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A NATIONAL LEVEL 3 status is like a holding pattern over Gatwick: around and around, up-a-bit, down-a-bit, burning up fuel, delaying the landing, going nowhere and burning time.
Unfortunately, we are still in a pandemic and at the beginning of the second wave in Ireland. The first wave was in February and March: the second is growing now. During August it re-sprouted in Dublin, in September across the rest of the country.
Leaders across the world face the challenge of leading wisely through this unprecedented crisis, which, while it affects our health most immediately, also, affects all other aspects of our lives.
It affects our being with others, grieving for those we have lost, our ability to support the vulnerable in our society, our ability to provide a home for people to live in, our celebrating the great events of our lives, our livelihoods, the inequitable distribution of resources in our world.
The Covid holding pattern
This infectious disease, like others, is intrinsically divisive and polarising, and at the same time retrogressive. It is affecting the most vulnerable people, families and groups disproportionately more than others. These features make more difficult the decisions that are needed to lead to the voluntary co-operation of most of five million people.
While Covid numbers in Dublin rose in August, over September there has been a gradual but persistent rise in the number of cases of SARS CoV2 in most counties of Ireland, outside of Dublin.
Again, we are experiencing outbreaks among vulnerable groups and in crowded housing, nursing homes, hospitals and crowded workplaces, as well as many in private homes.
This rise was not as fast or as dramatic as the one in March, and most of the cases are in young people, who do not die quickly of lung failure, with rare exceptions.
Some of the young, however, may get scarring of their lungs or heart and may experience chronic fatigue. We also know that the virus is spreading presently to older people, who are getting sick. Predictably it is spreading into hospitals and nursing homes again.
The numbers of cases of Covid-19 and outbreaks and hospitalisation have levelled off in the last two weeks in Dublin, and the Level 3 restrictions seem to have had some impact. Perhaps the numbers might begin to drop a little bit more.
But this will take a very long time, much like losing your money at 1% negative interest per week. Levelling off just means staying the same, perhaps for months or years. That is years of Level 3 restrictions!
In my view, this is not a desirable long-term way out of this pandemic. It is like flying around in circles for an unknown period of time in a holding pattern over Gatwick, as most of us have done for hours pre-2020: suspended time, delayed living until the plane runs out of fuel.
Time is against us
So in my view, and the views of NPHET, we need decisive action soon to deal with this rise in Covid-19 in Ireland. The challenge is to do this while ensuring that as much as possible of the education of our children and of our productive economy succeeds and survives at the same time.
Each business, and government department, in my view now should be testing and piloting plans for continuity of operations in level 4 and level 5 restrictions. The decision of the government yesterday, while it may give us time to prepare, just delays the inevitable need for more restrictions.
In our own personal lives, many of us have already wisely restricted the things that we do: like having people from solely one household in to visit us in our bubble, hand-washing, cough etiquette, wearing a mask in crowded places and working from home.
At an international level, Ireland can work with European partners for a Covid-19 free Europe. We can work with the UK on a joint approach to this, as two islands.
We in Ireland and Europe could achieve what most countries on the Asia-Pacific rim have done through a shorter period of more severe restrictions, where their economies and air travel and sports and social lives are now returning to what they want.
The successful Asian and Pacific countries have diverse systems of government: some are authoritarian, and some are fiercely democratic. Internal flights in China have been up and running for months.
Travel between Covid-free Australia and New Zealand has opened up again. We in Europe could follow the same model into a future in which SARS CoV2 is controlled and its spread on our land is stopped completely, as we did for ‘SARS1’ in 2003.
Our leaders have a difficult job and should be given the space and encouragement to lead us courageously, and from the front, in a way that protects health.
They have achieved this before by introducing the smoking ban in the workplace, or the tax on plastic shopping bags, or the ban on selling smoky coal in Dublin, or the unprecedented and effective actions to control Covid-19 in March 2020.
Prof Sam McConkey is Deputy Dean and Head of the Department of Tropical Medicine and International Health at the RCSI School of Medicine and Health Sciences and President of Infectious Disease Society of Ireland.
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Why are the Journal giving this man coverage, he’s been consistently wrong over the course of this pandemic ,take absolutely nothing he says as being gospel,don’t believe a word.
