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THE GOVERNMENT HAS launched a campaign aimed at young people and how they have been coping with the pandemic.
The campaign uses social media influencers to ask their followers questions they may have and put them to the Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronan Glynn.
The campaign has already begun on Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, and YouTube, and has it’s own website AntiviralIreland.com.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, young people have been criticised for not adhering to Covid-19 restrictions strictly enough, particularly after videos of social gatherings emerged and went viral, (Berlin bar, Freshers’ Week, for example).
Others have argued that blaming young people is unfair and unhelpful, and the pandemic has had the most severe negative impact on this group – both in their personal and professional development.
At a briefing this morning, the Department of An Taoiseach’s Liz Canavan said that young people have “sometimes been unfairly highlighted for images of non compliance that appear from time to time on social media.
“We don’t believe this represents the behaviour of the majority,” she said.
We have seen incident rates fall among young people. We know the enormous effort and sacrifices taken.
She said that to comply with restrictions, young people have missed out on meeting their friends, not being able to attend college in person, not being able to get a job, and missing out on other “rites of passage and formative experiences”.
Canavan said that the Taoiseach’s department has been working with several other branches of government to understand what the pandemic has meant for young people and to explore how to acknowledge the sacrifices they have made.
She said the campaign aims to emphasize “the positive behaviours of the majority, and to give the silent majority a forum to make their voices heard”.
She said it would tell stories of how young people have been “living their best lives possible, within the restrictions”.
Influencers have already gathered questions young people have and have put them to the Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronan Glynn. You can watch that video here:
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Is that Dr Ronan Glynn from NPHET in the footage whose cousin, ex Minister Frank Fahey (FF), attended the now infamous Golfgate dinner against Government Covid 19 restrictions.
@Paul Tennant: What has that got to do with anything? You’re responsible for the predictable consequences of his actions not anybody else’s.
@JB: exactly. Lots of people have little or no relationship with cousins. I wouldn’t expect my cousins to be criticised for my actions and vice versa
@Paul Tennant: Bad enough being responsible for one’s own actions, but being responsible for the cousins would be a bit much!!
@JB: Firstly, I am asking a question? Secondly, if Dr Glynn’s first cousin, who appear to be a reasonably intelligent and circumspect man cannot abide by the regulations, how do you expect teenagers and young people who are full of hormones, to do same. Maybe Frank Fahey knows something that Government isn’t telling the sheeple.
@Sara McS: what if your cousin got you a good job and you were close?
@Paul Tennant: really simple; you’re not asking a question.
@Gearóid ÓCiaráin: I thought an ex Minister of the Marine would go along with the establishment’s narrative regarding the Covid 19 Regulations.
Maybe the distinguished guests at Golfgate that included a Supreme Court Judge, numerous politicians and journalists know something that you don’t!
@ConPhoto: I am but it’s rhetorical
@Paul Tennant: Everyone here knows what people mean when they say ‘I’m just asking questions. ‘ It’s done by disingenuous people constantly.
It’s an irrelevant point you made and it was only written because you wanted to draw an association between someone working for the organisation advocating restrictions and someone related to them who broke them when there was no correlation.
@JB: and you call yourself an anarchist
Oh bs! The govt put this out (6 months too late) to get a handle on what parents aren’t capable of doing.) Every kid my nephew knows has had sleepovers and friends visiting since day one.Large groups congregating everywhere with no social distancing. FFS. Can this government be honest, for once?
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