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RYANAIR PASSENGERS HAVE complained they were left with little instruction from the airline after their flight was forced to land at a different Canary island than planned due to bad weather.
It eventually lead to some having to pay for their own transport off the island after boarding the wrong ferry.
More than 140 passengers were flying from Dublin to Lanzarote on Saturday morning when thunderstorms forced the pilot to divert to the neighbouring island of Fuerteventura.
After being told by the pilot they would be able to get a ferry to Lanzarote, the group disembarked the plane and waited at the terminal for their bags.
‘Herded’
However, no instruction was given on what to do next until they were ‘herded’ on to buses organised by the airline to bring them to the ferry port. Some grew frustrated with the wait and arranged for their own taxis.
When the first group arrived, they were told that no tickets had been reserved, meaning many bought them at their own expense.
One passenger on the flight, Max Kyck told TheJournal.ie: ”We were told to disembark [the plane] and get our bags and to go to the Ryanair desk for tickets.
We waited about 30 minutes for our bags. Then a young Spanish girl tried to herd all 144 of us outside to wait for buses. She didn’t know what the situation was with ferry tickets, or what time the ferry was leaving.
Kyck said he was lucky enough to get on the first bus to the port, but others got taxis costing more than €40.
“When we got to the port shortly after 1pm there was nobody from Ryanair and nobody at the port knew anything about our tickets,” he continued, “We waited a while and then bought tickets – €47 for two.”
Once they arrived at Lanzarote, the group again had to arrange for their own transport from the port.
The diversion ended up adding hours to the passengers’ trip.
A spokesperson for Ryanair apologised for the diversion, and explained that a ferry had been arranged, but some passengers arrived too early or went to the wrong ferry company.
Customers are asked to submit receipted travel expenses for reimbursement.
“Ryanair sincerely apologises to all customers affected by this weather diversion,” he said.
Another passenger, who declined to be named, criticised the lack of communication from Ryanair during the incident.
“Someone might have turned up later but there was no one around,” he said.
All passengers were emailed a PDF yesterday morning explaining the terms and conditions of flights which are delayed or diverted.
“[The PDF] is not very straight-forward, most of us have found it to be gobbledygook,” the passenger continued. “And also when you’re on holiday you might not want to check your emails due to data roaming charges.
“But look, we’re here now, and it’s sunny.”
The Daily Mail reports that passengers landing on the same island in 2010 were left without guidance on how to get to Lanzarote.
In this incident, ferry crossings were cancelled, meaning some passengers had to arrange for overnight stays in hotels.
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“ Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan has made it clear that he is no a fan antigen testing and its use in many areas” The only thing this man has been proven to be fan of is locking down the country and decimating industries. Ohh and supposedly saving lives, but only from Covid, they quite clearly don’t give a sh/t about any other illness, suicide or the detriment of losing a job and livelihood on ones wellbeing. National public Health (but only if your health is impacted by covid) emergency team.
@John Egan: Michael is terrified by Tony. Won’t use antigen like every other country because of that. Its too late now anyway. There’s no way they’d have antigen ready in that anyway, it’ll take them months. Should of been done months ago like everyone else. This is on NPHET.
@DK: Stop deluding yourself Fr Ted Martin. If Bishop Brennan Holohan says the antigen tests cannot be used they won’t be used.
@John Egan: I’m in favour of launching Kim Jong Holohan into space along with John Delaney and Gemma O’Doherty
@John Egan:
Seems like we are going to have an army of web epidemiology experts on here…
Looking at the figures coming out of the UK and North, I think we are being prudent and safe…
Delta is a rampant. Don’t give it a chance to get hold and then fix afterwards, look at Christmas… Some people are pointing at other countries, so what…
@DK Innovation: Not very innovative of you.
@DK Innovation: You’re doing exactly what you claim others are doing or will do on here! Posting your I presume non-professional opinion on how things are progressing and how they might pan out makes you just another one of those ‘web epidemiology experts’…
@John Egan: NPHET were given a brief and they stuck to it, fairplay to them. Our government on the other hand have flip flopped. The only reliable constant through this whole pandemic has being NPHET.
@DK Innovation: it would seem many commenters have short memories. There was a clamour before Christmas to reopen, so we could all have a meaningful Christmas, as a variant of concern began to hit us. Low and behold we went from the lowest case rate in the EU to the highest, and recorded more cases in a few weeks than all of last year. Yet here we are, another variant about to hit and there is a clamour to open up.
