I lost both my parents to virus. Reopening next week is crazy
A WOMAN who lost both parents to Covid within a week of each other yesterday issued an emotional plea to delay Ireland’s reopening.
Pam Somerville, whose parents Patrick and Esther (Elsie) died after contracting the virus, told RTÉ’s Liveline that she thought the planned reopening was ‘crazy’.
‘It is just too soon, people have become too complacent. Covid is not going away, it is here to stay,’ she said.
She told how her mother, 82, was taken to Tallaght Hospital and Patrick, 72, was brought to Blanchardstown when they became infected.
Ms Somerville said: ‘He didn’t get to say goodbye to my mam. She didn’t get to say goodbye to him. And my sister was stuck in Australia. She could not come home to see them so she had to say goodbye on FaceTime. It doesn’t get more real than that. I was allowed in to see them.
‘To go on to a Covid ward, to see what the nurses and doctors do and how sick patients really are, is a real eye-opener and it would make people think twice maybe about not getting vaccinated,’ she said.
Ms Somerville added that people should get the vaccine as ‘we are going to have to live with Covid but we are going to have to do it safely’ and to make sure ‘you don’t end up going down the same road as my parents and ending up dead’.
‘It’s crazy to let unvaccinated people in crowded public spaces,’ she said. ‘I won’t be going nowhere when it opens up to the unvaccinated. I don’t want to be in a bar or restaurant where they are.’
Tom Somerville, Patrick’s brother, said: ‘I think people have let their guard down now – you’ve seen them in the shops, people have no masks on. I don’t think the reopening should go ahead really. This isn’t going to go away until everyone is vaccinated.’
Darren Lalor, who lost his father Peter, 72, to the virus earlier this year, told the show: ‘Covid is here and it will come to visit any of us unexpectedly. ‘People really aren’t seeing the reality of what Covid is doing to the world, not only Ireland.’
He said of the planned relaxation of restrictions: ‘I just think people are letting their guards down too quickly.
‘You’re going into the shop and people are standing in your shadow, they’re wearing their masks below their noses, some not wearing masks at all – and it is coming to the stage where you’re nervous to ask people to step back or wear their mask.’
Peter’s wife, Marie, who was herself in hospital for 11 weeks after contracting Covid, was able to see her husband for one last time just hours before he died.
‘This isn’t going to go away’