Restrictions may be required for the next "five, ten or fifteen years."

[Samson]

Well that s a NO from me, they wont be getting this without riots and an uprising

[CelticRambler]

Well ... "duh"

This pandemic is entirely due to the unrestricted, unnecessary, often unjustified migratory and hyper-social behaviour of humans that we've come to consider "normal".

So either we put up with the restrictions that bring us back into line with other animals, or we learn to live with pandemics (inasmuch as they let us live).

[Berties_Horse]

Of course a prominent epidemiologist would come out with that dystopian nightmare, Covid has made him into a glorified rockstar and he doesn't want to let go lightly. Loading that wheelbarrow of dosh on the media circuit, more wants more. Sham McDonkey is his Irish equivalent. I would happily administer a flying kick off the stage free of charge, send these clowns tumbling back into obscurity where they belong.

[Kaiser]

Holohan is back out suggesting new restrictions may be be necessary I see.

Similarly they just had one of the "experts" on NT talking about how we still need to do more on the vaccination front. Her mantra got a bit shaky when questioned about how much more we can do given the current levels. Now the goalposts have been moved to vaccinating all kids over 12.

It strikes me as people who've gotten used to a higher profile and extra paydays trying desperately to keep themselves relevant and paid! Is anyone really even listening to them anymore?

[isha]

In the beginning I was very cautious about Covid as it was an unknown. I am still cautious in that I think Covid is a lab leaked virus that has and will have significant morbidity burdens on the human species. I avoid crowds (no problem for me as I am happily a solitary person!),and I supplement to boost my immunity, eat well and exercise, in the hopes I would deal well with what has unfortunately been allowed to become endemic.

But my inìtial fear of Covid has been far outweighed by my concern for what has happened since.
Censorship of views and research that does not suit.
Medical passports.
Brutality in places eg Australia, against people committing minor breaches of Covid regulations.
Making novel medical procedures mandatory for some categories of workers, especially medical interventions with no longtitudinal long term research.
Vaccinating children. Especially where it is part of vaccine hoarding - 10s of 1000s of vulnerable people elsewhere in the world who die every week from this virus could have benefitted from targeted administration of vaccines that the rich world is injecting unnecessarily into its children.
And a really BIG issue is the backlog building of people who are not getting early treatment for diseases like cancer, and who will die as a result. Some countries like UK are showing significant increase of deaths at home for non covid issues..

I have been completely weirded out by how bizarre this has all been. I think IFR will be below 1%, likely a deal less, when the dust settles. And for that we have entered a sort of medical technocracy globally with barely a whimper from the majority.

[Memento Mori]

The goalposts will shift to "we need third doses"

[Banshee Bones]

I would consider myself to be mentally robust, I don't suffer up and downs in mood to the same degree as most others, but the covid lockdown really had an adverse effect on me. Not just the abandonment of all normality for lockdown but the dystopian shitshow we now find ourselves in. It seems to be that western society now exists to elicit only despair in people.

I feel sorry for the current generation who've been raised on nothing but fear and hysteria about climate change etc.

[kadman]

If you want your beer and nuts inside, then you will be up for anything. And i feel for the next generation too, who have been abandoned,
and manipulated into accepting the "new norm", from children to young adult. And thats where they are most vulnerable and easily molded.

[isha]

I would consider myself to be mentally robust, I don't suffer up and downs in mood to the same degree as most others, but the covid lockdown really had an adverse effect on me. Not just the abandonment of all normality for lockdown but the dystopian shitshow we now find ourselves in. It seems to be that western society now exists to elicit only despair in people.

I feel sorry for the current generation who've been raised on nothing but fear and hysteria about climate change etc.

I did existential despair to a dramatic degree at one stage in former years, and as a result of recovering robustly from that I just don't get too moody at all, thankfully. Having flung myself once into an abyss and returned, I am cheerful since. But a few times recently I have had a glimpse within of what it must feel like for people who have been pushed over the edge with some of the past 18 months stuff. When I say a glimpse, I mean an imaginative empathy in a lucid moment - it's a kind of thing I get sometimes. One friend of mine committed suicide during the past year directly as a result of Covid, so I absolutely know that those who tend towards emotional fragility are affected badly by all this. No friend died of Covid. The cost/benefit analysis of all of this, including mental and physical health toll, is going to be wild in a few years time.
In April 2021 4.6 million people in the UK had missed out on hospital treatments, and thousands had not been picked up on screening programs. That is really serious if we convert to our likely numbers. We would have been better off to build special Covid hospitals, or converting hotels etc and keep the other hospitals running for everything else.

[JONJO THE MISER]

I have not nor will I get the vaccine in the immediate future.

[Kaiser]

The goalposts will shift to "we need third doses"

It's already started with Holohan and co approving them for the "most vulnerable"

I fully expect that to be extended to the rest of the population over the coming months because "cases" and "variants"

We were sold this vaccine as the route back to normality (the only reason I bothered to be honest) but yet we're still not living normally despite the massive uptake. Many events still closed or limited, I still have to hand over my phone number if I want to sit in and have a burger, and I'm still required to wear a mask (although I put up with the plastic face shields instead mostly) and treat myself and others like potential plague carriers when I do the shopping.

Now the narrative is that we may need boosters and new restrictions. At what point do we actually move on? At what point does this "crisis" actually end?

[PureIsle]

It's already started with Holohan and co approving them for the "most vulnerable"

I fully expect that to be extended to the rest of the population over the coming months because "cases" and "variants"

We were sold this vaccine as the route back to normality (the only reason I bothered to be honest) but yet we're still not living normally despite the massive uptake. Many events still closed or limited, I still have to hand over my phone number if I want to sit in and have a burger, and I'm still required to wear a mask (although I put up with the plastic face shields instead mostly) and treat myself and others like potential plague carriers when I do the shopping.

Now the narrative is that we may need boosters and new restrictions. At what point do we actually move on? At what point does this "crisis" actually end?

At the point when WE say 'enough is enough' and until then they will continue with their plan, whatever they think that is.

Lots of things wrong with the situation ....

PCR tests do not tell anything useful, except that a small selected part of something was found in the body. That 'something' is not exclusive to the Sars2 virus we are told.
As for 'Covid pass' or whatever they call it now ........ it is pointless. It was introduced allegedly to reduce the spread of the virus, but it is known that a person can spread the virus whether vaccinated or not, or previously had contracted the virus or not. Apparently asymptomatic people do not shed the virus!
'Cases' are not cases of illness and as such are a useless metric. They are only cases of positive PCR tests.

Everything comes back to the misuse of PCR testing and the ridiculous dependence on its results to lock down whole countries, and limit people's movements.

When sufficient people awaken to the unnecessary hurt that has been imposed on them for some as yet unknown reason I hope they will show their dissatisfaction on the streets and at the polls ....... but of course our political opposition were fully supportive (and more) of all those dreadful measures so I don't see any choice at the polls!