As a matter of interest, of those looking for re-opening and NPHETs head on a platter, what do you picture Aug and Sept like, based on our previous experience?
@DK Innovation: stay under your bed
@John Egan: remember Tony telling the world Irish people would not know how to wear a mask properly so we won’t be recommending
@Bala mc blaha: tell that to a restaurant owner
@Bala mc blaha: sorry I can’t take your comment seriously
@Sam Murray: Now there’s an idea everybody could get behind
@John Egan: Whinge all you like but he hasn’t been wrong yet. If only the government had actually done what NPHET recommended from the get-go instead of implementing half-assed measures far too late we wouldn’t have had to deal with over a year of rolling lockdowns.
@Bala mc blaha: easy to say close everything for ever though
It’s Operation Wipeout for pubs courtesy of our puritan overlords, I’m afraid. They can only see alcohol as ‘evil’
@Karl Doyle: Shambles, a non drinker dictator is making decisions for the drinks industry in a destructive way and our weak leader is scared of him, oh did Mary Lou get out from under her bed, did I hear a whisper
@Karl Doyle: I’m always against conspiracies, but in the narrow world of public health I’m sure some see less pubs as a good thing. I doubt it’s driving policy, but still.
@Gerard Carthy: only if you’re a craic-less gombeen drone who can’t think for yourself
@Karl Doyle: utter nonsense….do you not think people are drinking outside? Far less boozing would probably go on inside a pub or restaurant because its more expensive. Town was nuts with the booze last weekend. In fact, we all could probably do with a bit less booze at this stage!!
We need to stand up now or we never will. Our government are not in charge, Holihan & his cohorts are. Their lust for power is all consuming and they have no intention of letting go.
@Eadaoin Pollard: Holohan* and you are 100% wrong. If Dr. Holohan was running the country, why did we open at Christmas even though he advised against it.
@Denis Ryan: the one time we shouldn’t have reopened. the problem was fully opening for 2 weeks after locking down in some places from September. the streets were jammed everywhere. in the small town the place was jammed with uk reg cars over for xmas.
@Denis Ryan: Hes effectively running the covid show now because of the wave that started in December. Govt are afraid to go against his advice because of how hard that bit them then……. British variant and christmas were the perfect storm. The third wave would have happened anyway as people would have still mixed during Christmas, although stats may not have been so high as the daily cases were already rising from early dec. So we would have had a third wave and no christmas easing with restrictions well into the new year anyway. There would have also been public uproar if they didnt ease restrictions for christmas as we were locked down for two months at that stage. They would have lost the public then as opposed to recently…… Christmas was a Kobayashi Maru for the govt.
@Denis Ryan: pure window dressing. I am fully vaccinated but feel it is utterly wrong to push vaccines only. Studies are being conducted and have shown that there are effective drugs such as Ivermectin that are successfully treating covid patients. Even in China studies have been conducted using high doses of Vitamin D and C to treat patients and this has proven to be very effective. The thing is if people know that there are drugs and other therapies that work in the treatment of covid, then they won’t get vaccinated. Lets face it, at the end of the day it’s all about the money. Holohan and Co won’t make enough money out of anything else.
@ed w: and there were 26000 new cases in the UK yesterday just to give an idea of the speed at which this variant spreads . Can anyone really object to a delay in opening anything !
@Denis Ryan: Ronan Glynn was acting CMO back then ( end of Sept.). He was quite happy with the trajectory of figures. There was a slight rise he said if it continued he would implement a sharp two week.full lockdown. The ideal solution seeing Xmas was only two months or so ahead. The following week Holohan swooped back in and said no 6 week lockdown immediately reopening 1st week.of Dec. A blind ass could see that would be a catastrophe as everyone would be rushing to do Xmas shopping. If Glynn had still.been in charge this debacle could have been avoided as numbers that Friday had dropped. HSPC figures for Dec.showed cases hospitality were relatively low most were in hospitals, nursing homes, private houses and travel.
@Terry Cahill: Deaths and hospitalisation are low. A U.K doctor said cases are less severe , less in ICU and stays in hospital shorter.
@Eadaoin Pollard: vitamin C, big pharma, and a conspiracy involving Tony Houlihan profiting from the pandemic. How does the the Journal still allow these tinfoil hat posters to spread their lies?