@SB: He’s just unhappy the country isn’t going into the 3 month national lockdown that he proposed on PrimeTime last week to achieve Zero Covid. Zero Covid is a dangerous illusion
@SB: he claimed a few weeks back on Virgin Media 1′s breakfast show that we could have 56,000 dead by Christmas. The man is all short of wearing a black cloak and carrying a scythe
@Anna Anna: he’s the original lock down fanatic, and to think this man is supposedly a professor, the country would be destroyed beyond repair if this lun atic got his way!!
@Aideen Pollard: I was just saying Aideen imagine the nightmare scenario if someone like him was making the decisions, the country would be decimated beyond repair, there’s some very unstable people out there masquerading as professors.
@SB: People on here are living in dream land, we’re following the exact route that Israel did and when the hse is on the brink of collapse we’ll be back in full lock down. You can only live with the virus when there’s very little of it around.
@Rayzor: Exactly right. People keep talking about the economy and other health services, but these things cannot function while Covid is spreading rapidly among the community.
I guess given the novel nature of this virus he, like many others, have been wrong in many of their estimations. But over all, he’s gotten quite a bit right too. The article he wrote in March is quite accurate, looking at it with hindsight. Many people are desperate for this issue to be black and white, for concrete answers. But that’s not the reality. https://www.thejournal.ie/readme/covid-19-sam-mcconkey-5036559-Mar2020/
@SB: wrong everytime with everything he said totally agree 100 %
@Rayzor: and what when there’s no economy anymore =society crumbles
@SB: you do realise that you can’t leave highly infectious covid patients on a trolley like we do in this country every other winter, its not going to take much for the hse to be completely over run. Also the economy vs health is a false narrative, the only way to get the economy up and running is to make it safe for people to be out and about and spend money. I have family in Perth and their lived are pretty much back to normal because their government got a handle on the virus.
@SB: Sweden’s economy is functioning as badly as their neighbours who locked down, but with multiples of the death rate. If you care about the economy, that’s clearly not the way to go.
@SB: yawn…. go and get some chicken nuggets for yourself… all children love chicken nuggets..
@Rayzor: it’s not a false narrative whosoever, every single country on the planet needs an economy to survive otherwise it’ll be a third world country, the HSE managed first time around and it was much worse than this
@windbag: im putting you on mute you’ve clearly no brain to add anything constructive, all you do is trade insults, the collective mentality of a child is what you have.
@Seymour Cup: ok so maybe it’s time to lock up the lunnys that are having the party’s and let the rest of us live as normal as possible
@Seymour Cup: Well that’s not what I’m reading
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bloombergquint.com/amp/onweb/swedish-gdp-set-to-trounce-euro-zone-u-s-and-even-top-nordics
@SB: what? The Hse only managed because we had a complete draconian lock down after seeing the scenes of death coming from Northern Italy and New York
@Seymour Cup: Sweden was not as hard hit as it’s neighbours. They did not force businesses to shut but are still affected by limited numbers being allowed into restaurants etc.
https://voxeu.org/article/labour-market-effects-covid-19-sweden-and-its-neighbours
@SB: well said! The journal debase themselves giving this guy airtime, for balance they’re going to have to give one of the hoax nut jobs airtime too. When you put out one extremist view the extremists on the other sides what their say too.
@talksense: I’d like to stop parties too, but in Ireland, it’s not realistic based on what’s going on at the moment. People want to go to the pub and want to have house parties and the only way that can happen safely is if there is no Covid knocking around.
@SB: From the article you posted: “There’s been a lot of talk about Sweden having a milder lockdown than the other Nordic countries” during the coronavirus pandemic, Olsen said in an interview in Copenhagen. “You’d expect Sweden’s economic performance to be way better, but in reality what we see is that the Swedish performance is very close to what we see in the other Nordic countries.” this article focuses on the Krona’s current advantage over the euro and Sweden’s competitive economy.
@SB: well said, predicted 100,000 cases for October, said all schools should close etc etc, of all the worst case scenario predictors this guy should get bucket of oscars
@ruairi:
What Prof McConkey wrote may have looked alarmist at the time, but it’s worth noting that the measures he set out are just what the country did a few days later, right through until June.
Now we are in a different place with the virus, and important metrics such as hospitalisations, ICU admissions and thankfully deaths, are minor fractions of what they were in the spring and early summer.
However Prof McConkey seems determined to live in the past, and wants to pretend that we are still in March.
