Behind his unruffled front, Holohan must be silently screaming as the virus spreads
CHIEF medical officer Tony Holohan presented his usual unruffled, if on this occasion more nervous, front at his first Covid-19 media briefing in months.
But behind his composure, he must have been silently screaming. He clearly has major worries about the grip Covid-19 is taking on the country again and the speed at which it is spreading.
It was another day at the office for the medic after years of highly charged health controversies over 20 years.
His recommendation to Government on Sunday to move to a Level 5 lockdown as Covid-19 sweeps across the country again was rejected. But behind the diplomacy there is a sense of growing panic and a concern that Level 3 will not be enough to stem the tide.
True to form, he batted away his television dressing-down by Tánaiste Leo Varadkar.
Instead, he switched to the grim forecast that has the country hurtling towards more illness and death unless there is a dramatic turnaround in people’s behaviour.
Taking personal offence is hardly the right course when there is a dangerous pandemic to fight.
“We are deeply concerned about the changing path of infection,” he said – and the situation has worsened even further since Sunday.
It is “rapidly deteriorating” and “very precarious”, with the risk of 1,300 newly diagnosed people a day by early November.
Although he insisted there is nothing “inevitable” about a potential “doomsday” scenario ahead, it was also clear that a minor miracle may be needed to turn things around at this stage.
“I cannot emphasise enough the need to take measures to turn around the pattern of this infection. We need to get it back into control as quickly as we can.”
But the die is already cast for the next two weeks.
“What we are going to see in the next week to two weeks will not be amenable to much change. Some of the people already infected will lose their lives.”
However, he pointedly made sure to say it is his belief that it was not anyone from the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) who leaked the Level 5 recommendation after their meeting on Sunday.
“Whoever was responsible for that leak does not share our objective to deal with the disease,” he said pointedly.
Asked about Mr Varadkar’s attack and his claim the Level 5 plan proposal was “not thought through”, he said he spoken to the Tánaiste since he told him the indicators around the virus had got worse in an “apparently sudden way”.
It was not unusual for the Nphet members to discuss the data on a Sunday as they are “intimately familiar with” it and have it at their fingertips, he insisted.
Asked whether he would have liked an apology, Dr Holohan said: “He and I had a very good discussion last night and it went on for a considerable period of time.
“We discussed obviously issues of recent days but spent much more time discussing the disease and how we can enhance our collective ability to respond to it.
“Of course, not speaking for the Tánaiste, that is where I want to be and where I believe he wants me to be.”
He had also spoken to Taoiseach Micheál Martin and said it was abundantly clear to him that “they need us on board at our desks in the way we have done and continued to do”.
Dr Holohan personally spoke to Garda Commissioner Drew Harris. Again, the language was genteel about the gardaí “working with us”.
But it is still an unusual move, and the agreement was that Nphet would be in contact with gardaí about those areas of the country they are worried about.
Whatever way it is couched, it is marking a new departure in the approach to more compliance with restrictions.
He also managed to include reference to two conversations he had with Health Minister Stephen Donnelly before and after Sunday’s meeting of Nphet.
It was not quite as extreme as originally portrayed with Nphet meeting in conclave and “bouncing” the Level 5 proposal on an unsuspecting Government.
Nphet is meeting again today and there is no doubt the Government should brace itself for another strident letter.
Among the major considerations is that if the country is in a bad state of infection by Christmas, when socialising will increase, the outcome will be even worse.
Meanwhile, Nphet will today consider the implications for Halloween celebrations.