Read on Twitter
The best thing I read in 2020:
"The West has failed – US and Europe have made a mess of handling the crisis"
by @NaomiOhReally in the @IrishTimes https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/the-west-has-failed-us-and-europe-have-made-a-mess-of-handling-the-crisis-1.4395473
"The West has failed – US and Europe have made a mess of handling the crisis"
by @NaomiOhReally in the @IrishTimes https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/the-west-has-failed-us-and-europe-have-made-a-mess-of-handling-the-crisis-1.4395473
Also have hypermnesia for my first reading of "Why You Must Act Now" by @tomaspueyo on March 11th in @Kennedys1850Pub. That was when 2020 became obvious. https://tomaspueyo.medium.com/coronavirus-act-today-or-people-will-die-f4d3d9cd99ca
Very concerned that the new B.1.1.7 variant requires just as serious preemptive action today: https://twitter.com/_nickdavies/status/1344746868367101952?s=20
A clear summary of why is here: https://twitter.com/dgurdasani1/status/1344774555718590464?s=20
We don't know to what level the B.1.1.7 variant is present in the Irish population (though it is trivial to check by PCR analysis). It is unlikely to have contributed significantly to the current 3rd wave of infections. But it is contributing to the 4th wave.
This was discussed, amongst many other issues and predictions, at the @ISAGCOVID19 webinar yesterday: https://twitter.com/ISAGCOVID19/status/1344698895557922816?s=20
Important to remember that we're currently half blind. There's a significant testing backlog, many people stopped reporting symptoms over Christmas, & we have stopped testing close contacts. The @HSELive believe we had closer to 3,000 cases yesterday. https://twitter.com/newschambers/status/1344939796163145728?s=20
We're in a bad situation, and we have likely not started to feel the effects of the B.1.1.7 variant yet.
Vaccines are coming but are unlikely to begin to have a meaningful impact until later summer or autumn - as already noted by Mike Ryan at the @WHO: https://twitter.com/rtenews/status/1332030806496260105?s=20
Vaccines are coming but are unlikely to begin to have a meaningful impact until later summer or autumn - as already noted by Mike Ryan at the @WHO: https://twitter.com/rtenews/status/1332030806496260105?s=20
2021 will be a year of "vaccine plus", and for most of the year, it will be mainly about the 'plus'. But then, look at what was accomplished in China without a vaccine: https://twitter.com/allisonpearson/status/1344936120317054976?s=20
And in New Zealand: https://twitter.com/Caronicles_/status/1344629497165963264
And in Australia: https://twitter.com/UNTVNewsRescue/status/1344623657126043650?s=20
And in South Korea: https://www.who.int/westernpacific/news/feature-stories/detail/sharing-covid-19-experiences-the-republic-of-korea-response
And in Taiwan: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-55269729
And in Iceland: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03284-3
And, to a large extent, the eastern seaboard of Canada: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/18/opinion/covid-halifax-nova-scotia-canada.html
And in Europe (other than Iceland), most impressively Finland: https://www.ft.com/content/61dccfaa-0871-48a2-80ac-dbe6d5b5b5f8
Almost nowhere is perfect. Nobody expects to get everything right all of the time. But its clear that the effort yields its own rewards - all the way down, & as close as you can get to zero.
To quote @firefoxx66 "lower cases save lives and livelihoods" https://twitter.com/firefoxx66/status/1344258874627469314?s=20
To quote @firefoxx66 "lower cases save lives and livelihoods" https://twitter.com/firefoxx66/status/1344258874627469314?s=20
Its disappointing and embarrassing that despite the fact of living on a sparsely populated, we can't seem to take control of our situation in Ireland.
We could have done better, & now it seems we may not have a choice but to radically change strategy https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/coronavirus/absolutely-rampant-coronavirus-now-spreading-out-of-control-across-ireland-health-officials-say-1.4448184
We could have done better, & now it seems we may not have a choice but to radically change strategy https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/coronavirus/absolutely-rampant-coronavirus-now-spreading-out-of-control-across-ireland-health-officials-say-1.4448184
As @killeen_gerry notes, our failed “living with the virus” startegy "amounts to playing for a draw against an adversary that doesn’t tire, doesn’t give up, and continues to surprise us. " https://www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/commentanalysis/arid-40198662.html
Similar frustrations from our @IndependentSage colleagues in Britain, with very strong statements from the extremely reserved & measured @GabrielScally https://twitter.com/GabrielScally/status/1344961782675341313?s=20
The border with Northern Ireland is not the problem - it is the excuse. The excuse for a complete failure of strategy, and political accountability. We've enormously better cross border cooperation in the past and we expect better. https://twitter.com/OisinO_Connell/status/1344975477337968641?s=20
The real problem is the difficult decisions - to remove the virus from the community, and then keep it out. That means tough choices on travel quarantine and the isolation of infections and contacts. It means political accountability for implementation. https://tomaspueyo.medium.com/coronavirus-the-swiss-cheese-strategy-d6332b5939de
As noted by @TurloughDownes, we can't have a rational conversation if the media and government constantly compare evidence-based strategies shown to work in reality, with fantasy scenarios of somehow living normally with the virus but without restrictions https://twitter.com/TurloughDownes/status/1344722331919376385?s=20
An all-island approach is ideal and possible, but failing that, the border is manageable as outlined by @JulienMercille: https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/we-must-manage-the-border-to-stop-the-spread-of-covid-19-1.4437622
In the absence of an all-island strategy, @MichealMartinTD & @DonnellyStephen have a duty of care to manage transmission across the border, just they have done internally with inter-country travel restrictions, as outlined by @tweetsnolimits: https://www.businesspost.ie/health/tony-obrien-time-to-tighten-borders-and-rules-before-its-too-late-7b8dc376
But the acid test the decision to have enforced quarantine on international travel. You can control the situation if you don't have, as @tomaspueyo describes, a 'fence':
After that, the main hole is our public health infrastructure. This calls for revamping our test/trace system, and properly resourcing - & respecting, our public health physicians. To do so, we must address uncomfortable & lingering problems in our health service @roinnslainte
We're approaching a painful acute situation, that is about to put significant pressure on our healthcare service as outlined by frontline physician @OisinO_Connell: https://twitter.com/ISAGCOVID19/status/1344979552225931266?s=20
So what kind of 2021 do we want? We can work collaboratively towards an evidenced-based suppression outcome as outlined by @SamuelMcConkey1 https://twitter.com/ISAGCOVID19/status/1344981592343719936?s=20
Or, we can endure YoYo rolling lockdowns for most of 2021 (see projections below by @dazult_pdempsey )
What kind of 2021 do we want?
This summery from @aoifemcl is an excellent exposition of the situation: https://twitter.com/aoifemcl/status/1344707156113842176?s=20
This summery from @aoifemcl is an excellent exposition of the situation: https://twitter.com/aoifemcl/status/1344707156113842176?s=20
Considering the B.1.17 variant is here, and given what is clearly happening in England right now, the below seems to be as true as it was in March 2019: https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/1238504143104421888?s=20