@Terry Cahill: how many hospitalisations? The link between case numbers, hospitalisations and deaths has been well and truly broken as one shot of any of the vaccines gives 70% plus protection against hospitalisation pushing up to high 80s for the mrna vaccines afaik. This means the hospitalisation cases are in younger people who are far less likely to die from covid IF they get it.
We are on a completely different planet now when it comes to this variant due to the vulnerable all having at least one shot of vaccine and if they want to cocoon while delta is around and until they get their second shot let them and let the rest of the country get back to near normal.
You also have to acknowledge that almost everything is open in the UK now including indoor pubs and dining. There is no talk of going into another lockdown over there despite these terrible numbers you seem to be so scared by.
@Eadaoin Pollard: Cop on. You think he “lusts for power” his predictions have not been wrong yet and the government have consistently ignored his advice – hence our inability to get Covid under control. The number of nutjobs on here convinced a public health doctor is obsessed with keeping the country locked down for his own shady agenda is insane. I guess the non-!diots got sick of commenting on the journal back during the first wave and now it’s an echo chamber for the ignorant.
Country is a mess……. rest of world living with Covid while Ireland hides from something it cannot hide from…..
@Darren Norris: I don’t think the rest of the world are living with COVID successfully, look what’s happening in Australia, Africa, India and there will be lockdowns in Europe very soon due to delta. Having said that I think there should be everything done to get the vaccines rolled out and the government have to open the pubs and indoor dining ASAP but safely. Apparently there were 2000 positive infections amongst the Scotland fans at Wembley last week.
@Darren Norris: we are also living with COVID otherwise we would be back in lockdown.
While it’s unfortunate that indoor dining is delayed I would back nphet on this issue after what happened at Christmas time. And remember all the people saying they were wrong then too and see how that turned out
@andy marsh: https://www.rte.ie/news/coronavirus/2021/0629/1232113-europe-hospitality/
Read attached. Again…Ireland not living with Covid. Hiding from it. Open up the sectors in a safe way…. Scary thing is cases still high compared to rest of Europe whcih have reopened
@WiseUp: @andy marsh: https://www.rte.ie/news/coronavirus/2021/0629/1232113-europe-hospitality/
Read attached. Again…Ireland not living with Covid. Hiding from it. Open up the sectors in a safe way….
They dont know the figures this soon from the game…and if there were that many cases and hopsitals are fine…then there is no issue…..Ireland needs to get into the US/UK/E mindset that we are living with this longterm like a flu and to manage it. Open sectors safely.
@WiseUp: nonsense your understanding of the description living with covid is very flawed if you want to point to Australia etc – the fact they have been able to keep their local economy open for a YEAR and are imposing restrictions for two weeks now having found a dozen cases is testiment to them having a living with covid strategy actually not a demonstration that they are failing – we are the only European country that can’t seem to manage indoor dining and the ham-fisted management can’t be disguised with apologists on here – they did a lousy job managing yesterday – they have had months to draw up contingency plans and spring this nonsense of vax only on the day of the announcement its shambolic leadership
@WiseUp: have a read of this article and you’ll see what Singapore’s new plan to live with the pandemic:
https://www.timesnownews.com/health/article/singapore-s-surprising-covid-normal-new-plan-to-live-with-sars-cov-2-revealed/777082
@Dave Hammond: You’re right, it’s a shambles, poor leadership and dreadful planning and communication. My point was I don’t think we will be the only country that has lock down issues and has to change strategies including indoor dining. I didn’t mean to sound like I’m defending the government I’m just not convinced that it won’t flare up again. I’d love nothing more that for pubs and indoor dining to open up, if they opened today I would be in my local right now and I’d be in a restaurant tomorrow.
@Boksburg Girl: I read the article, some interesting points and some points that can’t be matched up with our situation.
@Darren Norris: Sydney is in lockdown.
Is this the same nphet that said wearing masks won’t make a difference? How many lives were lost as a result?
Was it nphet who said opening up construction would lead to an increase in cases when ireland was the only country in Europe with construction closed down a second time? Did we see a spike in cases with essential construction continuing? No, did we see a spike in cases when non essential construction was allowed to resume? No.
