Irish Examiner view: We have not had the final word in our war with virus

Any we-were-all-youngish-once empathy with outdoor gatherings must be seen in the context of a far-from-controlled pandemic

Billy Connolly has, for many years, told a joke as easily placed in Hibernia as it is in Caledonia. He reminds audiences that Scotland has just two seasons: Winter or June.

It may seem churlish, just as Ireland’s weather might validate The Big Yin’s meteorology, to offer a wintry judgement on some weekend events. 

That reluctance, that aversion to naysaying after a very difficult 18 months, is made easier as it would do no more than echo chief medical officer Tony Holohan’s expression of frustration over “enormous crowds” gathered in Dublin on Saturday evening.

Those gatherings, where crowds had to be dispersed by gardaí, led to at least four arrests. 

In Cork, 12 people were arrested after gardaí dispersed crowds. It is likely, and maybe natural, if ill-judged, that those gatherings were reflected across the country. 

As a bank holiday weekend looms, there is a potential they might be repeated, even if forecasters pour cold water on Connolly’s prediction that our all-too-brief summer has arrived.

Any we-were-all-youngish-once empathy with those gatherings must be seen in the context of a far-from-controlled pandemic, especially as it returned with a renewed venom to regions in Europe where its impact had all too deceptively faded.

That is especially so as DCU professor of health systems Anthony Staines has warned that there may be Covid-19 variants already in circulation that may resist today’s vaccines. It would be surprising if there were not. 

Vietnam has discovered one, apparently a blend of the Indian and British strains. Those discoveries speak to the unending race between science and the plague’s mutations.

They do not, however, in any way diminish Hibernia’s wonderful vaccination programme that, once supply uncertainties were resolved, this weekend reached a milestone where around 50% of the adult population was vaccinated.

That is a considerable achievement but, when completed, it cannot be regarded in any way as the final word in our war with the virus. 

It may be disheartening, especially for those who felt the licence to be part of a weekend crowd, to point out that it took several years and around 50m deaths before the Spanish flu epidemic was contained. 

The death toll for today’s pandemic, at just over 3.5m, has not reached even 10% of that figure. 

Though that reflects advances in medicine, the comparison is valid as it shows how wretchedly persistent this kind of infection can be.

One of the many ways that persistence can be resisted is by curbing non-essential travel. 

Relaxations announced on Friday long-fingered international travel, a hold-the-line ruling that may, or at least should, encourage many people to continue the rediscovery of the wonders on their doorstep. 

As well as being the year of Covid-19, one of them at least, this should be another year of staycations. This just may rescue tottering businesses but it could have habit-changing benefits far beyond that. 

Even that option, sadly, may be pushed off limits if gatherings like last weekend’s become a premature, infection-inviting reaction to vaccine progress.

A lot done but as Dr Holohan warned, a long way to go.