Scrapping mask mandate & misinformation is dangerous. If you're anxious right now, that's a normal reaction to an abnormal situation

My article in yesterday's Indo👇

https://www.independent.ie/opinion/comment/blanket-removal-of-mask-rule-wasnt-just-foolhardy-it-was-dangerous-41535535.html

Extracts👇

Are you experiencing increased anxiety since Micheál Martin jettisoned public health protections? Do you feel frightened on public transport when an unmasked passenger coughs into your (unopened😬) cheezy wotsits? Do you get side-eyed for wearing a mask and wonder, “Am I losing my mind”?

Anxiety and fear are normal reactions to dangerous situations. Clinically, anxiety is disordered if there’s no evidence to support perceived threat. Let’s examine the evidence.

Paediatrician Dr Liqa Ur Rehman, is also concerned about misinformation and tweeted some of  his “mild” Covid cases last week: 8 week old with severe croup. 6 month old with respiratory and cardiac arrest requiring CPR, 2 year old with fever and prolonged convulsions, 10 year old unable to walk. He asks why masks haven’t been reinstated in Ireland to help reduce transmission, viral load and severe symptoms in children?

The INMO and IAEM unions have written to Dr Tony Holohan asking for the mask mandate to be reinstated warning “As of March 27, 89,432 of the pandemic’s total 1,442,877 cases occurred within the past two weeks, meaning 6.2% of Covid infections occurred in approximately 1-2% of the pandemic’s timeframe.” 

 

“Hospitals are currently not safe for patients or for staff because of the level of overcrowding and Covid infection levels” they warned. "The public need to be made aware of why we need them to once again step up to the plate in order to protect those working on our frontlines.”

 

A code red alert that hospitals are unsafe for staff and patients has been ignored. Removing the mask mandate exacerbated the crisis yet pleas for reinstating it to help slow transmission  was denied. Sinn Féin picked the wrong side.

22 healthcare workers died from Covid in Ireland. Some 6,000 are off sick with Covid and long-Covid. They risk their lives to save ours. How far we’ve fallen that our hearts have hardened to their sacrifice. When Paul Reid celebrated “Freedom day” by going for a pint, Dr Liqa Ur Rehman should have been getting his booster, instead he was covering for sick colleagues.

 

We are experiencing a collective trauma, the impact of which is hitting those at higher risk from Covid hardest. If you’re anxious right now, that’s a normal response to an abnormal situation. Ignore the side eyes and keep wearing your mask. They protect lives and livelihoods.