Was it nphet who said outdoor sports could not be played due to the potential for spike in cases? Did we see any associated spike when it opened? No. Was there a report saying there was a seriously low chance of contracting covid in an outside environment? Yes.
Is nphet the only expert group against antigen testing? Yes
Are niac and nphet ignoring all the excellent data as per Prof like O’Neil about the efficacy of mixing vaccines? Yes, how many lives lost as a result?
Yeah where could we go wrong taking nphets advice?
Hold up, firstly they put in place mandatory quarantine for travelers, but that didn’t keep the variant out. We have a vaccine, but the roll out is slow because we couldn’t get the supply. I shouldn’t buy an antigen test in lidl, use it at home as an extra bit of security, but now they’ll reccomend using them for the reopening of hospitality, which is both happening, but also not happening….. I personally won’t be going out for indoor dining until I’m vaccinated, but the government needs to cop on. They are destroying an industry, little to no planning and terrible communication. Condolences to anyone who was supposed to get back to work in a pub/restaurant but is now back on the pup. Just remember this carry on come next election.
@Ross Mc Gann: they brought in mhq and the let most leave
“Ventilation will be looked at” says Martin. We will definitely need it due to the amount of horsesh-ite smell originating from Kildare street lately
Open the pubs and restaurants etc for every body.
Just ban over 65s for a few weeks until we reach the tipping point of vaccinations + herd immunity decreasing trend.
Most vulnerable >65 protected – no serious illness, no deaths, everybody happy.
People can live again and get back to work .
Virtually all over 65′s would accept this. Do it.
I have no faith in Tony Holohan.
He is unelected; wields too much power and is way overstepping the mark.
He needs to be replaced.
Could Tony and the government at least explain to us great unwashed why their approach varies so wildly to the vast majority of other European countries. I know there’s no 100% correct approach to tackling this but it seems highly unlikely that Ireland knows better than everyone else.
@Alan Henderson: well excess deaths attributed to covid are considerably lower than most other European countries..
@Steve: maybe that’s the case but as far as I know this hasn’t been highlighted. Anyway literally nobody over the last 14 days has died due to Covid and I think we’re fair to middling in terms of cases despite having low delta variant (yet) and the longest/harshest restrictions going.
Don’t get me wrong I’d have no issue with a couple of weeks delay but what happened yesterday was a shambles by any measure and the public deserve proper justification.
Who this Houlihan think he is??? Every country except Ireland accepts antigen tests. Even the W.H.O have said there vital. Is it something to do with members of Nphet involvement in pcr company’s. Truth will eventually come out.
You are wrong Micheal so very very wrong.
‘Will be considered’ says MM, why has it not been considered all along. His words are as good as Leos ‘ delay to reopening is not inevitable’. But sure at least they going to plan to have a plan, about a plan for the possible future, in the near future. Always trying to close the gate after the herd has bolted and a dollar and a day late.
I actually felt deflated yesterday for the first time in months with covid. I then told myself I must be missing something so I scanned articles and information on restrictions across the western world and beyond.
There were stadiums full of ppl across Europe and America yesterday – one example full Boston Red Sox game with no masks etc.
I have background exp in numbers,stats and geopolitical analysis and I just can’t for the life of me understand how the govt has not sent nphet back to the drawing board to give more options on this.
It seems some ppl think if we beat covid we are eternal now. Life is short decisions require risk vs life balance. We cannot hide from this forever.
I found this article also and I respect the man but I think his bias and prev hse mistakes are fogging him
Not saying our relationship with drink in Ireland is perfect but to suggest our right to choose shouldn’t be guaranteed needs to be looked at. I enjoy a few pints and heading home aswell as weekends away etc. And the odd time I have few too many. So??
Laws keep us out of the ditches but life is about the wriggle room in between to live and learn
@Richie: yesterday I did some number crunching cause I was bored and I came to the conclusion that the worst case scenario was based upon the vaccine not working against the delta variant and not taking into account the 90% infection/hospitalization and the 90% death rate reduction. In what follows I assume that the vacccine is 90% efficient in cases and of those cases the vaccine is 90% efficient in preventing deaths.
