Covid 19 / Coronavirus – Slugger O'Toole

Widespread protests across China against Covid restrictions…

Brian O'Neill on November 28, 2022, 2:17 pm

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group of people standing in front of brown wooden table

I have never been to China, but whenever I read about it or watch any documentaries, I am always surprised by how subservient the people seem. The infamous social credit system sounds like a dystopian nightmare. The general bargain seems to be shut up and take in, and in return, we will give you material wealth. This has all worked the past decade or two, but cracks in the system have been materialising. There were the property protests last year, …

Rishi Sunak and the Science and politics of Covid19…

Terry Maguire on August 30, 2022, 11:59 am

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text

The Spectator got great publicity for its interview last week with Rishi Sunak. The Spectator’s lockdown-sceptical editor Fraser Nelson sees his interview with Rishi as a coup being the first, in advance of a public inquiry into Covid19, to suggest that democracy wasn’t working well during Covid19 and that too few unelected scientists were alone in deciding and making policy. Superficially it all sounds as if Rishi was against lockdowns just unable to influence things even though he was the …

With an update vaccine just licensed where are we now with Covid19?

Terry Maguire on August 17, 2022, 12:35 pm

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What now? | Follow on Instagram: @timmossholder

Back in February when England dared to introduce its “living with Covid19” policy – the first of the UK regions to do so – they were accused of risking the lives of thousands, perhaps millions. At that time, supposedly more sensible, less reckless, leaders in the other UK regions, including N. Ireland, said they would not play “covid-roulette” with the lives and wellbeing of their citizens. Most sensible people back then were livid with the English policy and rightly so …

Experts believe up to 150k people in Northern Ireland infected with Covid last week…

Brian O'Neill on March 16, 2022, 11:20 am

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omicron, virus, corona

I imagine like me, you know loads of people who have had Covid recently, it really is doing the rounds. Given how virulent it is I have been surprised it has not burned itself out by now. From the Belfast Telegraph: According to the Department of Health’s daily dashboard on Tuesday, there were 417 Covid occupied hospital beds and a not insignificant 2,605 new cases of the virus diagnosed. Experts believe the actual infection rate is significantly higher than the …

Sooooo is it all over?

Brian O'Neill on January 21, 2022, 5:35 pm

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halloween, retro, scared woman

The Republic has agreed to lift almost all Covid restrictions from 6am tomorrow. Similar relaxations of the rules are happening in Northern Ireland. So does this mean it is over? Do we have to go back to the office? Can we start licking each other again? Not sure how to react to the news. I feel like I should quote a poem or something profound, but my mind is blank. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Brian O'NeillI help to manage Slugger by taking care …

Up to 1 in 10 people had Omicron over the New Year….

Brian O'Neill on January 5, 2022, 11:58 am

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vaccination, vaccination certificate, booster

The Omicron variant is going through the population like a dose of salts. Prof Ian Young told BBC News NI that about one in 10 people in some parts of Northern Ireland has the virus. He said he expected a peak in the next two to three weeks. Almost 12% of the total number of positive cases recorded since the start of the pandemic were reported in the past seven days. Northern Ireland has recorded a total of 432,492 coronavirus …

Covid. The Christmas present no one wants…

Brian O'Neill on December 21, 2021, 3:11 pm

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face mask, tree, ornament

I know a crazy amount of people who have gotten Covid in the past week or two, I imagine you are the same. People are tumbling like bowling pins. Thankfully so far hospital admissions seem to be low. From the NI Covid Dashboard: We are hoping that Omicron is not as harmful, but it is early days yet. The best-case scenario is if it is mild it will rip through the population in a few weeks then dies out. Some …

Hands up if you think you have Covid?

Brian O'Neill on December 18, 2021, 11:45 am

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cookies, christmas cookies, pastries

As you know we had to cancel our live event last night (but you can now book for the streaming version this Wednesday night). Yesterday morning before we took the decision to cancel, I was getting lots of emails from people who had booked tickets saying they could not make it as they thought they had Covid. I could sympathise as yesterday even I was wondering if I had it. I woke up with a sore head. I was out …

What use are Covid protection policies that are not enforced?

Soapbox on December 4, 2021, 10:03 am

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face mask, virus, coronavirus

Philip O’Neill is a Slugger reader from Belfast I have just spent 40 mins on a bus journey into Belfast. Since the start of the pandemic, I have not used public transport as I had concerns as to so many people from different ‘bubbles’ being so close together in a very confined space. I soon recognized the bus journey was a small but representative microcosm of our society. Fewer than half the people on the bus were wearing masks, some …

We are all going to die (again)…

Brian O'Neill on November 29, 2021, 11:04 am

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fear, hug, voltage

Omicron is all over the media, much to the surprise of Angelique Coetzee the South African doctor who first discovered the new strain. South African Dr Angelique Coetzee first raised the alarm over the Omicron variant and says the rest of the world is over-reacting. "Patients I've seen had mild symptoms and recovered. None were admitted and no oxygen was needed. The hype makes no sense to at all."@JuliaHB1 pic.twitter.com/c14pbzveN6 — talkRADIO (@talkRADIO) November 29, 2021 Fear sells and the …

