Nollaig Shona & all the best for 2023đ
.JPG)
Greta Thunberg
"I am here to tell you now, while I still can, that I don't want your apologies.
I don't want your tributes.
I don't want your aide de camp at my funeral.
I don't want your accolades or your broken promises.
I want action" (Vicky Phelan, 2020).
Her solicitor sets out actions that remain outstandingđ
Ar dheis DĂ© go Raibh a hAnam
Every parent needs to watch this powerful clip from a scientist who has been studying what SARS-COV-2 does to our blood vessels, immune systems & organs for 2.5 years â . Wear a đ· & fight for clean air in your children's schools. Where is the outrage at our children being forced to breathe in a level 3 biohazard (4 is the max)? DO. NOT. CONSENT.
https://www.youtube.com/clip/UgkxVWm9ME95RsOPqSQb0kC9UPyfgn3xUISi
Plus: New Zealand government warning citizens of what happens in countries that have let SARS2 rip. Spoiler: repeat infections - increased risk of severe health outcomes. NO "herd immunity" & NO "immunity debt" (that's not a thing - no scientific evidence to support it). Wear a đ·
https://twitter.com/covid19nz/status/1585768460428218370
"With reinfections, your chances of getting mental health issues, such as anxiety & depression doubles".
Also, reminder: SARS-COV-2 is NOT flu: "It's 40-50 times worse & it's a different virus that effects your organs & blood vessels": https://twitter.com/BurnetInstitute/status/1575720053311668227
Free rides on uncle Robert's boat: schtyle
Taken from my article in today's Indođ
Read below & if interested, get in touch.
"Iâve been scouring the web to see if any school has managed to prevent outbreaks. I found one â Abrome, in Texas. How did it do it? By ignoring politicians and following the science.
Acknowledging Covid is airborne, mitigations included daily testing, mandatory FFP2/3 masks indoors and outdoors in close contact during surges, distancing, remote learning when cases were extremely high, outdoor learning options, and Hepa filtration in every classroom. If CO2 readings exceeded 800, rooms were evacuated and classes continued in sheltered outdoor spaces, also used for eating. Everyone is vaccinated.
Abromeâs ethos is that of inclusion. A Covid-safe school is accessible to everyone. The sense of collective compassion over mĂ© fĂ©inism.
In the same way I would challenge institutional racism, I wonât participate in a system that discriminates against disabled, clinically vulnerable children and those with clinically vulnerable family. Without Covid protections, they are being robbed of their right to in-school education â indefinitely. The Ombudsman for Children told me: âA child rights-based approach needs to inform any decisions in respect of Covid.â
My son never got to know his grandparents because the State put profit before public health. I believe itâs happening again with Covid.
I canât go to Texas, but I am going to try to create a Covid-safe educational facility here in Galway. All I need is a few 14-year-olds â and a teacher.
My column in today's Indođ
Itâs up to parents to risk-assess, but if weâre not allowed to know if the unmasked kid sitting next to ours who was off sick for a few days has Covid and is potentially still infectious, how can we? Nits we need to be informed of, but a highly infectious neurotropic disease that can cause organ damage, disability and death? Thatâs an ecumenical matter.
Many parents, sometimes emboldened by mental-health practitioners who should know better, interpret the Governmentâs removal of public health protections as being outside their locus of control and therefore, succumbing to the âinevitabilityâ of infection is best. For many, due to financial or health precarity, exposure to Covid is increasingly difficult to avoid but an infection is not beneficial to mental health because; a) psychiatric disorders are common post-Covid sequelae, the risk of which increases with every infection and b) mental and physical health are inextricably linked.
Pitting one against the other, instead of advocating for both, is harmful. The World Health Organisationâs Mike Ryan recently spoke of the cumulative impact of repeated infections and negative long-term neurological and other health outcomes, warning: âYou donât want to get this disease once if you can avoid it but you donât want to get it four times, for sure.â
"I spoke to one of Irelandâs leading childrenâs rights lawyers, Gareth Noble, who said: âIâm concerned weâre creating a culture of conditioning us to think Covid infections and outbreaks in schools are inevitable. Theyâre not. We significantly reduce risk for our children if we follow basic public health advice such as mask-wearing, contact tracing, air filtration and other measures. Any expert advice from the WHO needs to be considered and actioned. Ignoring it would be negligent.â
Interim chief medical officer Professor Breda Smyth needs to explain why she has not adopted WHO guidance in her advice to government.
My article in todays Indođ
âItâs like f***ing a war zone. Casualties everywhere, wailing in agony.â Having languished on a trolley in a Covid-ridden hospital corridor for six days, immunocompromised from cancer treatment, 81-year-old Frank insisted on leaving. He would rather die at home in peace than on a hospital trolley.
Welcome to Ireland, the Somme of European healthcare.
Frankâs daughter, Mary (my friend), and siblings have been limiting social interactions since March 2020 to shield their father. Frank finally caught Covid in the one place sick people canât avoid: hospital".
To be fair to Frank I've reinstated the F word that got edited out!
"The Government previously brushed off calls to reinstate mask mandates, arguing it ârestricted peopleâs libertiesâ. In fact, hundreds of thousands of Irish citizensâ liberties have been restricted since March 2020 but as long as theyâre old, disabled or vulnerable, thatâs acceptable? Itâs not. Thereâs a legal requirement to ensure protected groups are not excluded from accessing goods and services, let alone essential services, such as public transport, school and healthcare.
Removing recognised public health protections, such as masks, is not just immoral, I would even argue itâs possibly illegal. Well-fitted FFP2/3 masks, worn universally and effectively, reduce infection"
"Professor Jack Lambert, who runs a long-Covid clinic in the Mater Hospital, bucked the trend recently by saying it like it is. He described Covid-19 as a scary virus. âIt damages the brain and the immune system. I continue to wear my mask. I encourage people to take this virus seriously,â he said".
"Vaccines are waning, new variants are increasingly transmissible, infections donât confer immunity, long-Covid can result from âmildâ doses and unmitigated transmission is spawning new variants and reinfections. We urgently need a Vaccine Plus strategy (masks, testing, tracing, clean air, distancing, paid isolation)".
Great to see the lads making a splash with the auld pier jumping at the top of the boreen (& turn rightđ) đđđ
I wrote the blog below shortly after the preventable inferno at Grenfell tower that killed 72 people. 5 years on, survivors remain traumatised and without justice đđ
The acrid stench infused the air. The landscape, adorned with messages and
memorials, struggled to reconcile the veneration of dignified grief and
irreverent, visceral anger.
The photo of Isaac caught my eye. He left school at the same time as my little boy that day. He will have had his tea, maybe smearing ketchup on his school jumper, like mine did and went to bed, forgetting to brush his teeth, like mine did. Wrapped in a blanket of love he may have told the spiders lurking in a corner of his room a story, like mine did, before drifting off to sleep clutching his threadbare teddy, like mine did.
Months later, many survivors were still homeless and dependent on sporadic, demeaning state handouts. A hundred quid here and a voucher for a hotel there. Security firms were employed, at tax payers expense, to âkeep them outâ of Kensington and Chelseaâs council meetings. Scenes of survivors being kettled into a public gallery, side-lined and silenced, prevented from participating in decisions about their own lives, were a national disgrace. The footage of Tory councillor, Mathew Palmer, mouthing âDonât let them inâ spoke volumes about the Toriesâ contempt for humanity, decency and democracy.
Dispatched to
friend's house yesterday: Chocolate chip fairy cakes & the soft scent of
roses to calm the nerves. Ădh mĂłr a ghuĂ ar rang 2022đđȘđ