If he wants to convince us, he needs to explain the disparity between the rise in cases since the end of July and the number of deaths remaining in low single figures if at all.
The minister said six weeks ago that one naturally followed the other, but it hasn’t happened, why not?
@SB: I’d rather say, there’s some very unstable professor’s out there masquerading as people
@Anna Anna: compare Sweden’s health care capacity and service to the HSE
@SB: The whole Sweden thing is completely nonsense, it’s probably the most culturally different country in Europe than ireland. Sure our level 2 is similar to what Sweden did from the start but without Dungarvan Gaa club playing players awaiting covid results,, scenes like students in Galway, Blackrock hurling fans and so on and on.
@Rayzor: and they could manage again, but level 5 again will put the country on a slippery slope to bankruptcy should it continue indefinitely
@Rayzor: Also, 40% of adults living alone, completely at odds with Ireland given the cultural and housing situations.
@SB: totally agree but unfortunately letting the virus get completely out of control will also bankrupt the country, it will lead us closing schools and going back into the march lock down.
@Rayzor: I’ve been to Sweden I wouldn’t say its the most culturally different country to Ireland in Europe at all, they don’t p ussy foot over there they get stuff done and done right, but look at Poland for example, 38 million people and everything open yet half the cases we have, that alone should tell anyone story.
The figures don’t lie
Poland 58.2
Ireland 110.7
@Garry Coll: I agree, the death rate and hospitalisations rate is not what it was in March/April, and this fact needs to be included more in the national conversation. The fear though, is that it returns to those levels. He states that the present concern is the increased spread among the vunerable. Add winter time to that, and we could be in trouble. Personally, I would prefer more effort spent on protecting the vunerable, a bigger increase in ICU capacity, publoc purchase of a private hospital for non-covid related proceedures and no return to level 5. But then again, I’m not an expert!
@SB: Exactly. They had one of the lowest ICU capacity’s in Europe at the start of the pandemic and have worked to increase that. Something we haven’t managed to do and face being threatened with lockdowns because of HSE/government complacency.
https://www.thelocal.com/20200623/how-sweden-doubled-intensive-care-capacity-to-treat-coronavirus-patients
@SB: Agree again, if people used some common sense and followed the guidance we should be able live some what normal lives but that’s unfortunately is not happening.
@Seymour Cup: if our economy collapses so does our already crap health service even likes of Romania and Latvia have a better health service, the government had nearly 4 months of break to get health service sorted they knew it was coming back, instead of paying 30k a week to sit in comfort in convention centre it should gone into providing better service why wasn’t a hospital dedicated to covid patients set up on main counties like the fever hospitals years ago and keep the health service going instead if you are on a waiting list you could be dead before you are seen
@SB: you do that…. I don’t engage in constructive conversation with trolls…
@Greeneyes17:
youre saying “compare Sweden’s health care capacity and service to the HSE” we’ve had plenty time to increase the critical care capacity,. and money is no object any more… literally tens of billions spent.
ive no idea where the money is coming from, but it should have been spent on that as priority #1. they cannot go waving the 277 unit capacity in our faces again this winter. it was 277 last march!! we’re in for 50 Billion euro so far. no excuses there sorry…
@Rayzor: the virus is everywhere. People have it. They don’t know they have it. It’s an impossible problem to solve. We need to be sensible but we need to live… And we can if we do it within reason and sensibly. Lockdown is not the way
@Kavsie: and some very unstable people masquerading as professors too
@SB: sorry to say it but the person who is wrong is the person who thinks that this virus is not near explosion again .The simple and so frustrating reason is because so many did not stay the course and spent the summer running in and out of every open door in Ireland lapping the country and sat squeezed up against each other at tables in restaurants and in homes . All we had to do was stick it out and now we head back to the start again . Sam is right the numbers are going to rocket . Sickening for those of us that worked so hard to stop it .
@Anna Anna: Anna Anna Getting Icu beds does not stop a pandemic and should never be the focus in care . We the public did this by not following guidelines . Extra icu beds are very dangerous without seriously expertise nursing staff . We have no excess icu nurses to just drop down. Raise an Icu bed . It’s preventing people going to icu is the required plan in any pandemic . Getting back out of ICU after any reason is never an easy task so a covid reason for admission there is high risk . People don’t get that . Time to be adults and follow rules all of us . Leave hospital beds work for the cancer and the other illnesses . Nobody needs to be hospital or die of covid if we just followed the guidelines
This is the same man who said back at the start of March we could have 120 000 deaths by now…
@Ian Breathnach: away to the looney bin with him, incredible how this man gets the coverage he does.
