On RTÉ yesterday Assistant Professor of Virology at UCD Dr Gerald Barry noted that variants are going to be a feature from here on out. And that the lifting of various measures was premature.

Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, he said: "We have a version of this virus that, you know, to put it simply, we've never, ever seen in our lifetimes a virus as infectious as this.

He points to recurrence of the virus in people. One has to wonder what the physical and mental impacts of that will be. But further and having heard close friends catching it for the first time this week I wonder where matters proceed. So many people seem to be sick with it. Most thankfully not very sick, but sick enough. This is purely a perception but it feels as if there's a patchwork aspect to matters at the moment in jobs and places of education with many people out due to the virus. How does all this work in the future if this is the new normal?
Dr. Barry in a way asks the same question:

Dr Barry said that we need to accept that waves are going to come "except that we need to respond to them, rather than doing what we've done in this wave, which is effectively nothing".

Hardly surprising that the HSE Emergency Department Taskforce is requesting some public health measures are reconsidered by the government given the huge numbers in hospitals and the consequent pressures on same. By the way, on a tangent but far from unimportant, for all those who you'll hear talking about funding a more expansive health service - as Andrew Flood and Dr. Groove noted in their perhaps not entirely final Plague Tapes, one reason our mortality rates were lower than many other states was that the health service simply wasn't fully equipped for numbers and therefore broader societal measures were taken which lowered the death rate rather than subcontracting it out to hospitals etc. But there's a further point. It takes time to train and staff ICUs and critical care beds. The idea this can be done in a few months or even a year points to the glibness of much of the discourse around this. And, understandably the health service is not the most attractive area to work in at the moment. Yet given that the state has done a remarkable job in avoiding discussion of such matters, or even doing anything to encourage non-mandatory measures is that any surprise that knowledge of this appears so minimal?

The INMO has been leading the charge, but others are there too.

"There is general concern now about the effect this latest surge of Covid is having," said Phil Ni Sheaghdha, General Secretary of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, who is co-chair of the taskforce.

"The ICU numbers aren't increasing but we have a high incidence of admission that the hospitals simply can't cope with and that requires public health measures, to ensure those who are so sick, that are being admitted, can actually get treatment."

And:

The INMO believes measures that have been relaxed, such as mask wearing, would be "very simple to reintroduce".

The Minister for Health has been urged to respond publicly by tomorrow to the letter.

"The level of concern, based on the information we have requires public health measures," said Ms Ni Sheaghdha.

And:

President of the Irish Association of Emergency Medicine Dr Fergal Hickey said the situation in hospitals at the moment is "unrelenting" and is "probably the worst I've ever seen in my career".

Speaking on RTÉ's Today with Claire Byrne, Dr Hickey said there are large numbers of patients on trolleys and hospitals are "teeming with Covid".

He said patients are arriving in greater numbers and there are fewer staff to deal with them.

"That's the reality of it, the elastic band has broken at this stage," he said.

But what is the response of government?

This morning there was this.

Mr Donnelly said that while the daily number of PCR and antigen tests can reach 15,000 a day - the true figure is likely to be two or three times that.

Despite the rise in the number of cases, he said that the "very firm advice" remained that no restrictions need to be introduced.

...

The minister told members, however, that wearing masks was still very advisable on public transport and busy indoor settings.

Great, that's the push to get us over this hill. Isn't it?