Alison O'Connor: I have a horrible sense that the wrong choices were made this week

Peter Lunn reckons the Irish public want further restrictions to protect us against Covid. He, and they, may well be right

In a week of further confusion, Peter Lunn of the ESRI said there had been a substantial shift in public sentiment, which was now clearly in favour of more restrictions. File picture: Colin Keegan/Collins

THE people in charge of our health service went to those in charge of the country this week to tell them, metaphorically speaking, that our hospitals are on fire. In response, in essence, the politicians handed the health heads a few extinguishers, opting against the use of the big firefighting machinery. This despite the rapidly expanding blazes. It’s time to cut the analogies here, but the bottom line is our official response system for dealing with Covid totally hit the skids this week. We will be paying a high price for that in the weeks to come.

What is it about November and the form of magical thinking that takes hold in officialdom in relation to this awful virus?