John Halligan: We can't sustain never-ending lockdowns

A long-term solution is needed for how society is going to live with Covid-19, writes former junior minister John Halligan.

A deserted Grand Parade in Cork city. Picture: Damian Coleman

In the second last week of October, the people of Ireland were once again thrust into a highly restrictive, draconian lockdown in a bid to quell the latest upsurge in coronavirus cases. It’s become clear to me, as it should be to many, that we would have greater success in holding back the ocean’s tide with our hands.

I listened with great interest to a recent Prime Time contribution from the retired British Professor of Pathology, Dr John Lee. 

He said: “For several months now, it’s been clear that this virus is not the new plague that it was feared it would be, and yet we’ve continued to act is if it is that new plague. We’ve also continued to act in this way despite major harms caused by lockdowns and despite very little evidence that lockdowns... work on a societal basis.” 

Aldi and Lidl asked to remove clothing and toys , ridiculous customers are shopping there anyway. This is just demoralising people.

— John Halligan (@JohnHalligan) October 29, 2020

There has been no clear vision from either government or the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet), as to how we live with the virus. That is to say other than choosing the nuclear option, enforcing a lockdown, which, at the end of the day, will prove to be unsuccessful anyway because the virus will come back. 

As the debate continues over whether or not children's clothes are essential items, pictured here is the closed retail section of Dunnes Stores, Newbridge. Picture: Eamonn Farrell / RollingNews.ie

As the retired professor stated, this is not the bubonic plague. Yes, it is a debilitating illness that can have potentially devastating side effects and that is having a disproportionate effect on the elderly, but this is a survivable disease for the vast majority of people. A fact borne out by the statistics.

Why, then, are our politicians and decision-makers choosing to cripple industry, the economy and small businesses? Why are families being forced apart by ludicrous travel restrictions? Why are people with chronic illness being barred from accessing services? 

Why has a situation been allowed to prevail where large meat processing plants, the source of numerous virus clusters, are allowed to continue operating? We can’t travel more than 5 kilometres to visit our loved ones, yet GAA teams are crisscrossing the country. Are Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael afraid to take on the GAA?

The latest bizarre decision saw clothing deemed a non-essential utility. Tell that to the parent of any young child. I can walk into a large supermarket, pick up food and toiletries, thumb through newspapers and magazines, but not the clothes. 

It is easier, at this moment in time, to clothe a dog than it is a child. 

Smaller clothes shops, meanwhile, are being brought to the wall.

The fact of the matter is this: we’re being failed by our politicians and our scientists who have persisted in imposing draconian measures on the Irish people. 

There is no question that our scientists have gotten some of their facts and figures wrong in the handling of the Covid response. One leading medic suggested earlier this year that we could see deaths in the hundreds of thousands. 

What did this serve to do? Only amplify confusion, panic, and fear. 

I’m not trying to cast aspersions on individuals - mistakes are a part of the scientific process - but this is not a zero-sum game. Reducing the ‘R-rate’ to zero is a noble aspiration, but there are serious real-world consequences for people in trying to achieve that.

Questions need to be asked: can the virus be eradicated? Many eminent doctors and virologists are saying it can’t. Will there be a functioning vaccine? We don’t know. 

Will the virus rate rise again once we emerge from lockdown? It’s highly likely. Can our economy and our citizenry tolerate a perpetual cycle of highly restrictive measures? No.

Severe lockdowns will not eradicate this virus ,as soon as you open up again the virus will come back. We should not just look at this single disease but our health as a whole in Country.many eminent scientists, across the World are now urgent a different pathway for discussion.

— John Halligan (@JohnHalligan) October 19, 2020

The World Health Organisation has explicitly stated that it “do(es) not advocate lockdowns as the primary means of control of this virus." 

Nphet needs to account for the measures it takes publicly and have its recommendations scrutinised by the media at every turn. It needs to answer as to why it considers group sport safe, but not visiting a loved one. 

A deserted English Market in Cork during the Level 5 lockdown. Picture; David Creedon / Anzenberger

Pet wear is fine to buy, but not a winter coat. Above all, and most importantly, it needs to reveal its plan for dealing with the virus going forward, after December 1.

I want to make it clear that I vehemently oppose that growing cadre of anti-maskers and conspiracy theorists who deny the existence of this virus. Covid is real and it is precisely because it is real that Nphet and that government need to get real, pull their heads out of the sand and propose realistic solutions. 

This lockdown must be the last.

John Halligan is a former Independent Alliance Minister for Skills and TD for Waterford.