Letters to the editor: Was there more worry over foot-and-mouth?

I have been reflecting on the management of the 2020 coronavirus outbreak, versus the management of the 2001 foot-and-mouth disease outbreak and I’m left pondering the following questions:

Are agricultural animals, livestock and economic interests really more important than humans?

Is the public administration and political management of this current public health situation a case of profit before people?

The way our political leaders are handling the coronavirus compared to the foot-and-mouth outbreak is worrying, curious and very telling.

The world stopped for the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in 2001, GAA matches, St Patrick’s Day parades and a whole range of sporting fixtures including Cheltenham were all cancelled and postponed. Yet the coronavirus which is potentially fatal to humans and will render many other humans very ill doesn’t seem to warrant the same public health measures as a foot-and-mouth outbreak. It’s interesting to consider that foot-and-mouth disease isn’t infectious or fatal to humans — foot-and-mouth disease isn’t even fatal to livestock.

I concur with the gathering informed and evidence-based professional opinions of healthcare professionals that all public gatherings should be cancelled because best evidence is suggesting a two-metre space between humans in social spaces would help to restrict the possibility of viral infection transmissions from coronavirus.

Imagine the science of all this — the eminent biochemistry expert Professor Luke O’Neill explained that it was possible to fit 500 million Covid 19 viruses on a full stop which in itself beggars belief.

All this can only lead me to conclude that it seems agricultural and economic interests are really more important than humans or so it seems!

Paul Horan

Assistant Professor Schoolof Nursing & Midwifery

Trinity College

Dublin

Useful information
• The HSE have developed an information pack on how to protect yourself and others from coronavirus. Read it here
• Anyone with symptoms of coronavirus who has been in close contact with a confirmed case in the last 14 days should isolate themselves from other people - this means going into a different, well-ventilated room alone, with a phone; phone their GP, or emergency department - if this is not possible, phone 112 or 999 and in a medical emergency (if you have severe symptoms) phone 112 or 999