@Ian Breathnach: Sam McDonkey
@Ian Breathnach: * without a lockdown.
The SCOPI antibody study found that in total, only 1.7% of the population caught the virus, that’s 59,500 people in Ireland aged between 12 and 69 years of age, by the beginning of June. By that time, 1,650 had died.
An antibody study finds past infections by testing for immune makers left behind by a previous SARS-COV-2 infections, so it find undiagnosed cases (mild & asymptomatic).
https://www.hse.ie/eng/services/news/newsfeatures/scopi-covid-19-antibody-research-study-results/
This is a fatality rate of about 2%. This is horrendous.
If social distancing was not imposed in March – May, and 30% of the population caught the virus, we would have had ca. 30,000 deaths. Perhaps more given the hospitals would have been overwhelmed.
However, medical care has improved and the virus has mutated, the D614G mutation. It appears that better medical care and this mutation, which results in fewer old and more younger people catching the virus, that the second wave may not be as bad.
Basically, I am saying that the first lockdown was necessary and it saved many lives, but a second level 5 lockdown may not be required, if our hospitals cope.
“There is no evidence of higher virulence, however, and in fact, crude analyses show a higher percentage of asymptomatic, mild, or moderate cases in the second wave.”
@Ian Breathnach: Back in March. Before lockdown. If we did nothing and let the virus spread throughout the 5million population of Ireland. 120,000 is less than 3%. Current mortality for Ireland is 4.7%. This was a prediction using current models back then not a definitive. Does it hurt having a simple mind all the time?
@SB: There is nothing black and white about this Covid.
I wouldn’t agree with everything he says but then Im not knowledgeable enough on such matters to make informed comments.
What I would suggest,seen as you are particularly exercised by Mr McConkey’s briefings,is to a)man up or indeed woman up if that applies to you and come out from behind your pseudonym and b) get in touch with Mr McConkey and outline your concerns to him either in person or in writing
I’m sure he will be delighted to hear from a well versed Covid expert like yourself.
Maybe Im just old and cantankerous but just two words just come to mind for people like you Jesus and Wept.
Time for the likes of elders like myself to stop reading this drivel
@Ian Breathnach: operative word there …”could”
@Dixieblue: He consistently comes out with nonsense time and again. In July he was telling us all not to worry, your chances of infection were 1 in a million. He makes a mockery out of NPHET and other health advice as he usually swings to the extremes. He shouldn’t be given any airtime whatsoever.
@Ian Breathnach: Why should anyone listen to you? What’s your “qualifications”?
@Nick Condon Sen: I’m referring to what the man says. Look up what he has said since March and throughout the summer. Should he be immune from criticism or are we not allowed discuss what he says? I keep seeing what he says in the news and it varies so much and swings between extremes, am I not allowed to comment on he says? Perhaps it is time for old fogies like you to switch off..
@Nick Condon Sen: I think you got it right Nick take a break from it all it it irritates you that much
@Ian Breathnach:
i feel so sorry for Sam. He has promised his medical friends that he would do his best to get Ireland back into a full lockdown in October. Its all part of the medical experiment – to see if they can eradicate a virus from an island even though it has never been done before.. maybe even beat New Zealand to the prize!! its all sooo interesting, how does everyone not get it?!!
what a NUT JOB!!!.. he is like a weird villain from a Batman movie.. Dr. Zero. :))))
@Nick Condon Sen: I love the way those that can barely string a sentence together come on here and slag off a professor !
Why is this guy still on the stage. He’s been wrong all along, is wrong now and his only focus is trying to convince us he’s right.
@Paul Lanigan: nothing “inevitable” about it. All depends how people respond.
@Justin Gillespie: He uses Faroe Islands and Greenland as examples we should follow. He has NO end game plan and he refuses to discuss alternative strategies.
Dr McConkey is not the problem, the editors who continue to give him airtime are
@Seamus Hughes: New Zealand? Taiwan? South Korea? Hong Kong?
@Seymour Cup: South Korea is not Covid free, they have regular surges, they contain it better than us.