“Just didn’t get around to it”. The ethics of the unvaccinated…

Brian O'Neill on November 22, 2021, 7:15 pm

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vaccination, doctor, patient

Amid all the debate around lockdowns, vaccine passports, rising Covid figures etc it is important to remember that every death is a tragedy. In Friday’s Irish News there was the story about a 48-year-old father of 9 from Downpatrick who has died of Covid: THE family of a father-of-nine who died following a nine-week battle with Covid have told how his passing has left them “numb”. Ivor Wilcox (48), who lived in Downpatrick, died at the Ulster Hospital on Tuesday. …

I predict the Vaccine Passport scheme will be unworkable. Here is why…

Brian O'Neill on November 18, 2021, 8:24 am

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smartphone, digital vaccination record, miniature figures

The Executive has decided to introduce vaccine passports by mid-December. Whatever your views on the issue, there is a major problem in that I believe the verification process will not be able to handle the demand. I applied for my vaccine passport on Tuesday night and the process was extremely complicated. The main issue for people seems to be getting their identity verified on NI Direct. They could not verify my identity despite me: Having a full drivers license Living …

COVID vaccinations in the age of anxiety: Fear, the great equaliser…

Soapbox on August 17, 2021, 3:58 pm

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man, mask, covid

Shanice Atkins is Press & Policy officer/ freelance writer from Derry. “Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.” Marie Curie It happened as I sat there on the squeaky, plastic seat. The air of anticipation gone, a giddiness still lingered. All those seated, waiting their 15 minutes smiled at one another, nodding in a silent appreciation of what we had just received. The promise of days beyond COVID seemed just within reach. Moments before …

The tricky business of coaxing people back into society…

Brian O'Neill on August 9, 2021, 7:41 am

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man, sculpture, art

I have been texting an old school friend to meet up for a walk. He replied that he is in such bad shape after a year and a half in lockdown that even a walk might be too taxing. The pandemic affects everyone differently. Some people are living their best lives with more time with family and loads of savings due to the inability to spend to the same level. Others have had it hard with loneliness and isolation taking …

Christians should support the right to life by get vaccinated…

Terry Maguire on July 30, 2021, 7:22 am

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vaccine, coronavirus, medical

Perhaps it’s me, but I just couldn’t see where Jim Wells was coming from in a recent Belfast Telegraph article on his views of Covid vaccines. Here’s Jim as reported in the Tele which might give some sense of why I was confused. “It is not an anti-vaccine issue it is an ethical issue. I have had a large number of Christians who have said to me: ‘Look we are not opposed to vaccines and are not into these conspiracy …

Diane Dodds holds the key to getting the population fully vaccinated…

Brian O'Neill on May 11, 2021, 7:33 am

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The Northern Ireland vaccine programme has been a stunning success. We have pretty much full vaccination in the over 60s and they have been doing a great job of going down the age groups. The issue is as you get younger you start to get more vaccine hesitancy. Young people generally think they are immortal, and when you have a disease that does not seem to affect them too badly you can understand why some might be tempted to not …

Experts estimate that Covid-19 in India has left over a million dead so far…

Brian O'Neill on April 25, 2021, 10:14 am

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It is hard to comprehend the sheer horror of the current C-19 crisis in India. This report from the New York Times makes harrowing reading: In India, people are dying while waiting to see doctors as the second wave of the coronavirus rapidly evolves into a devastating crisis, with mounting evidence that the actual death toll is far higher than officially reported. https://t.co/aWkyHU3qyF — The New York Times (@nytimes) April 24, 2021 Each day, the government reports more than …

Questions remain about the origin of Covid 19…

Terry Maguire on April 12, 2021, 7:49 am

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I try to avoid being duped by conspiracies theories. When I read about a cabal of paedophiles in the basement of a Washington pizzeria, I switch off. When Donald J Trump is too quick to say that Coivd19 was made in China, I know better. I always try to keep objectively to the facts convinced I can spot the lunatic fringe at their zany work from a mile off. But sometimes, somehow, a weird story cannot be easily dismissed. Things …

Should auld acquaintance be forgot?

Blaine McCartney on March 24, 2021, 7:32 am

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Blaine McCartney is a Co. Down-based writer Yesterday, March 23rd 2021, the first anniversary of lockdown, is surely a day of mixed emotions for Nicola Sturgeon. Having yesterday been cleared of breaching the Scottish Ministerial Code, she nevertheless told reporters this morning that she wants to “leave politics to others today”. Scottish Tory Leader Douglas Ross, among others, have been happy to oblige on Twitter and elsewhere, as they proverbially rage, rage against the dying of the light at the …

With an abundance of caution, Ireland shoots itself in the foot by deferred use of the AstraZeneca vaccine…

Terry Maguire on March 16, 2021, 11:00 am

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In the 1960s, US President Johnson was considering mandatory vaccination to eradicate a number of infectious diseases but was advised against it. The move would, he was told, cause 30,000 cancer deaths and 100,000 heart deaths. The President asked how the advisor knew this to which the adviser replied that this was the annual number of deaths from cancer and heart disease in the US but with mandatory vaccination, each one would be causally linked to a vaccine. This was …