If we are to remain part of this Covid-19 social compact, HSE must keep our trust

THIS week, the Irish Mail On Sunday visited five of the biggest Covid-19 testing centres in the country – and found that no tests were being conducted at all. None at Croke Park. None at Nowlan Park in Kilkenny. None at Tullamore, or Tallaght Stadium, or at the temporary facility at the Samuel Beckett Bridge on Dublin’s south quays.

Over and over again, the World Health Organization has said that the key to beating the coronavirus is testing on a colossal scale. Testing tells us who has the virus, yes, but it also tells us who has had it and recovered, and that means they very likely have some immunity to a second infection, and a potential second wave later in the year.

We understand and appreciate the fact that international demand for test kits has left every country in the world under pressure to source them, and there is a shortage of reagents to conduct the vital antibody tests we need to allow healthcare professionals, and the general population, slowly return to work.

While the focus is now on public health, and rightly so, we need to look to the future economic health of the country too.

We are being asked to do something that just weeks ago was unimaginable. We are being asked to do nothing. We can’t socialise, we can’t travel, we can’t visit elderly parents and they cannot hug their grandchildren. This is a massive ask, and compliance is based on trust.

Yes, there are new laws to allow An Garda Síochána and the Army enforce the lockdown, but they could not deal with mass resistance if thousands of people decided to move freely outdoors. In essence, we are participants in a social contract, and we’re happy to play our part – with conditions attached.

Our consent has been presumed, but it should not be: it must be earned, and kept. The Government and the HSE risk losing it if they are not honest, transparent and accountable, and the fact that the HSE refused to answer direct questions from this newspaper about the level of testing – until we told them we had visited all the test centres – is a failure.

We do not claim to be experts in epidemiology, but we will continue to do what we know how to do, namely to ask questions and expect straight answers without obfuscation or fudge.

Without testing we cannot plan for the future. Without an end to the lockdown in sight, it is inevitable that many will flout the rules, or at the very least play loose with them, endangering the lives of others.

There is a simple analogy.

If we go to a trusted GP and he or she tells us the measures we have to take in order to stay healthy, we will follow them. If a GP has a bad bedside manner, and lectures us instead of encouraging us, we are far less likely to heed their advice.

We will always be active participants in our own well-being if we are treated as adults and have to make adult choices.

This is equally true for an entire society, and the HSE communications department must work on its bedside manner.

We know the situation is tough for everyone, but we have to work in concert, with trust.

That is what will carry us through. Today, as always, we represent the interests of our readers, and we wish all of you continued strength in your, and our, endurance.