Good god, that awful man, he should be ashamed of himself for going on about level 10 yesterday and curfews etc. I really think he’s psychologically unstable and would be happy to see us all locked up in camps.. ring a bell for anyone?
@David Lee: Godwin’s Law?
@D Mems: Whatever Law floats your boat, fair enough with talk of levels 1-5, but if you were to listen to the things he was saying yesterday, it was either a red flag for the way he thinks or an attempt to TERRIFY the population.
just great ! Mcconkey now writing OPeds on his zero Covid fantasies in the journal.
Some people really do get a disproportionate & unjustified air time in the media.
This is why I believe that Varadkar, who I seldom praise, was totally correct in setting the rules yesterday. No doubt others from “zero Covid” club heavily influenced NPHET to date.
Sadly people like professor Mcconkey don’t listen and insist on their zero Covid fantasies no matter how much devastation they would cause. A 3 month hard lockdown in level 5 and then isolation from the outside world until a vaccine was developed, administered and produced immunity in enough of us. That’s a million + unemployed, no health system as the state would be bankrupt &?death by a thousand other causes. But sure we’d be “zero Covid”
@Isabel Oliveira: 100% agree
@Isabel Oliveira: agreed 100%
@Isabel Oliveira: With zero covid cases we could completely open up our economy again. Well with restrictions on air and port travel. Ever hear of a country called New Zealand? No. Google will help you find news about it.
@Bren: You cant travel into New Zealand unless you are a citzen. They are going to be closed off for next 2 years.
@Isabel Oliveira:
agreed 100%. its just a fantastical experiment to him.. He must have gotten tired of his laboratory and run out of lab mice. beggars belief.
But the most annoying thing is the air-time, and almost never challenged. thats the most outrageous part.
Prof McConkey must be challenged regarding his funding lines and/or business interests. also technical and other interests – current research interests etc. and challenged properly. All of these zero covid agitators should be.
@SB: should that not be 110% ? Everything these days seems to have to be at least 110%. Have a word with yourself !
Shame Sam McConkey wouldn’t move to North Korea where his views might be more at home with the general populace.
The only way is up. It’s not going anywhere anytime soon.
Only a full lock down for at least 4 weeks will reduce cases.
@Serge the llama: yes reduce cases and then what? While you’re at it why don’t we all just wear a crown of thorns and repent our sins while the blood streams into our eyes.
@Serge the llama: it will, and when we’ll open we’ll be back to where we are now.
@Serge the llama: it’s like talking to a brick wall trying to explain to people that a full lock down will NOT get rid of the virus, it will reduce cases and then what, open up society again and slowly but surely watch as cases again rise, and at what cost to the economy and people’s mental health.. Seriously anyone calling for full lock down think about the ramifications before you speak!!!
@SB: They obviously have secure jobs and probably like the handy working from home gig.
@Tom Smith: Lockdown until virus is eliminated and then close borders to international travel and institute mandatory monitored quarantines for anyone entering like New Zealand have. Full domestic economy, forget about tourism until there is a vaccine.
@SB: It got rid of the virus in New Zealand and could get rid of it here if it was accompanied by defacto closed borders and mandatory monitored quarantines.
@SB: Sweden didn’t lock down and their economy suffered as badly as any other country. People saying follow Sweden to protect the economy need to take off the blindfold, because they’re in the dark.
@Seymour Cup: We have an uncontrolled border with the North so completely pointless. And they didnt get rid of the virus in NZ, they are still having new cases. And Sweden is doing quite well now, they are hardly bothering much with the whole thing anymore.
@Frank Scanlon: They had an outbreak in Aukland which was stopped with a 4 week lockdown, they are back to zero cases and are now reopening. The rest of the country has been fully open since the initial lockdown, concerts, full sports stadiums, restaurants, pubs, cinemas, the works, while Sweden’s case numbers did settle into the low 100′s at the end of August/early September, they have now begun to rise again.
@Frank Scanlon: Why can’t we organise an Anglo/Irish bubble? The Uk and northern Ireland are going to have to lockdown again soon, just like us, at which point the only sensible solution is to shut borders to tourism and actually put ourselves in a position to open up properly, like they have in New Zealand, South Korea and Taiwan.
@Tom Smith: reduce cases, protect the vulnerable then start over again. It’s not going anywhere until a vaccine. Just keep going through the motions so we don’t end up like Italy back in March.
