Mentioned recently the Tory shrug of the shoulders in the face of poverty, deprivation, any social challenges really. But there's a not dissimilar phenomenon with regard to the rising number of those with Covid-19 in this state.

Even the IT has had to wake up to this. Jennifer Bray noted last night that, as mentioned here, there's increasing pressure for the government to do something. The Emergency Department Taskforce of the HSE has been banging this drum, as has the NRBU and other unions.

"We need to set off the alarm bells here, we need to draw attention to how serious the situation is in hospitals," said a source who attended.

The attendee even considered suggesting the return of the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) in a sign of desperation for a clearer structure that would give guidance about the path ahead.

So. What is the political position?

Yet the Government is extremely reluctant to go back to the days of heavy-handed laws telling people what they can and cannot do.

Some Ministers believe that while hospitals are very busy, the situation is no worse than March 2018 or 2019 in terms of the numbers on trolleys.

And that's alright then? A scandal in 2018 or 2019 is considered to be acceptable? But this isn't 2018 or 2019, because the impact societally is much greater than that period in terms of numbers with the virus and indeed the numbers who are going sick, albeit not going into hospital.

And for a completely laissez-faire approach consider this:

They believe that the focus should be squarely on pushing the booster vaccination campaign and on reminding people of the actions they can take themselves: isolation and wearing masks in crowded settings. That should be the focus, "not laws", one source said.

That said the Government is very aware of the drum-beat from some quarters for making mask wearing mandatory again but as one senior figure said: "the public themselves are making up their own mind. (There is) nothing stopping people wearing masks if they want to."

There's no effort to encourage them either. No public health campaign. No advertising, no messaging, no push at national level to get across the need to protect both those who are vulnerable and broader populations. Nothing except a few statements from the Minister for Health which are lost in the void. The irony of the above given that the Oireachtas itself has instituted more rigorous measures on its campus is difficult to ignore.

And what to make of this?

Even in the HSE, there is a belief that while mask wearing is important, focusing on this as a silver bullet at the detriment of other actions would be counter-productive.

In any event the emergency Covid legislation which has underpinned all of the restrictions is due to lapse this Thursday the 31st of March and there is little to no desire in Government to stop this. The attitude is that waves will come and waves will go, this will be a feature of life for some time to come, and the panic button should not be pressed every time things go awry.

Few would argue that masks are a silver bullet - though an emphasis on them in order to bring home the reality that individualistic indifference to the needs of others isn't good enough. But what are the other actions contemplated? None it would appear.
Moreover, if things are going awry then surely some response is necessary.

The question was raised yesterday as to how is the current status quo of significant numbers absent from education and workplace going to be sustained given we know there is no herd immunity and reinfection is a basic fact with this virus. But it appears consideration of the future has been sparse to non-existent:

Before they wound up their work, members of the Nphet discussed the fact that cases would rise and the pressure would intensify once all restrictions were lifted.

It was inevitable.

Yet it appears no long-term modelling was done to prepare the country for what could lie ahead.

Much of this could be thrashed out by the touted successor group to Nphet, if it were set up yet.

Sources say there was no update on this, or indeed Covid generally, at Cabinet on Tuesday.

 

And for the ultimate in aversion from the central issue how about this?

There have been reports that there are disagreements between the CMO and Mr Donnelly about who should be on this group with the Minister favouring more external expertise.

Sources have also said he is very keen to ensure a better gender balance and that there has been too much talk in recent years of restrictions around, for example, golfing than on restrictions in maternity wards.

However, the events of recent days, and the meeting of the emergency taskforce on Monday, shows a desire and need for leadership which many would have expected to come from the Minister for Health.

Just on the gender balance - absolutely crucial in all this, but the reality of NPHET was that far from the caricature that it was male dominated there was this. One would expect that this would carry over into a new group. And also essential to get the new group up and running. 

And difficult to disagree with the following:

Yet the overriding sense is the car has no driver and the destination is unknown.

Avoiding a coronavirus crash is what all of the stakeholders want: how to do that is the question