyas: were you looking in the window when I was talking to him?

@GrumpyAulFella: well said, Sir!

@GrumpyAulFella: totally agree! Parents projecting their own outrage and ignorance onto their kids.

@mr magoo: I suspect you may be ignorant or blind to their plight, just in case you missed the point I was speaking in general about kids this is affecting 5-12 year olds. Mr Magoo is apt enough.

@GrumpyAulFella: gas masks!? We are in Ireland? You do know that? A little fact based perspective isn’t a lot to ask for. I suspect your age is plus 50 just like mr magoo. Kids should be seen not heard! What!? Speaking up each other’s echo chambers, I’d write it in a larger font for you both but I suspect it’s ignorance not blindness you are crowned with. Have a jolly evening.

@Epgenetics29 Declan Christoph: “fear is rife”, “sorry for kids”, “pensioners are scared”. Is there some sort of impending nuclear disaster that the rest of us are unaware of? Pure hyberbole. Calm down. We’re asking kids to wear masks not donate kidneys.

@GrumpyAulFella: eh, I think it’s the folks who are terrified of this virus that are the snowflakes. The WW2 generation put up with enormous hardships to fight actual Nazis. Now you boomers have us all petrified of a disease that has only has a 1% or 2% fatality rate – and much less than that if you factor out those over 65.

@GrumpyAulFella: Again you’ve missed all my points as your continued ignorance shows, IN GENERAL. Never said anything about it being tough on kids nothing about not doing it just some sympathy expressed. But shout your reactionary hyperbole it says a lot about your weak mindedness when you can’t even comprehend a paragraph of writing. My child went to school with a mask this morning and wore one in Germany for four days as the 2G requires children over 5 to wear them. As for your quips about gas masks and other such horse doo, nobody in Ireland was wearing masks and fighting nazis, your a little mixed up and may need to visit your GP. Or are you confused again that this Ireland. My grandfather fought in Burma by the way and had the cross and many other medals to show for his commitment. Your a tad immature to say the least.

@Sam Harms: pro-maskers seem to have differing opinions on what the purpose of getting the kids to mask up is for, so I suggest you all have a big powwow and get your narrative straight. Most of you claim it’s to stop the spread of covid to the adults when the kids get home. You claim it’s to protect the kids themselves and asyonishingly even claim most of them will be fine. Well most kids have also always been fine from the flu but we never had them mask up in schools just to protect those who are more vulnerable to flu. My objection is not on health grounds, it’s on social and political grounds. I have a healthy suspicion of govt overreach and I am even more suspicious of changing social norms based on hysteria.

@Raymond Scott: plenty of studies available to show they do reduce spread.

@Niamh Brady:

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/08/the-science-of-masking-kids-at-school-remains-uncertain.html

@Mags Murphy: you go on in to the freezing cold schools and deal with the overcrowded unventilated conditions so!! I’d say your local schools are crying out for your help.

@Raymond Scott: how do you think we should stop the spread then Doctor? Calpol might work I guess.

@Mags Murphy: enjoy homeschooling

@Niamh Brady: in a nutshell.

@Michael Sheehan: The article link you provided talks about a study published by the US CDC that found a 37% reduction in COVID-19 cases in schools in the State of Georgia that implemented mandatory mask wearing compared to schools that made wearing masks optional, along with improved ventilation.

CDC study was carried out in the autumn of 2020 (November 16 to December 11) before the Alpha or Delta Variants, and of course Omicron, which are considerably more contagious (airborne).

The CDC study did not compare masks v’s no masks, but still found a benefit in wearing masks and better ventilation.

Gettings,et al., 2021. Mask use and ventilation improvements to reduce COVID-19 incidence in elementary schools—Georgia, November 16–December 11, 2020. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 70(21), p.779.

Nevertheless, in the face of this evidence the author of the NY Mag article goes on to write a convoluted article that attempts to ignore and undermine these results.

I also found this, newer research, that involved the more contagious Delta variant:

“In the crude analysis, the odds of a school-associated COVID-19 outbreak in schools with no mask requirement were 3.7 times higher than those in schools with an early mask requirement (odds ratio [OR] = 3.7; 95% CI = 2.2–6.5).”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8486387/

@Raymond Scott: they’re all out to get us. I heard that they have Shreddies l and Fig Rolls bugged. Turns out that Faker Baker is a govt stooge. Time to hit the streets. Freedom!

@JedBartlett: They have? Such as?

@JedBartlett: such as???

@JedBartlett: Maybe give us a list.

@Raymond Scott: what can’t you do,I can still do everything I done before covid now.

@Graham Manning: For all the eager beavers looking forward a “such as” list I’ll just give you the headliners, without getting into the lunacy of quarantine camps down under etc..

1: The lab leak. This is now accepted as the most likely scenario by multiple international news agencies and scientists. However, in the early days just saying this would likely get your comment deleted and/or you’d be removed from social media.
2: vaccine passes. I myself accused a person of being a conspiracy nut when they said this last year. Yet, here we are.
3: Mandating vaccination. Another gem that would result in a comment being removed this time last year and yet again, here we are with mandatory vaccination taking place in many places around the world.

So either you were in agreement last year and were one of these conspiracy theorists or you’re naive or foolhardy enough to think these were never touted as conspiracy theories but were always accepted outcomes from the start of this pandemic.