I’m not baptised, so your analogy of repenting sins and wearing a crown of thorns really doesn’t speak to me. I will die sooner or later. I won’t die on my knees or beg for forgiveness. But I will obey the law and guidelines and protect the vulnerable, starting with my own family.
@Seymour Cup:
you forgot about imports, and exports… what about all that?? how would it be possible.??. it really isnt. why wont you believe the people when theyre telling you!
I’m asking a genuine question here..the people who don’t want level 4 or 5, what do you suppose we do? Are we just going to keep going the way we’re going and not protect the people that need protecting the most over money? Yes I get there is an element of mental health and job losses but does death of the elderly or sick not matter?
@Craig Clancy: at the moment the hospitalisation rate and death rate are very low. Monitor those and focus on keeping older people safe etc. The alternative is have no money to keep the country going.
@Craig Clancy: open up society like other European countries, and protect those who are most at risk, look at Poland, less than half of our cases and almost everything is open, lock downs will never fully get rid of the virus, I think we’ve seen this throughout the world, so we just need to learn to live with it.
@Adam Conroy: We can borrow money for free at the moment, anyone saying the country is going to run out of money is not talking sense. Things like PUP payments, rent and mortgage freezes can keep the country going, it’s a political decision not to.
@Adam Conroy: There are only 33 available Critical Care Beds in the country today,a significant decrease of 76.92% since the peak in April!
There are 1M+ people who have underlying conditions in this country living normal lives on medication including workers and people of all ages.
Government published their 5 Level Plan but where are the financial plans to underpin them,where are the extra supports for businesses and workers?
@SB: Not in New Zealand, Taiwan, Vietnam, South Korea or Hong Kong. The virus can be suppressed, you just need the political will and the correct strategy.
@Nuala Mc Namara: Government had 6 months to increase capacity. It’s no longer a virus issue but a health service issue. Remember “on call for Ireland”. How many people were actually hired?
@SB: look at Poland? 2236 cases and 58 deaths yesterday. How many deaths per day in Ireland would be ok with you?
@Seymour Cup: Thats what I find most interesting about capitalist societies and covid. If every country is experiencing the same thing, then who are you indebted to by taking this floating money?
@GrumpyAulFella: you do realise the population of Poland is 10 times Ireland don’t you look at the 14 day cumlitatuve cases that’s what you should be looking at
Poland 58.2 half of what Ireland is
https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/cases-2019-ncov-eueea
@SB: population of Poland is 50m? Since when? It’s population is about 7.5 times that of Ireland. 58 people died of Covid there yesterday. Poland’s testing rate is only 1/3 of Irelands.
@Seymour Cup: Taiwan, Vietnam, South Korea, Hong Kong have one thing in common – government intrusion by way of electronic monitoring which is way and above what constitutes normal in Ireland. You need buy in to do that and you won’t get it.
@GrumpyAulFella: sorry your right my error its actually 38 million but regardless the figures don’t lie
https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/cases-2019-ncov-eueea
@GrumpyAulFella: People always ask this question as if its really smart. I suppose the acceptable level of death would be something in line with normal death rate averages. News flash buddy: we all gonna die. 6 months is a long time for people not to live. We are destroying lives to save lives at this stage. Its reached a crux. Besides there is no way I believe that the data they’re assessing is comparable to that of march/april.
@SB: In late July/ early August, Poland was having record new daily cases, whilst our numbers were at some of their lowest. Maybe the severity of virus is moving through different countries at different times?
@SB: we’re testing at least 3 times the rate Poland is testing. Plus they must not be recording deaths correctly because they’ve had 2600 deaths in total apparently. For a population of nearly 38 million that’s ridiculously low.
@Craig Clancy: Just remember that very few people are dying, apart from the fiasco of the Nursing Homes early on , which was let out of control by HSE . If they keep the Nursing Homes clear, then deaths will be on the low side .
@SB: how did new zealand do it??
The man would have us living in single occupancy flotation tanks full of hand sanitizer. What dope.
All due respect to the man, it is extremely unlikely that he has or will suffer financially, he is not at risk of losing his job or has been on the Covid payment.
He is in a position that he can talk about shutting down the country again, if he was in a position that his job will be gone he would be singing a different tune!!
@Bleurgh: he is a double jobber + professor, consultant and media.
