Aoife Moore: How a week that promised clarity turned to calamity
Labour leader Alan Kelly was taken aback at the minister's cool attitude to a missing 140,000 vaccines, saying they could 'do the whole of the county of Limerick'. Illustration: Harry Burton
With lockdown going nowhere in a hurry, figures stubbornly around 600 new cases a day, and all the Government's eggs snugly in the one basket of vaccine rollout, a week that promised clarity soon turned to calamity.
On Tuesday, excitement around the much-leaked and flagged roadmap out of lockdown was short-lived as we soon learned that we actually would not be allowed to do anything new on April 5 as signposted.
The new date for freedom — or meeting one other household outdoors — is now April 12, with most other meaningful stuff parked until after May 4, vaccines pending. Don't hold your breath.
Also on Tuesday, it eventually emerged that rather than teachers, gardaí, and other non-healthcare frontline workers being jabbed as a priority, following public health advice, vaccinations would be administered by age profile instead.
This caused uproar, naturally, as teachers and gardaí have been lobbying loudly and consistently that, due to the circumstances of their work, they should be jabbed after the elderly and vulnerable.
To make matters worse, despite engagement with unions, the climbdown wasn't flagged, and frontline staff learned of their fate on TV like everyone else.
It wasn't just nurses and gardaí who were caught on the hop — some members of the Government were also surprised.
There wasn't much respite on Wednesday either. In the natural style of this Government, it was just 24 hours before it was forced to flip-flop again, this time on children's shoes.
Children's shoes have brought down administrations before and with Fianna Fáil on 11%, it was not going to happen in 2021.
So, on Wednesday, after much comment on children can now be measured for shoes by appointment. Not so lucky were the expectant mothers, who will still be attending maternity services alone, with a senior source confirming it "didn't come up" at the Cabinet meeting.
But at least the Government still had positivity around the vaccine rollout to cling to — not! If this week is anything to go by, we're a long way off freedom.
Getting the vaccines into arms is the key priority for the health service too, but in their haste, a computer system flaw meant that healthcare workers were continually sent new appointments, despite being vaccinated.
With no way to cancel, hundreds of appointments went to waste, with 500 no-shows in one centre alone.
One fully vaccinated pharmacist who spoke to the had the good fortune to head North for her Pzifer jab, and received four separate appointments in one week, despite numerous attempts to inform the hamster wheel of red tape that they weren't needed.
The HSE said the system has now been updated and no jabs were wasted. You bet they weren't!
Which brings us on to the next headache. It appears that those who should have known better, those we entrust with our precious hard-fought-for vaccines, had decided that any leftover vaccine was an invitation to build up some brownie points with their nearest and dearest, or those they pay huge amounts of money to educate their children.
First, we had the Beacon Hospital furore, where the chief executive of the hospital ensured his son's teachers were moved to the top of the list. It was another reminder that the health minister and authorities don't really control where the vaccines go and, despite what we heard, we're not "all in this together". Like everything else in Ireland, the privileged get first say.
Then came the Coombe Hospital and, on Thursday, we learned that a consultant took two doses of vaccine home to give to family members.
It was confirmed that 16 relatives of hospital staff, including children of hospital master, Professor Michael O'Connell, received the vaccine when there were leftover doses on January 8, as the first stages of the vaccine rollout were getting under way.
A review found a consultant had leftover vaccine in a vial and took it off the hospital campus to give to family, which, needless to say, is not in line with HSE best practice.
Leftover vaccines being jabbed into the arms of loved ones is better than wastage, there is no doubt about it, but these "leftover" vaccines are not "leftover" at all when the majority of the country is crying out for theirs.
If we had an abundance of these precious vials and great swathes of the country had the foggiest idea when they'd be even eligible to book an appointment, this might be a bit easier to stomach.
The fact is, gardaí, teachers, and carers are going without because we are consistently told that there are issues with supply.
So when is a million not a million? Strap in.
Last week, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly, a man who has not so much lost the dressing room, but rather isn't even allowed in the car park, told us that about 1.1m vaccines were expected in April.
However, it emerged at Fianna Fáil's parliamentary party — which at this stage only serves as political theatre rather than any practical purpose — that 860,000 doses would arrive in April.
Under fire from a curious Opposition, Mr Donnelly told the Dáil on Thursday that the figure may be "slightly less" in April.
He added that he was "reluctant to give specific forecast figures that we all know are going to change... giving very specific amounts that we all know are going to change has caused a lot of anxiety". One can only assume that the figure of 1.1m that he did specifically forecast doesn't count.
What happened next made the phrase "women are too emotional for politics" look like satire.
The normally placid and serene Labour leader Alan Kelly was taken aback at the minister's cool attitude to a missing 140,000 vaccines.
"'Slightly less' is 140,000 vaccines, which would probably do the whole of the county of Limerick. It's not just a minor reduction," he said.
Then, the in-fighting started.
So eager was the health minister to lock people up, he added more states to the hotel quarantining list.
Germany, Italy, and France were included, along with passengers arriving from the US.
However, Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney and the Attorney General were having none of it.
Sure these countries were Covid hotspots, but they also had large numbers of Irish people.
This has naturally infuriated colleagues in the Department of Health, as Mr Coveney's statements neglect the reality that the third wave of the pandemic was in large part caused by Irish people coming home to see family and carrying the more contagious B117 variant.
So the new list of quarantine countries is an interesting geography lesson, rather than a practical infection-stemming exercise, with those on the Territory of the Wallis and Futuna Islands, with their 412 confirmed cases of Covid-19 since January, forced into the Crowne Plaza, Santry, while our American cousins, who recorded 77,718 cases on Thursday alone, will be free to stay in the comfort of their chosen accommodation with the chance that someone might check they're quarantining, if they're unlucky.
Speaking of unlucky, some of the country's most talented footballers had their own dose of bad luck this week as they were snapped breaking Covid-19 rules.
Nine of the now-suspended Dessie Farrell’s All-Ireland-winning squad gathered in Innisfails GAA Club, where they took part in a non-contact supervised training session.
The informal gathering came just 24 hours after GAA HQ asked for everyone to cop on and hold the line for a few more weeks.
Working off their own priority list, the Dubs ignored the sound advice and did their own thing anyway.
It's been that kind of week.
