Letter to the Editor: We need to suppress, not live with, coronavirus

Social distancing signage at Holycross GAA Club, Ballycahill, Co. Tipperary. Photo: INPHO/James Crombie

Like many other people, I had never heard of Dr Michael Ryan until March of this year, during the outbreak of Covid-19. This executive director of the World Health Organisation hit our TV screens in dramatic fashion, as he explained how we needed to ‘take the fight to the virus’.

In a stark warning to governments, he stated that ‘speed trumps perfection”. He further went on to explain that ‘the virus will always get you, if you don’t move quickly’.

In his message to governments around the world, Dr Ryan insisted that “if you need to be right before you move, you will never win”.

He also said: “Perfection is the enemy of good, when it comes to emergency management.”

In a recent interview on RTÉ’s Prime Time, Dr Ryan warned about the notion of “living with the virus”, as he cautioned that we really need to be suppressing Covid-19.

Lately, I took to reading our Government’s 60-page document ‘Plan for Living with COVID-19’ and began to question why so many people are confused. For example, the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) has recently called for immediate and urgent clarification on how An Garda Síochána is to enforce compliance around Covid-19 public health regulations.

When I examined the Government’s 60-page document and read through the section on ‘Inspection, Compliance, and Enforcement’, I had sympathy with the AGSI; as I was also very confused, having read this section of the Government’s plan.

So, who was bright spark that came up with conception of living with the virus?

Living with the virus and suppressing the virus are two very different concepts.

It is all very well for Tánaiste Leo Varadkar to pontificate to the nation that the Government need to look at the wider picture and therefore need to balance the economy with public health advice. What Mr Varadkar hasn’t explained is when you balance one issue with another, you have to compromise.

Therefore, what is an acceptable compromise, when you balance public health advice with the economy? What are the acceptable levels of Covid-19 infections in Ireland? What are the acceptable levels of deaths from Covid-19 in Ireland? What criteria is the Government following when balancing public health advice with the economy? They need to explain this. Why is no one asking these important questions? You won’t find the answers in the Government’s ‘Plan for Living with Covid-19’.

Following the recent flare-up between Government ministers and Nphet, the nation deserves to know what other public health advice the Government has been ignoring over the past number of months since the lock-down restrictions have been lifted.

Our Government has not been guided by the expertise of Dr Michael Ryan and it appears that it has issues with its own public health expert advisers, Nphet.

This is simply not good enough at a time of crisis. The opposition and media need to start asking more probing questions.

The level of Covid-19 cases has been steadily rising, while our Government has been opening up the economy at a disturbing pace. Instead of putting strong public health measures in place, this Government has left the coronavirus jump back up at us, at an alarming rate. It’s a pity that it hasn’t been moving so quickly to suppress the virus, as it was advised to do by Dr Ryan.

And how is our Government responding? It is already blaming the citizens of Ireland for our poor behaviours. It won’t be long more when our health will come first again, that day is dawning fast.

During this time of crisis, I am often reminded of a phrase by a family friend from the village of Drinagh in West Cork: “When you have your health, you are a millionaire.” Danny Pake, your words of wisdom are truly spoken.

Ger Tobin

Corran

Leap

Co Cork

Pay those with virus to self-isolate

Getting business and society back to functioning “normally” must be the Government’s aim. This can only be achieved if the R-rate, the rate of Covid-19 reinfection, is brought back well below 1.0. We are funding people to be out of work due to Covid-19 but are not incentivising people testing positive to isolate. In a socially cohesive world this wouldn’t be necessary but sadly the spike in infection indicates this not to be the case. So we need to think laterally.

To reduce the R-rate as quickly as possible it now makes sense to encourage those “testing positive” to isolate themselves from everyone else until they no longer test that way by incentivising them to do so. Pay a very attractive retrospective “bonus” to isolate until they no longer test positive. This would be subject to them presenting for the test, agreeing to being tracked and visited and to staying isolated until no longer infectious. 

Any breach and the payment would not be made. Doing this will increase self-isolation and drop the R-rate rapidly. Once the R-rate is, say, back to 0.5 then restriction levels can begin to be reduced and the economy start to open with major financial benefits.

The costs of doing this would be massively less than continuing to potter along with the R-rate above 1.0. It will need rapid, decisive action from the coalition — something they have not exactly excelled at yet. But maybe they can change and change quickly?

Paul Fellows

Bailick Road

Midleton,

Co Cork

Donald Trump immune to virus

Donald Trump claims he is now immune from Covid-19. Perhaps a Google search for “Typhoid Mary” could be a good start to show how diseases can be spread even by those that claim they are free from a disease and safe.

Dennis Fitzgerald

Box Hill

Melbourne

Australia

State ‘green’ bonds to kickstart Ireland

One of the financial tools Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe could implement today (budget day) is for the Government to issue “green” bonds to the public.

This would raise much needed capital to fund the carbon neutral economy proposed in the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill last week.

Right now there is pent up money in the system and not much to spend it on. No holidays, no eating out, working from home, easier and normal to make do with less.

Money on deposit in banks is currently penalised with negative interest rates, ie, the bank itself is eating a hole into your savings.

On the other side of the equation there are people without work and without hope of work for the foreseeable future, the economy could be drifting towards depression.

Achieving a carbon neutral economy by 2050 will filter through so many sectors — education, training, research, construction, transport, renewables, recyclables, etc.

We need financing to create the jobs and deliver the output of a cleaner, safer, healthier environment for everyone living in Ireland.

I, for one, would far prefer to invest in a Government-backed green bond to support my fellow citizens, especially now during the Covid-19 pandemic than opt for some “green” pension scheme created in the private sector offering unrealistic returns.

The interest rate for a Government-backed bond could be very low and the bond could mature in five years or ten years, etc, to give the government a chance to put the capital to work.

Why not call it kickstarting Ireland towards a better place?

Alison Hackett

Dun Laoghaire

Co Dublin

Welcome research into coursing hares

I am delighted to learn that the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) has commissioned research into the survival of hares released after being used at coursing meetings.

We already know that hares suffer appalling injuries and trauma at coursing events.

Though coursing greyhounds have been muzzled since 1993, the hares can be mauled, pinned to the ground, have their bones crushed, or be tossed about like broken toys on the field by the powerful dogs.

The NPWS reports on coursing fixtures nationwide abound with references to such incidents.

The odds are stacked against the hare, as it squares up to a pair of larger, faster, and much stronger animals.

The hare is one of a number of wildlife species that is susceptible to stress myopathy, meaning that hours or even days after it has undergone a deeply distressing ordeal (coursing being a prime example of such an experience) it can die as a result, regardless of whether it has sustained physical injury.

I hope the new research project will shed further light on the plight of our wonderful native hare, sub-species of the mountain hare unique to Ireland. It faces a severe enough threat from loss of habitat resulting from urbanisation and the downside of modern agriculture without having to contend with man’s perennial inhumanity dressed up as “sport.”

John Fitzgerald

Lower Coyne St

Kilkenny