I've never felt as disappointed at the sheer scale of ingratitude I've seen today.

Every tweet talking like Ireland is doing terribly in our pandemic response and throwing around insults & blame.

Ireland is doing great. You're all doing brilliantly. Still. /1

Cases are rising.

Put that case level and trajectory into perspective here and notice where our line was at for the last few months.

Hospital admitted is rising.

We're still 7 times below the EU average for hospital admitted. Think that through.

ICU admitted: 28

It's the very lowest in Europe per capita and incidentally even lower than this graph (Dec 13th). Consider that.

Deaths:

We have the lowest death rate in Europe.

Pause for a moment here and look at the 2 straight months at the bottom of this graph.

Ireland, on December 22nd of 2020, have essentially the very best epidemic situation in Europe.

That's despite these rising case numbers, which should tell you how stunningly well we were doing as a society.

And yet all of these facts gave way to bitterness.

Do you know how many are in hospital this afternoon in Ireland?

237.

The European average is the equivalent of 1,489 hospitalised in Ireland.

If our hospitals admitted 1,200 more patients this evening, we'd *only then* be doing average.

Scary but reality.

They are reaching for additional measures so that we can try maintain this.

Just like they preemptively reached for Level 5 in October.

We remain the only country in Europe to go for Level 5 below a 14-day incidence of 350.0 per 100,000.

It is 122.4 today.

We would need to see 1,377 cases and 38 deaths every single day for 14 days to hit the 14-day average.

We haven't had 1 solitary day of 1,377 cases and 38 deaths in 6 months.

Yet that's every single day in Winter for our friends in Europe.

Day in, day out of heartbreak.

What does the European average mean to me?

It means 40+ countries tried to prevent cases and deaths and that's the average outcome of colossal efforts.

We are so far below that average on every metric that it would take weeks of worst case scenarios to ever hit it.

You don't think a nurse in Belgium worked their back off for their country? A medical scientist in Croatia putting in trojan work? Ambulance crews in Switzerland long hours?

You don't think the vast majority of every society did all they can to keep their mam and dad alive?

Superhuman efforts went into this all over Europe.

Forget fucking governments.

I am talking about millions of human beings doing their best for each other.

And despite the scale of that effort, the average situation is truly dire because Covid is simply relentless.

Away from that suffering, we've had months of the best pandemic response in Europe.

People are either blissfully unaware of the scale of heartbreak in Europe or believe in Irish exceptionalism, expecting us to remain best in Europe non-stop against a remorseless foe.

Now people are mad there was any opening up at all.

They want to blame "the government" for not leaving us in perpetual lockdown, to prevent any rise at all.

We exited lockdown at a 14-day incidence of 87.0 per 100,000 with lowest hospitalised and 2nd lowest deaths in Europe.

If you can't open up while doing best in Europe, then you can't open up until the pandemic is over.

Lockdown fatigue is real and unsustainable mentally.

It is ridiculous to blame them for a case rise while simultaneously never giving any credit for the still-low numbers.

It isn't just complete nonsense to argue we are doing badly now.

It's ingratitude to your fellow 5 million people who sacrificed it all for us to get there.

All metrics show Ireland's Winter response is stellar and these new measures will touch wood ensure it remains that way.

The Twitter I read every day has increasingly resembled MAGA and US Twitter.

Tribes.

Who don't agree on objective truth and facts.

When they do concede to agree on them, they disregard them and instead pay deference to the cult of personality politicians they love.

If Leo or Mary Lou assure you it's 20 degrees outside, and you look out your window to see it's lashing snow with ice on the ground, you'd be an idiot to walk out your door in shorts and a tshirt, on their word vs your own eyes.

They're politicians, not Gods or Cult Leaders.

I have never cared if our pandemic response is led by Sinn Fein, Fine Gael or Bono and U2.

I will support them all to the hilt because "the government" is not 'the response'. People are.

I care about the togetherness of those people, but instead we have blame and division.

People must have no clue how much suffering...

Patients refused a hospital bed in Vilnius because the next person had a 10% better chance of survival and there was only enough ICU staff available for 1 bed.

Patients airlifted to other countries because their own was swamped.

World class health services decimated under the weight of Covid.

Funeral homes all over the European map packed with death.

And right now people in Ireland are complaining and apoplectic that their Christmas plans were derailed for one year of their life.

We have an inordinate amount to be grateful for at Christmas.

We made it to Christmas with as few cases and deaths as we can. We did brilliantly this Winter.

There are miles to go on this journey but they don't need to be walked alone in anger.

We can walk it together in hope.