We the sick plead with the HSE: Get jab out to us
A SHIP in the harbour is in a safe, place, but that is not what ships are built for.
The same can be said about the vaccines for Covid-19. They are safe on the shelf but they’re supposed to be injected into the arm of those who need it.
By all accounts the roll-out is not what it should be. The reason for my concern is the lack of communication between those in charge of it and the folks who need the vaccine.
I had a heart transplant a couple of years ago, so my immune system is shot.
I have insulin-dependent type 2 diabetes and I am on dialysis three days a week. I fear for the health and wellbeing of nurses, staff and doctors who are giving us dialysis patients everywhere specialised care in the hospital.
I am 67 years old and I am a productive member of society.
I have been through a lot the last few years. I struggled with physical and emotional ups and downs, and I’ll be damned if I am going to let something I cannot see take my life.
So, I am asking the HSE to get their act together and get the vaccines out.
Work 24/7 to get the vaccines in arms, not left on the shelf. KEVIN DEVITTE,
Westport.
Home working dilemma
THE Government wants people to work from home and listen to the Tánaiste Leo Varadkar.
It sounds great but is it that simple. There are a number of problems that stand out. (1) There is the mental health of the person. In a working environment socialising with colleagues is very important. This cannot be replicated at home.
(2) Is the home deemed a workplace? For instance, if the person falls sick or has an accident, are they covered by the house insurance or by their employer’s insurance?
(3) Then there is the starting time and finishing time. Who decides that?
(4) Then there is the extra cost of lighting, heating, equipment and power in the home.
(5) There is also the important subject of when people can take breaks and, of course, their holiday entitlements.
I am sure there are a number of other items I have not thought about which are very important.
So before people rush into this way of working, think long and hard before you sign up to any agreement and make sure it benefits you in the first place and in the long term.
PAUL PRICE, by email.
Flushing out the truth
SOMETIMES it’s hard to get to the bottom of a government spending story – but not in the following case.
The US Secret Service has been spending $3,000 a month on toilet facilities as a consequence of protecting Ivanka Trump and her family.
Ivanka’s house apparently has six toilets, one for her, her husband and one each for her three children, leaving one spare for the secret service but no, they were not allowed to use it.
Of course, cleaning five toilets would have been enough work for Ivanka, or her husband, so I can understand why she wouldn’t want to include the sixth toilet on the daily cleaning list.
Some people live in a different world from most. A very privileged, entitled one.
It seemed a crap way to treat the Secret Service. DENNIS FITZGERALD,
by email.
Trump’s many triumphs
I DEEPLY regret the fact that Donald Trump will not remain in the White House.
During his tenure he accomplished many things, such as cutting unemployment, making (a fragile) peace with North Korea, he’s in the process of building his wall, and he did not start a war, unlike many of his predecessors.
Unfortunately, his downfall was the pandemic, which originated in China – something he highlighted on many occasions. It is ludicrous that he is being impeached for a second time.
The Democrats – along with the Trump-obsessed Nancy Pelosi – have heightened tensions and divided an already fragile nation. It’s going to be a long four years. DAVE O DWYER,
Limerick.
Soak brigade wash-out
I HAD to laugh last week when I read that Radox are renaming some of their ‘soak’ products as branding them ‘for men’ is deemed to be sexist now.
I recall that years ago when women started using scented shower gels, men continued to wash with hand soap and wouldn’t have been seen, or smelled, dead using ‘girly’ toiletries.
Radox had to think of a way of selling its products to them, so it came up with a version that appealed to macho men, mentioning muscles for the avoidance of any doubt. Calling its range For Men was not sex discrimination, but was just a way to sell its products and make more money. And what’s so bad about that?
I wish the woke brigade would just go away and rinse this nonsense out of their PC brains.
DARAGH REDMOND, Co. Dublin.