Kelly backs calls to give weekly updates on Covid not daily ones
THERE is a growing push for the announcement of the latest Covid19 figures to be changed from a daily to a weekly update.
Labour Party leader Alan Kelly backed the calls yesterday.
It came after leading doctors campaigned this week to get the daily updates on the number of deaths and confirmed cases to be changed to a weekly format.
Their reasoning for the reform is because they believe the daily figures are causing ‘huge anxiety’ among the public.
Dr Maitiú Ó Tuathail, GP and former president of the National Association of General Practitioners, said weekly updates on cases and deaths would instead be ‘useful and meaningful’.
He made the comments in support of Newstalk presenter Dr Ciara Kelly who said: ‘We need to look at how we’re reporting this.
We’re frightening people and there isn’t justification for it.’ Mr Kelly backed the comments, saying the daily number of cases is ‘irrelevant’.‘The daily release of figures is causing great anxiety to many people. If we are forced to live with the virus for some time to come, then we cannot continue to obsess over the number of daily cases.’ He said that a comprehensive weekly briefing identifying the weekly trend would be more beneficial. People are being bombarded with a lot of information at the moment and this is one way of ensuring they do not become overwhelmed and stop listening to public health advice. However, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said he believes the figures should be issued daily to allow for transparency, but that people should not be obsessing over them. ‘We need to maybe not obsess about the number of cases every day. I think some people are getting a little terrorised by that,’ he said.
He said more context should be given to the public around the figures. ‘I think that we need to explain to people what case numbers mean. All a case number is is an individual who has had a swab test and tested positive for SARSCoV-2. That doesn’t mean they’re sick – in fact most people who are testing positive now are people who are asymptomatic… who could pass it on to people.’
Dr Ó Tuathail led the calls for the change. He tweeted: ‘As a society, we need to get off the emotional rollercoaster that is the daily release of covid figures.
‘When they’re high, they cause mass hysteria. When they’re low, they cause false reassurance.
‘It’s leading to huge anxiety and is of little benefit.’
GP-turned-broadcaster Ciara Kelly echoed this sentiment on radio, saying the narrative around the pandemic ‘needs to move on’.
‘I think we have fallen into a narrative every night on the report on the number of deaths... and it’s quite frightening for people,’ she said.
‘People are afraid of this news, and with good reason.’
But she added: ‘People are dying from much greater things now and they’re not being reported on the news. I think we are getting this wrong.’
‘It’s leading to huge anxiety’