Writes Gemma Murphy:
I am reading your article about the major US colleges and the rise of Covid-19 numbers among the vaccinated.
We here in Ireland are “boasting” one of the highest vaccination rates on the planet. 98% I think. The booster campaign is being pushed out at breakneck speed. Restrictions were imposed on pubs and restaurants again last week as our positive case numbers were 11,000 on 23rdDecember and 13,000 on Christmas Eve. Our population is just under 5 million. We were somewhere between 4,000 and 5,000 before that. So the jump is massive. The whole thing is spiralling out of control. I now actually know people with Covid 19, which despite all the hype, is the first time this has happened since March 2020. Several members of my family are Covid positive, as are my neighbours and friends. All of the people I know and hear of being covid positive are double vaccinated and have received the booster. Since the booster was rolled out a few weeks ago the rates of infection have gone through the roof. It became so bad in the weeks before Christmas that the testing centres were completely overwhelmed and it was impossible to find a vacancy to go and have a test. People were driving half way around the country to get tested. We now have a situation here where all general practitioners have been enlisted to roll out the booster shots. This means that people who have ordinary illnesses cannot go to their family doctor. This is expected to last until the end of January or mid-February. Pharmacists and vaccination centres are working around the clock to roll out boosters. Now anecdotally people who were completely pro vaccine and pro booster, are now changing their tune. Many are noticing that the more boosters are rolled out the more cases we are having in the country. Still our media are droning out the same message and people are rolling up sleeves for the booster. It is not helping that we have a stock of vaccines which are due to expire at the end of December and must be used. Hence the “all hands on deck” approach.
I just thought that you might be interested in this since our vaccination rate is so high and now our numbers were never higher. Also I read somewhere that Europe has 40% higher case numbers last week than the same week last year. Interestingly, we did not have a vaccine in December last year.
Also, I am wondering about all the hype surrounding the storage and transportation of these vaccines at the start. They were supposed to be stored at minus 70 degrees or something crazy like that. What happened to all that? Every local pharmacy now has a stock. The are in every general practitioners offie and none of these have specialised storage. Did something change?
Anyway, I enjoyed your article. Look up Ireland. Certainly an interesting case.