Letters to the Editor: Government inconsistent in following Nphet advice

 Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health, Dr Tony Holohan, Chair of the NPHET Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group Professor Philip Nolan and Dr Ronan Glynn at a Department of Health press briefing in Dublin. Picture: Sasko Lazarov/RollingNews.ie

So here we are at the start of a new year and the Government are now asking us all to rigidly adhere to Nphet’s public health advice — to stay at home and to minimise our contacts in compliance with level 5 Covid-19 restrictions.

Have I missed something? Isn’t this the same Government that didn’t fully comply with Nphet’s public health advice, which has resulted in the catastrophic rise in the reported cases of Covid-19 over recent days within our country?

It might be said that this Government took Nphet’s public health advice with a liberal pinch of salt.

The hypocrisy of our current political leaders in relation to this pandemic is ridiculously shambolic and I’m not sure words have yet been invented to explain the government’s recent management of this pandemic.

The virus is winning.

Paul Horan

Assistant Professor

School of Nursing & Midwifery

Trinity College Dublin

Pandemic created a new global public

What should our society become after the pandemic has broken what we thought we knew about economy, governance, and expertise — and confirms what we know but failed to address regarding social inequality?

How can we continue to invest in projects that sustain the description of gross inequality without offering prescriptions for change?

The multifaceted effects of the pandemic are and will be staggering.

We are in the midst of a social tumult that will have a far-reaching impact.

‘Unprecedented’ has been used to describe the contagion rate and tenacity of Covid-19.

“Unprecedented” also embodies the new global public created around this once-in-a-lifetime common experience.

Anthony Woods

Ennis

Co Clare

Government need some good advice

Let us call a spade a spade here — keeping schools open is considered the cheapest, most effective method of childcare.

I find it amazing that with all the highly paid “advisers” (more than 60) available to the Government, in addition to “special advisers” and “political appointees”, that between them they do not seem to have the basic common sense to find an alternative.

Michael A Moriarty

Rochestown

Cork

Will Micheál last as Fianna Fáil leader?

I was more than surprised to read an article about the possibility that Micheál Martin will not lead the party for much longer — ‘Micheál Martin vows to lead Fianna Fáil into next election’, (Irish Examiner online, January 3).

Taoiseach Micheal Martin has vowed to lead Fianna Fáil into next election.

So what? There was little mention of the elephant in the room — the mishandling of Covid-19.

Lockdowns and the wearing of masks have had little or no impact.

Sweden now seems to be at the same level of deaths per million as other EU countries, with no lockdown.

Where is the science behind the destruction of our economy?

Ursula Scanlon

Dublin D14

Government led us to catastrophe

It’s one thing for the Government to not want to abdicate decision making during the pandemic to Nphet, because they have a democratic mandate and want to exercise it.

However, it seems that our Government has forgotten that by taking responsibility for what advice is issued to the public and to businesses regarding socialisation and hospitality, they also have to take responsibility for the consequences of those decisions — including the catastrophic situation we are now in as a result.

Fobbing off attempts to hold them accountable by suggesting it’s a matter of hindsight, or by reviving crash-era assertions that “we all partied” is disgraceful and not becoming of a Government serious about governing.

Tomás M Creamer

Ballinamore

Co Leitrim

Counting costs of a Covid Christmas

Does the huge increase in Covid-19 infections due to Christmas meetings mean the turkey has risen from the dead and is coming home to roost?

John Williams

Clonmel

Appalling ads will traumatise families

There are appalling ads on RTÉ radio which ask would fathers and husbands like their wives and children to know they were in court for buying sex, presumably from those willing to sell.

This appears to suggest it is proper that a man’s wife, and his little kids, must be told — extra to any fine or sanction — that daddy has been naughty in the eyes of the law, and it’s only right that possibly the whole family can be destroyed as a loving unit by the spilling of those hateful beans.

Who puts themselves forward to impart this information to families to ensure they are traumatised properly and entirely? Get this man-hating garbage off the airways.

Robert Sullivan

Bantry

Co Cork

God and rape ‘joke’ wide of the mark

Freedom of speech is important in a democratic country and most of us enjoy a joke especially at this time.

But surely we can still expect some limits to what is broadcast on our airways. For an RTÉ programme to use rape as a source of humour, whatever about depicting ‘God’ as a child abuser, is offensive to many people of different faiths and none, and arguably on a par with other forms of prejudices that we no longer find acceptable.

Frank Browne

Templeogue

Dublin 16

What’s happened to our fruit and veg?

Why are there no distinct smells from our fruit and vegetables anymore?

People over the age of 60 may recall all the lovely distinctive aromas of various fruits and vegetables.

Why are there no distinct smells from our fruit and vegetables anymore?

There was a time when if one was stood blindfold before a table of fruit and vegetables, one could pick out each individual by their unique smell.

With that same experiment today, the only thing the blindfoldeded person could detect would be the polish on the table’s surface.

So what are we eating?

Holly Barrett

Mallow

Co Cork

Divided states will be Trump’s legacy

Once again the US stands at a significantly dangerous crossroads, driven there by the reckless actions of a desperate, power-hungry narcissist. With his seditious actions and veiled threats against Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger, Trump may have crossed the line and opened himself up to prosecution.

He has also called upon his supporters to gather in Washington this week to demand the election results be overturned while his collaborators, led by Ted Cruz, go about trying to disrupt the orderly transition of power in Congress.

It’s hard to see how the US moves on from the last four years, and particularly the last two months, without lasting scars.

Trump leaves behind a country more divided than any time since the American civil war and with a Republican party dominated by shallow and self-serving mercenaries.

The results of the Georgia runoff elections are now critical to where the US goes next.

Barry Walsh

Blackrock

Cork

Trump trashes the US oath of office

The oath of office that Donald Trump swore reads as: “I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

Donald Trump has, especially with his recent Georgia phone call, basically trashed the oath. The main offence is with “preserve, protect and defend” as all of his recent actions seem related to overturning the election that the constitution requires. 

Trump should leave with what little dignity he has left before he is physically dragged from the building.

Dennis Fitzgerald

Melbourne

Australia

Arrest Trump the dictator wannabe

In view of his latest disregard for our constitution and its laws for all Americans, Donald Trump should be arrested and charged with sedition.

Enough is enough of our dictator wannabe.

Herb Stark

North Carolin

USA