In the UK there were about 1600 hospitalisations in the week up to the 23/06/2021 and 122 deaths in the following week which is about 13% – so the actual high quoted hospital to death rate of 20% was not that unreasonable as it is a developing situation in the UK. However before vaccine I suppose 100,000 cases result in 1,000 hospitalisations and 20 deaths – using the 90% reduction in infections and 90% reduction in serious cases/deaths we would get 10,000 cases and 100 hospitalisations somewhere between 0.2 and 2 deaths based upon the vaccine effectiveness against the current strain. This represents a 90% drip in deaths and a 90% drop in cases – as the model should be cumulative.
this is a very very rough estimate in the effect of the vaccine which should see deaths drop by 99% (10% of 10%) in a fully vaccinated group compared to an unvaccinated group. Obviously the delta variant will affect these figures but at twice as transmittable and twice the death rate my maths says we that the death rate would drop by 96% compared to an unvaccinated group.
I accept the modeling figure idea and that there are a lot of variables and that the worst case scenario is possible but I think it unlikely as the vaccine rollout continues and we should have stuck to the opening dates with a caveat that it is still not as safe as it could be and that vulnerable and unvaccinated people should consider how much they wish tio use the opened hospitality while waiting for the vaccine.
As an emergency measure they should have on standby the ability to have indoor hospitality limited to vaccinated people should the number of serious cases and deaths grow. I disagree with the Government decision but I am still glad it is not me having to balance everything and make the decisions.
@Niall Ó Cofaigh: thanks for that.
Very interesting and your numbers are in or around what I think aswelll.
Good balanced view and your right. Tough calls to make.
I think if we hadn’t have had the Xmas blow up the govt would 100% have stuck with dates. It maybe political fear for the for what “could” happen.
On the other hand the cabinet are paid big money specially to make tough calls.
We will all have our answers in a month. I hope there predictions are wrong, for numerous reasons
Is anyone else tired of Micheál and his pious pontifications. ?
What a week government we have. A person who is not in the government is running this country. MM needs to go and f..k himself.
Mehole spouting scutter again
Hoolihan is the Archbishop Mc Quaid of the 2020s
@John O: I actually seen a comparable photo on social media yesterday. Top half Mc,Quaid and DeValera bottom half Holohan and Martin. So apt.
What’s the plan for indoor activities for children? There’s no vaccine for them, so I guess there could be a ban on them participating indoor sports, dancing for months to come? Or antigen testing for kids?
‘High threshold for hospitality set by NPHET’.
Can someone explain what’s meant by that? Is it that it won’t effect many? If so think he’s very very wrong. Parents won’t be able bring their children.
@DK: it means that NPHET is holding the hospitality industry to an extremely tough standard
@Elaine Phelan: Its holding them hostage you mean
6 months later they thinking about it mind boggles
So it’s ok for 30 students to sit in a small class for the day but we can’t have 15 of the same group of students in a large church for an hour to make communion.
@Shneak: As you describe it, yes you can. But I bet the church would actually be packed. There is the problem.
I’ve always said that this government is completely anti-alcohol, and they are determined to turn us into some form of a puritan state. We already have the highest alcohol prices in Europe, minimum pricing is on the way in January which will pretty much mean the doubling in the price of off-sales. Not to mention that if King Tony ever allows pubs to reopen, half of them will have closed anyway, not to mention the most restrictive opening hours in Europe. You’ll probably have more craic in North Korea in a few years than you will here once Holohan and Martin have finished destroying the hospitality industry.
@andy marsh: https://www.rte.ie/news/coronavirus/2021/0629/1232113-europe-hospitality/
Read attached. Again…Ireland not living with Covid. Hiding from it. Open up the sectors in a safe way…. Scary thing is cases still high compared to rest of Europe whcih have reopened
@Darren Norris: deaths which is the important number have stayed very steady with COVID. The very vast majority of COVID deaths are in older and more vulnerable people. Most of these people are vaccinated now. A standard delay of 2 weeks would have covered almost all of them. Delta appears to be faster spreading but less lethal. Add in large vaccination coverage and you’re going to end up with very little excess death
Government will “consider” antigen testing, talk about sleeping on the job.
“Speaking during Leaders’ Questions, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the threshold set by the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) for the hospitality sector is “a very high one””. So it’s obvious by this statement, NPHET are making the rules and the government is no longer in control. The are the vehicle for NPHET’s strategy. Sure why even have a by-election in Dublin Bay South next week….it’s not going to make any difference
How are MM and Leo going to spin this one this time, they said they made the decisions based on NPHET modeling, they said yesterday that the vaccination changes were included in the modeling. Now we find from Opposition questioning of Tony, that the vaccination changes were not it the modeling and that if they were, the results of the modeling would not have been as bleak .
