Homeschooling this month: Spanish field trip!

We're privileged to have a campervan & the means to take off for a couple of months, learning languages & meeting people (outdoors, masked up) on our travels. 

This week, I scaled mountains that were so steep & gravelly I had to slide back down on my arse. Sheer drop if I lost my footing. No room for error. I was first up & first down. The fitness & agility of a mountain goat. 15 yo & husband close behind. They both also mountain biked up undulating mountain roads with sheer drops either side. Days ended by dipping in the sea or river plunge pools. Physical & mental health are inextricably linked. SARS2 comes after both, so, damn right I'll do whatever it takes to safeguard my health & that of my family for as long as it takes.

Wouldn't feel safe doing these activities in Ireland now that the health system has flatlined. Hospitals are still safe spaces in Spain (France, Germany....). Masks remain mandatory in healthcare settings so whatever I go in with at least I know I'm unlikely to be gifted a SARS2 disease while there. 

Great TV report by TODAY. If you're not scared of  catching SARS2, you really should be. Fear based on real threats serve a purpose: Survival💪

"Doctors and researchers are beginning to see connection between COVID surges and heart attacks.

@ErinNBCNews

and Senior Medical Correspondent for

@NBCNews

@DrJohnTorres

share more" 👇

https://twitter.com/TODAYshow/status/1623676368390086659

Think the pandemic is over & SARS-C0V-2 is flu/benign? You've been hoodwinked. It's an airborne biohazard. Protect your health: Mask up (ffp2+), ventilate & filtrate.

 My article in today's Indo👇

https://www.independent.ie/opinion/comment/let-it-rip-as-a-policy-hasnt-worked-all-the-evidence-points-to-us-sleepwalking-into-another-covid-nightmare-42268489.html

"Consultant clinical cardiologist, Dr Rae Duncan, describes Covid as “a CDC level 3 airborne biohazard”. She adds: “We’re knowingly sending our children into poorly ventilated school buildings to breathe it in with no mitigations in place to protect them.” Video footage here👇. 

https://www.youtube.com/clip/UgkxVWm9ME95RsOPqSQb0kC9UPyfgn3xUISi

"It’s arguably criminally negligent that we’re entering the fourth year of a pandemic, in which “super” variants are still emerging, with most people unaware of the body of research showing the cumulative health damage Covid-19 causes.

Notions like “immunity debt” have been debunked. Numerous studies exist showing that Covid can dysregulate immunity, causing secondary infections (like RSV). ​

The public could do with better guidance from all media. Many don’t realise that Covid-19 is a vascular disease that can damage the lining of the blood vessels. This can cause cardiovascular disease, strokes and neuropsychiatric disorders that may present months later.

"The risks increase with every infection. Everyone is therefore vulnerable to this disease – the clinically vulnerable disproportionately so. Wearing a mask is a show of solidarity".

Abandoning citizens to the ravages of a Covid biohazard is a public health scandal.

If parents, workers and customers are prepared to accept contaminated air in our schools, hospitals and workplaces, as well as preventable disease and death, that’s probably what we’ll get in 2023".

The kindest, wisest, wittiest, bravest, coolest human I know...

This dude 👇😎 💓

Favourite sunsets of 2022. When you're in a dark tunnel, keep going. There's light at the end of it

Nollaig shona gach duine, Feliz navidad, eid milad saeid, joyeux Noel, Christmas greetings....

 Nollaig Shona & all the best for 2023🎄

 

My dad made this crib for us kids when we were babies. I sat for hours in front of it every year, mesmerised. If my house caught fire, this is one of few possessions I'd grab. It's the essence of my lovely dad... & Christmas (original everything- including figurines & straw!)

Tweet of the year award goes to......

Greta Thunberg

@GretaThunberg

yes, please do enlighten me. email me at smalldickenergy@getalife.com

Quote Tweet

Andrew Tate

@Cobratate

·

27 Dec

Hello @GretaThunberg I have 33 cars. My Bugatti has a w16 8.0L quad turbo. My TWO Ferrari 812 competizione have 6.5L v12s. This is just the start. Please provide your email address so I can send a complete list of my car collection and their respective enormous emissions.