Heard a GP on radio yesterday, under resourced, under pressure etc, said GPs had answered 60K covid related calls last week.
At €30 a pop that is €1.8 million. Nice picking and still ” under resourced “
Forever the optimist is Prof Mc Conkey.
@Paul Mc: thats not being an optimist. Its being unrealistic
As infectious disease epidemiologists and public health scientists we have grave concerns about the damaging physical and mental health impacts of the prevailing COVID-19 policies, and recommend an approach we call Focused Protection
Signed by over 2540 health professionals, noble prize winners epidemiologist…
I agree, I mean look at Guernsey and Australia and how they’ve handled it. Zero covid here we come. Wake me up when we’re all just a bunch of apes tossing bones in the air. #sarcasm.
@Tom Smith: Charlton Heston on O’Connell Street: “You blew it up! You blew up the spire!” “Well done, it was an eyesore.”
I could be wrong but has the recent increase in cases coincided with the opening of schools? If so why are they hell bent on keeping schools open no matter what level we go to? It’s the only place now under Level 3 where people from multiple households mix freely on a daily basis. Shut the schools for the rest of the year and put us back to Level 2. Heavy fines for those who breach Level 2 rules. Let’s see what happens.
@TheElderLemon: they won’t admit it but yes schools have to be one of the causes of the rise in cases, you can’t in all reality expect children to socially distance, its not their fault.
@SB: they are children, that doesn’t mean they are stupid. Parents should be explaining this to their children and therefore making them do the necessary, including distancing!
@Dixieblue: how can you explain to kids under 10 who just want playtime at lunchtime , kids might be more advanced than when I was a kid but they still haven’t got the brain of an adult and aren’t going to remember to always sanatize and wear a mask,even some teenagers I’ve seen it’s lost on many of them.
@TheElderLemon:
so youre obviously someone either without kids, or who is not too pushed about his kids getting an education then? already 1 year compromised. compromise a second and you truly damage the education of the child. is it all worth that yeah?
the youngest have paid already more than enough. more than any other generation for this circus.
@SB: as i said, Parents are key here in teaching their offspring the rights and wrongs, which is mot that difficult in fairness. Kids are like sponges, speak to them like they are human and not just an empty bag of skin. Parents are the problem, not children.
Who in their right head or with good intentions writes this
“ mostly in young people who do not die quickly of lung failure “
Don’t you think people’s mental health has been harmed without these wreckless & unsubstantiated interventions by people who should know better?
Is this what we have now? A small loud cohort of the scientific community so hell bent on inflicting their fantasist policies that they resource to petrify people?
Honestly!
He is so negative and most of what he has said has not happened. Scare mongering comes to mind. Leo called it right yesterday stating none of the 40 on the health panel have lost a day’s pay.
Sam McConkey is a dangerous conspiracy theorist
@Kieran Hayes: discuss
He shouldn’t be let near a tv camera and his opinion in my opinion is wrong and terrifying the life out of vulnerable and the old he should not be on any team that is dealing with covid19 all his numbers were and are wrong to date he is hopping to be right at some stage so he can say told you so but look mr monkey your wrong then now and in the future
The most negative man in Ireland.
@Paul Potts: He’d amputate both legs if you had a bunion .
Stop living so that you don’t die!
Why don’t people understand that all of his predictions etc, were the course the virus would have taken if no restrictions has been put in place? And then when restrictions are out in place, and his predictions are avoided, people saw he was wrong.
Now that the government have vetoed NPHET’s advice, it will be interesting to see if his predictions come to fruition, which personally, I think they will.
Instead of going immediately to level 5 for 4 weeks, and then possibly straight back to level 2, we will spend 3 weeks in level 3,
Maybe a week or 2 in level 4, then into level 5.
It’s inevitable at this stage
if we go to L5 we can blame only ourselves. I hear that some businesses are crying about the loss of income etc but just one example, my gf went to a hairdresser who was surprised that she was wearing a mask asking if she is going to have it on at all times. When my gf confirmed only then the hairdresser decided to put it on. None of the customers arriving to the studio wore a mask, the lady that was doing nails had no mask on only plexiglass between her and the customer. Now during a chat the hairdresser was telling that she hopes government would not impose L5 – this is both scary and funny.