Serious questions have to answered here ..
Did anyone in the Gov actually ask Tony if the vaccination changes were in the modeling ?
Did they ask any questions at all ?
Is there actually any communication between the two side other than official letters ?
@Da Dell: Troll.MM told deliberate porkies to Catherine Martin in a cabinet meeting.Why?How will MM wriggle out of this one I wonder.
@Billy McNamara: Id say it will be more of a slither ….
@Da Dell: Sorry,my Troll comment was not directed at you..Two posts got mixed up somehow.
@Billy McNamara: Oh no worries I actually thought you were telling me to Troll Martin for the answer :-)
@Billy McNamara: FYI he is getting a fair roasting in the FF PP meeting this evening .. and rightly so ..
Hope mehole is keeping that bole of shamrock well hydrated in this weather, that’s about as far as his knowledge goes haha
Tony Holohan has really become public enemy number 1
Did you ever hear such s h 1 t out of Mary Lou – continued policy from SF of black is white get young lads vote for us – we’ll criticise everything but offer no real solutions – when they get in they’ll claim success from existing FFG policies while running the. Country down the drain
@Self Employed Anarchist: Yeah im sure FFG will want someone else to claim the success of the housing crisis along with the 1/3 rd of a Trillion debt that Pascal says Ireland will have at end of year. Also the Gov have not briefed the opposition about NPHET decision and modeling since last Dec, do keep up.
The government well and truly throwing NPHET under the bus. Will they ever take accountability for anything.
As bad as the government has been, the opposition have been worse. The silence from the shinners has been deafening and Labour are giving out but when asked if they would have opened up indoor dining etc if it power thay refused to answer
@Patrick O Connell: Have you seen the news today, read the articles or even read the update here lad, its the opposition who asked Tony questions about the modeling, the Gov obviously had not as they said the models did include the changes to vaccinations yesterday. Also the Gov have not briefed the Opposition about NPHET discussions and modeling since last December.
@Da Dell: But sf did not bother staying for the health briefings and then complained they were not briefed. Look it up, you are great at quoting other articles.
@Fionn Darland: But but but ,, whataboutry at its finest .. let me put in simple English for you
Was the Taoiseach of the Country Michael Martin and the Tanaiste Leo Varadkar lying yesterday when they said that the vaccination changes were included in the modeling ?
Killaloe buzzing today in glorious sunshine. Went to an outdoor diner, Flanagans, around noon for refreshments. Nothing to eat bar pink or yellow snacks and weak tea to boot.
€4.10 for tea and a snack.
Hospitality needs to get its own house in order rather than ranting 24/7 on radio and TV.
further to my comment earlier —-
The CMO “struggled” to explain the rationale as to why unvaccinated young people can work in a pub or restaurant but can’t dine or enjoy a pint indoors, according to sources.
Now we’ll see what this shower are made of. Holohan is against Antigen testing but the politicians can see their use is the only way to get out of the mess they have been put in.
Ignoring Antigen cements the discriminatory policy espoused by Tony. M.M. and Leo plus sleepy Eamon have no choice but to embrace Tony’s hated Antigen.
You all happy now you FF/FG /Green voters with this absolute shambles of a government?
@Billy McNamara: Yes. Very happy with their excellent government. Only moaners in opposition. Thanks for asking.
@Fionn Darland: So Fionn was MM and Leo lying yesterday or making it up as the went as usual ?
It was the opposition questioning of Tony today that exposed that MM & Leo were either lying, making it up or were mislead by Tony & NPHET in believes that the vaccination changes were included in the modeling.
@Fionn Darland: Troll.
@Billy McNamara: Fionn is so happy with the 1/3rd of a Trillion Debt that Pascal said Ireland will be in at the end of the year !!
1 million seconds is about 11.5 days,
1 billion seconds is about 32 years.
1 trillion seconds is equal to 32,000 years.
Holohan is a right old tw&t
Must be more money in testing
It’s only supposed to be advice, can’t we choose to ignore it? Promise not to sue anybody if we all die(or get struck by lightning!)
@Stephen Doyle: the government can, like they did at Christmas
Great contribution from the opposition there as always. We need a new political movement now to challenge the old guard. There’s no credible opposition in this country.