Show this thread

11:07 am · 28 Dec 2022

SARS-CoV-2 safe birthday celebration: Outside.....in the Irish winter!

Birthday boy: Go Karting with besties 😎 Great craic had by all!

Running rings round the refs 😅

I was 18 when I had him 😀💓

Pizza & toasted marshmallows on the fire pit 💝💖

Cat-a-gorically true👇

R.I.P Vicky Phelan. Mother, Irish cervical smear campaigner, speaker of truth to power, courageous, fighter, inspirational woman

"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).

https://www.independent.ie/opinion/comment/i-want-action-change-and-accountability-not-your-aide-de-camp-at-my-funeral-39397586.html

Her solicitor sets out actions that remain outstanding👇

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/vicky-phelans-friend-and-solicitor-on-her-last-request-tell-them-i-asked-for-action-not-praise-42158179.html

Ar dheis Dé go Raibh a hAnam

"We are knowingly allowing our children to go into school buildings to breathe in a CDC level 3 biohazard that's airborne" Dr Rae Duncan (Consultant Cardiologist, Long-Covid researcher & World Health Network contributor)

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 ⚠. Wear a 😷 & 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 😷

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

I do like to be beside the seaside....& lakes

Half time!

My turn😎

Hang'n with the cuzins on lovely Lough  Errit 🏊🎣🎸

Free rides on uncle Robert's boat: schtyle

Wanted: A few 14 year olds & a teacher for Covid safe school in Galway

Taken from my article in today's Indo👇

https://www.independent.ie/opinion/comment/our-children-are-at-grave-risk-of-covid-as-state-puts-profit-ahead-of-public-health-41893293.html

Read below & if interested, get in touch.

"I’ve been scouring the web to see if any school has managed to prevent outbreaks. I found one – 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.

Abrome’s ethos is that of inclusion. A Covid-safe school is accessible to everyone. The sense of collective compassion over mé féinism.

In the same way I would challenge institutional racism, I won’t 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 – indefinitely. The Ombudsman for Children told me: “A child rights-based approach needs to inform any decisions in respect of Covid.”

My son never got to know his grandparents because the State put profit before public health. I believe it’s happening again with Covid.

I can’t 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 – and a teacher.

Our children are at grave risk of Covid as State puts profit ahead of public health

 My column in today's Indo👇

https://www.independent.ie/opinion/comment/our-children-are-at-grave-risk-of-covid-as-state-puts-profit-ahead-of-public-health-41893293.html

It’s up to parents to risk-assess, but if we’re 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? That’s an ecumenical matter.

Many parents, sometimes emboldened by mental-health practitioners who should know better, interpret the Government’s removal of public health protections as being outside their locus of control and therefore, succumbing to the “inevitability” 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 Organisation’s Mike Ryan recently spoke of the cumulative impact of repeated infections and negative long-term neurological and other health outcomes, warning: “You don’t want to get this disease once if you can avoid it but you don’t want to get it four times, for sure.”

"I spoke to one of Ireland’s leading children’s rights lawyers, Gareth Noble, who said: “I’m concerned we’re creating a culture of conditioning us to think Covid infections and outbreaks in schools are inevitable. They’re 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.”

Interim chief medical officer Professor Breda Smyth needs to explain why she has not adopted WHO guidance in her advice to government.

Welcome to Ireland, the Somme of European healthcare

My article in todays Indo👇

Covid in Ireland: Ireland’s Covid war is far from over – but it feels like the generals have already capitulated - Independent.ie

‘It’s like f***ing a war zone. Casualties everywhere, wailing in agony.” 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. 

Frank’s 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 can’t 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 “restricted people’s liberties”. In fact, hundreds of thousands of Irish citizens’ liberties have been restricted since March 2020 but as long as they’re old, disabled or vulnerable, that’s acceptable? It’s not. There’s 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 it’s 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. “It damages the brain and the immune system. I continue to wear my mask. I encourage people to take this virus seriously,” he said".

"Vaccines are waning, new variants are increasingly transmissible, infections don’t confer immunity, long-Covid can result from “mild” 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)".