Irish Examiner view: Take the hard decisions on Covid now

Tweaks to our behaviour, such as mask-wearing, will help quell Covid — but further restrictions now seem almost inevitable

Rosie O'Toole discovering how sometimes history repeats itself at the Small Lives exhibition, including this panel about the 1918 flu pandemic, at Cork's Nano Nagle Centre in September 2020. Picture: Clare Keogh

The latest advice on staying safe from Covid is that we only need a slight moderation in our behaviour to stay safe and protect others. That seems sensible and measured advice that we can all take on board, but must go hand-in-hand with an appropriate assessment of risk.

It was around this time last year that lockdown restrictions were about to be eased. Before they were this newspaper’s editorial said “these are hard times and demand hard decisions, avoiding them is not a solution or wise”.