@GrumpyAulFella: From the Opposition questioning of Tony today, we found out that MM & Leo where either lying yesterday, making it up as they went, or were mislead by Tony & NPHET. None of it is good.
Who is running this Country.
@Paul Dolan: Tony by looks of it
In all this modelling is there any evidence to suggest vaccines do or don’t work? That is what’s really important.
Government only had 2 plans, lockdown and vaccines.
@Keith Dempsey: yes they do, which is why they are considering opening indoor dining and drinking to fully vaccinated people only
you really couldn’t make up this level of inc0mpetence. tony say antigen tests are worse than useless though.
Another day in Ireland and I see we are still ignoring treatments for Covid 19
“A major contradiction has emerged between the Government and its public health officials over the basis upon which the delayed indoor dining was introduced.
The Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan told opposition TDs this afternoon that the new advice on vaccinations, from the National Immunisation Advisory Committee (Niac) was not included in the National Public Health Emergency Team’s (Nphet) modelling on the Delta variant ”
It would seem many commenters have short memories. There was a clamour before Christmas to reopen, so we could all have a meaningful Christmas, as a variant of concern began to hit us. Low and behold we went from the lowest case rate in the EU to the highest, and recorded more cases in a few weeks than all of last year. Yet here we are, another variant about to hit and there is a clamour to open up.
As a matter of interest, of those looking for re-opening and NPHETs head on a platter, what do you picture Aug and Sept like, based on our previous experience?
@D. Memery: Comparing apples to oranges, was no quarantine or any vaccinations last Dec. And now we are updated that the latest modeling is not accurate and did not include changes to vaccinations.
@D. Memery: almost every poll taken in November and December had well over 50% of people saying to keep things closed if that was NPHET advice. The clamour to open up is real now because we have a very significant amount of people vaccinated. We had precisely 0 vaccinated last December. The main driver of the surge at Christmas was travel and the lack of hotel quarantine, plus the lack of a requirement for a negative COVID test before landing when 50,000 people were flying to Dublin alone for Christmas.
Our previous experience is not relevant with the number of people now vaccinated and the EU travel system
@D. Memery: as many have already pointed out to you and in case you have missed it – we have been rolling out thee biggest mass vaccination program in the history of the state – a vaccine that has very high efficacy against covid and prevents the virus from being as harmful and causing deaths – we have been doing this for 6 months now and have successfully vaccinated the most vulnerable in society – we also ( belatedly ) introduced MHQ since January -to prevent people who arrive from hotspots from spreading covid – so with respect there is nothing wrong with our memories – we are pointing out that every other country in EU has managed to open indoor dining and live with covid including Delta variant like in the North Ireland – where they are still reporting no deaths even as cases have increased – which for the record they have done in pretty much every developed nation that reopens – so go and shite with your patronizing nonsense this isn’t xmas.
Tony Holohan is a complete spoofer. Simple as that.
Shambles
I think your T button is broke whoever wrote this haha
Most European countries probably have a lot more of good serviced ventilation systems in their indoor areas for food and drink due to their hotter summers so indoor may be less risky .. maybe
@Mary O Dwyer: Mother of God, now your full of ifs, buts and maybes, you really have lost the plot.
@Mary O Dwyer: this time of the year, most people eat and drink outdoors anyway in many European countries
@Da Dell: basically I’m saying indoors here is in the main air con free and with little or poor natural ventilation . It’s all about proper ventilation not just a door open
@Mary O Dwyer: or MAYBE, and bear with me here because this one could blow your mind, MAYBE NPHET and the government just got this one wrong? You know thats the most obvious hypothetical scenario when comparing us to the rest of europe. But you won’t go there? Its maybe they have better ventilation? Maybe they have this, maybe they have that, maybe they don’t have a significant number of citizens who will put up with absolutely anything they do and say even if it makes no sense. Or the most obvious one that maybe the people in charge of our country just got it wrong. Its not like they don’t have form; antigen tests, nursing homes, mask advise, smear test scandal. Yes i am including smear test scandal because as much as people say NPHET are only an advisory group our Taoiseach basically said what they say goes so they are now essentially in charge.
@Mary O Dwyer: Your making grand sweeping statements .. have you any comment now on the fact that Tony did not include the vaccination changes in the modeling ?and the fact that he either did not tell the Gov that fact or even worse that the Gov did not ask ? and it took the opposition asking him to find out today after major decisions had been taken.
