We are all in a new Covid purgatory, waiting to be anointed with a vaccine
ONE key difference between the current lockdown and the last one is that there is no end in sight.
The public, who were promised a meaningful Christmas that was ripped away from them at the last minute, are expected to sit in their homes until an unspecified date when the Government deems it OK to go outside again.
The only date on the Cabinet’s agenda for reviewing restrictions is January 31 when they will consider allowing schools and construction sites to reopen. It is becoming increasingly likely the closure of schools, thanks in part to militant unions, will continue well into February or beyond.
Construction workers have less powerful unions so in all likelihood will be back to work next month. Every other area of society and the economy will have to wait with no idea for how long they will be waiting.
We are in a new Covid purgatory where we wait to be anointed with the precious vaccine brought down from high by tax dodging Big Pharma companies. So keep a candle lit in your front window for the good people in Pfizer and say a couple decades of the rosary for the Oxford scientists who work for AstraZeneca because that is your only salvation.
The Government clearly has no idea when restrictions will be lifted. None. Those who would normally know these things say consideration is not even being given to how restrictions will be eased because the new case numbers are so high.
We are certainly in the grips of a severe outbreak of Covid-19 after our brief but far from meaningful Christmas celebrations turned into a breeding ground for the virus.
But the idea that there is no endgame for the current lockdown raises serious questions about Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party coalition Government’s belief in Nphet’s abilities to handle what is hopefully the final stages of the pandemic.
The only information about the easing of restrictions the public has been given is from Tánaiste Leo Varadkar, who is telling anyone who asks that most business, be they retail, pubs or restaurants, will remain closed until April.
And that’s it. That’s all you get. No more indicators of how low transmission needs to be to allow some form of normal life to continue. We are where we are because the Government decided to take the advice of consultancy firm EY over Nphet. But Tony Holohan’s gang did not cover themselves in glory with their predictions of how the virus might spread over Christmas. People also have to take personal responsibility for their actions and there’s no point tweeting about the Government opening pubs and restaurants if you went to a pub or restaurant. Same applies to anyone who attended any sort of a gathering.
We know Stephen Donnelly is planning to have around four million people vaccinated by October. But there is a bizarre aversion to simply informing the public on how the vaccination programme is progressing.
So, every night Nphet releases the doom and gloom of new cases and deaths but provides no details on who is being vaccinated.
Donnelly is wagging his finger in the Dáil and muttering under his breath at Leas-Cheann Comhairle Catherine Connolly while the public is doing the exact same thing to him when they see him on television.
Then we have the testing regime for all travellers arriving from overseas, which seems like the beginnings of the zero Covid strategy we were told would never work. Who knows what they’re at – but their Plan for Living with Covid-19 is clearly in the bin.