Why Gatwick ? . Just asking
@Jimmy Murray: I was thinking the same . Odd and read like some strange attempt of writing a rhyme or similar
SamMcConkey went even further down in my view after the prime time interview with Dr Martin Feeley last week. Zero covid is unachievable until it either disappears itself or there is a miraculous vaccine. Go away Sam. We dont need your views. Theyre alien to people trying to live their lives.
Incidentally, Dr Feeley lost his job with HSE hospital over his views. I thiught we lived in a democracy with free speech.
Back to where we were in April no thanks, no driving tests nct’s all delayed the back logs to every thing we take for granted. Wear a mask do your bit
Get the boat, Sam
This man changes his mind more times then babies nappies, he just trying to be relevant again few months ago he was calling for golf clubs to open, himself and ó Néill love the limelight, warning us all to social distance and then were on a Claire Byrne show making masks with Anne Doyle and your man kennedy and next days of them all together wearing each others masks.. Big joke, yet if we did it would be condemned
i feel so sorry for Sam. He has promised his medical friends that he would do his best to get Ireland back into a full lockdown in October. Its all part of the medical experiment – to see if they can eradicate a virus from an island even though it has never been done before.. maybe even beat New Zealand to the prize!! its all sooo interesting, how does everyone not get it?!!
what a NUT JOB!!!.. he is like a weird villain from a Batman movie.. Dr. Zero. :))))
Tell him he wont get paid if we re-enter lockdown….watch his attitude change.. :)
This might be the only prediction he makes that actually happens.
Very poorly written. He assumes we all lead his jet-set lifestyle (hours over Gatwick?). Thankfully the government, elected by the citizens to run the country are in charge. Thanks Sam, but there’s a lab coat, bunsen burner and microscope out there somewhere missing you.
The Prophet of Doom…Sam McDonkey.
I’d rather listen to Twink sing than listen to him waffle on with doom….well maybe not :)
The Covid flattening train has long left the station Sam. Waving it at as it steams away is futile. Nominal and arbitrary levels are absolutely meaningless in the absence of enforcement. Every shop I have the misfortune to need to go into ( with one exception at Garvey’s in Castleisland who refuse to serve anyone without a face covering ) are tolerating people without face coverings. Political correctness too has muzzled people into not calling out the large group who are flouting every regulation because that is just the way they like to behave – no other reason. And the elephant in the room – the off-licence VAT intake. How can a government leave off-licences open!! Apart from their dependance on the VAT from their turnover. Cynical or what? People should just adopt so-called level 5 behaviours for themselves where it is feasible and use the Level 3 provisions like open retail shops where necessary. And of course our tame so called 3rd level “institutions” – take responsibility for your students and stop tolerating their behaviour without sanctioning them. The Government should introduce the sanction that will really really work. A conviction for repeated misdemeanours related to Covid regulation breaches. Doesn’t need to be a big conviction. – just enough to affect job prospects and deny a visa to the USA. Nothing will concentrate the mind more than having a conviction on your record. Absolutely nothing!! Play that again Sam!!
The amount of fake news trumptards on this is unreal….hopefully you all get COVID-19…..suffer loss…and hopefully emigrate to America
@IRL77: you really care about the health of people so much so that you want people to get a virus clearly you have agenda other than concerned for public health care and the 83 that die every day in Ireland
This is just ridiculous, the Journal need to stop terrifying people with this rubbish. I’m also amazed he has received about €5 million in funding for covid based research, including a ‘long covid’ study which is qualitative, but will no doubt be reported with comments like ‘it’s estimated up 400% of the population could be affected’
Travel between AUS and NZ not open. One way bubble favouring NZ planned to start on 16/10. That much caution from ‘Covid free’ nations means we have a long way to go.
Spot on. He is economically secure and will be unaffected by any collapse in our economy.
More people will get the virus and unfortunately people will die from it as well, however the economy needs to be kept alive and people’s well being must come first. I’m almost certain that a single parent of 2 would rather get the virus than lose their job in order to provide for their family. Wear the mask while in public and learn to live with it, have some common sense and respect other people’s personal and realize that the virus we can not be stopped yet but depression and suicide can be stopped!
I’d hate to be his son!
The badly f… uc.kin cent
The only people promoting lockdowns are those who are insulated from the consequences.
…..’wear a mask in crowded places’……..not exactly a ringing endorsement of mask-wearing
The jailor man and doctor Sam were searching everyone for a virus on the run.
have your say