@Mary O Dwyer: You’ll find that most restaurants in hot european countries do not actually have good ventilation. Yes they have Air Con which just cools and recycles the air with no filtering that will catch virus particles. They might only mix around 15% fresh air with the A/C, as it costs more energy to cool the hot air coming in.
Looks like some one has had a chat with Taoiseach Houlouhan and forced somewhat of a climb down..
Tony Holohan needs to be replaced immediately as CMO.
He is not fit for purpose and must go.
The CMO is still mourning his wife and he wants the whole country to do it with him. Cruel but unfortunately true.
@buddhabar.freak: what an awful thing to say
This is going to sound a bit crazy. But looking at what is happening in the Hospitality sector. Anything is better than what we have now.
To get Indoor open a little bit. Allow people in with their vacation card or HSE text confirming Covid. If a Negative PCR and Antigen test were invlt. 50% of the current Indiircmarket could be “Allowed”.
Then we would have a foot in the door and work on opening it fully for everybody.
Crazy as it sounds!!, but with a mad inept government who clearly are not running the country. This is better than what currently is going on.
@Ian D. Ryan: except that it doesn’t take into account the fact that the vast majority of staff are young and, therefore, not vaccinated. How can you say that a person can serve someone indoors but can’t themselves dine indoors in a restaurant??
The delta variant is more transmissable. From what I have read, in terms of hospitalisations and deaths, it is not as deadly as the previous Alpha strain.
Data suggests that immunity from Covid through natural infection is better that immunity through vaccine.
In Scotland today, they announced around 1900 cases, mostly Delta, but hospitalisations are decreasing.
Serious question. If this is the case, and we have vaccinated most if not all of the over 70′s, are we not better to take a risk on the Delta and let it run through the younger and healthier people giving them natural immunity while using all available vaccines to finish the program for everyone awaiting their 2nd shot?
Eejits!
The CMO is still mourning his wife and he wants the whole country to do it with him. Cruel but unfortunately true
@buddhabar.freak: low blow
Could the CMO again try ( and no doubt fail ) to explain why it’s seemingly ok fir young people to work and serve indoors but not eat indoors !!!!!
Nicola Sturgon says delta will “ rip through the community “ she didn’t give a fig about all the Scottish supporters dancing around London last week….
Get jabs into arms and get things open. We like to complain but we’re actually in a good position compared to countries where the vaccine up take is low, Australia for example has only 4% of their citizens vaccinated. If the current outbreak takes hold there they’ll be in trouble. I know we have low hospital and icu numbers, albeit not really decreasing this past week. But our case numbers are still several times higher than similar sized European countries who already have indoor dining reopened. That’s because delta is taking hold here. Bang out the vaccines. I had my 2nd jab at the weekend in Croke Park and it was packed. Good to see it.
This truly says it all
Huge problems with booze consumption and risk taking behaviours outside atm. Emergency services really struggling to get to people due to crowds last weekend. Better to have people inside. Covid is not the only threat to health.
Nicola Sturgen says it will “rip through the community “ ….thousands of Scotland fans dancing around London arm in arm last week……
117 deaths from 92026 delta cases in UK between early Feb to mid June so probably similar vaccination levels to us now if slightly lower over there in early February and they have a lot less on one shot of mrna vaccine which has a much higher percentage protection from hospitalisation (and death) than one shot of astra zenica.
Luke O NEILL just said that the modelling did not take into account of people who are vaccinated. Wow is all i can say.
Nothing but a shambles. Tony should be sacked witj immediately effect. He is not fit for purpose.
What difference would it have made factoring in offering az and j&j to younger people? Even if it happens, they wouldn’t all be vaccinated by the deadline, so it makes even more sense to delay a few weeks to allow that to happen
apparently didnt account for lots of things
I can see why people disagree with this, and I agree that NPHET is overly focused on Covid and apparently blind to ‘peripheral damage’ caused by lockdowns (which CANNOT go on indefinitely). This probably is a bad decision.
But the only thing I would add is the responsibility of the Irish population to control themselves and not go nuts when things do open up, they way many did whenever we’ve had relaxations over the past year. Opening up doesn’t mean we have to have packed raves in Grafton Street.
have your say