NPHET’s warning about Delta variant may not be enough to sway a restless public

IT HAS been a difficult week, one that began with hope but ended in uncertainty. Day to day, the country lurched ahead in panic as the warnings about the Delta variant of Covid-19 became ever more dire. It is more transmissible and more infectious, and it provokes different symptoms to the original and previous variants, though there are hopeful signs it is no more likely to warrant hospitalisation or to cause death.

Nonetheless, a war we thought we were winning is still a long way from being over, and the new freedoms we were sure we would enjoy now hang by a thread.

There have been challenges to the assumptions on which NPHET were basing their models, but it is important to recognise that these experts work in good faith and in what they believe is in the best interests of the nation. However, not for the first time, we find ourselves calling for the need for clearer messaging.

If 2,000 more of our fellow citizens could die from a fourth wave of the virus in the form of the Delta variant, it needs to be properly explained to people who have been told that vaccines will free them from this purgatory.

We see countries with new waves, such as Scotland, acting differently, and that may well be good policy. The way the situation worsened and became more panicstricken here at home is not conducive to the calm and effective management of a society; a sober assessment of the situation communicated clearly and without hyperbole is likely to fall on more welcoming and understanding ears.

There have, of course, been positives this week too. It is good to see the sensible leadership by Taoiseach Micheál Martin in securing extra vaccines from our European colleagues. This is the decisiveness we need.

Welcome too is the news that elective vaccination for the younger among us will be offered from tomorrow in 750 pharmacies across the country, potentially protecting the greatest vector of this variant.

But while both of these actions can be seen as clear wins, one area that has seen too little attention is the European travel pass that went live in all countries in the EU this week except for Ireland.

At the start of the week, NPHET recommended a controversial vaccine pass for hospitality that would allow the older vaccinated dine indoors, while shutting out the young unjabbed.

We are told that Ireland’s participation in the travel scheme is on track to be in place by July 19, two short weeks from now, and an excuse has already been made that the cyber attack on the HSE is making this difficult.

A population that has held the line on travel and hospitality, on the basis that enjoying a foreign holiday or socialising at home is a risk to their health and the health of others, will be difficult to convince to stay at home simply because the State cannot administer a pass for those who are fully vaccinated.

We were promised a vaccine bonus, but to date it extends to little more than who we can have in our homes.

Many may well make up their own minds and travel or socialise anyway. If the message not to do so isn’t communicated in a way people can understand, the consequences might well be catastrophic.