Northern Ireland v Southern Ireland

[Saoirse7]

Is anyone (especially those in border regions) absolutely perplexed at the stark contrast in advice from the British and Irish governments?

I'm in the north and I am getting more and more worried by the minute as news of regulations of school closures, pub closures etc trickle in. All island organisations such as the GAA have suspended all trainings and matches. Churches have cancelled masses, confirmations and communions. Weddings have been limited to 100 people to allow for social distancing.

Yet here we are, mere miles from each other going about our daily business in two completely different ways. Politics aside, I really believe we need an all island approach. By nature of living on an island we already have the means to control this. I am cared and unnerved at how our parties cannot agree on what to do, this is not a political issue it is a humanitarian one.

I'm in the South with family in the North - totally astonished that Arlene is putting politics before community health. And the NHS is not exactly robust in the North either. It should be an All-island lock down.

It’s not Southern Ireland.
But i agree with you.

Just maybe, the UK are taking the right approach?

The ROI has shut down very early. It's going to be for many many months.

There is good reason to believe that fatigue will set in.

And will people who have to stay at home still have a job at the end of it?

Arlene will have access to the UK experts. I don't know what access she will have to the ROI experts

So maybe that's what she is using to make her decision - and not politics?

Noone knows which way is best.

But yes it should have been an all island approach.

I don't understand why that hasn't happened.

The border will need to be shut.

The virus will still be there in 2 weeks when the quarantine ends. Ireland only has 166 active cases, they have went far to early with their measures.

The Republic are following the advice of the WHO. An independent health organisation who might I cynically say have no ulterior economic.

Herd immunity works against diseases that have a vaccine, or can only be caught once. COVID-19 fits neither of these categories.

It's a very dangerous social experiment based on a category of assumptions. Well I'm sorry I don't wish to be a statistic in the UK's plan which has been highly criticised as being dangerous by a host of experts.

It's not Southern Ireland but it's inevitable that there should be total parity where NI follows Ireland. Forget politics. It's a geographical thing.

The border will need to be shut

It is impossible to shut the border. See all the Brexit threads for reasons why.

I am in the South. Maybe we are shutting early but (apart from those knobs in temple bar last night) at least it feels like it is being taken seriously, rather than the massive experiment that is happening in the UK.

Agree there needs to be an all island response. It's physicaly impossible to close borders.

I see both sides. I see why the republic of Ireland is shutting down. It's to protect the health system and to avoid a massive rise in cases. I also see the sense of the UK approach. Let it run through the population because it inevitably will so let's get people immune to it asap by getting it. Protect the most vulnerable by telling them to self isolate.
However I do agree that on an island the size of Ireland there needs to be a whole island approach and Arlene should do what the rest of Ireland are doing.

Herd immunity will work regardless of whether the immune response was first generated via a vaccine or via the disease itself. I am not aware of any evidence that states COVID19 can be caught more than once in anything more than a very very small percentage of people. So herd immunity is a workable strategy. Whether the U.K. times it right, and it doesn't mutate and a host of other assumptions, time will tell.

Saoirse7
Where is the link to the WHO saying that Ireland should be quarantined for 2 weeks? I think its equally valid to say that the UK is following all the best scientific advise as well.

All the expert advise I have read have said that their will be herd immunity, they just dont know how long it will last.

What Ireland is doing is as much a dangerous social experiment based on a category of assumptions. I would not wish N.Ireland to be a statistic in Irelands plan which does not seem to be following the scientific advise our host of experts are giving.

If the UK have got it right then it would be irresponsible of Arlene and Boris to treat NI any differently.

I would hope that the way the pandemic is being handled in the UK is best for the whole of Britain.

I live in NI and I don’t want us to be a statistic in the UK’s plan!
I’d like us to be following the expert advice from the WHO like most of the world.

It’s complete madness. There are people living on one side of the border and working on the other. The Republic has less than 5 million people so 166 cases is a lot. The island of Ireland needs to be doing the same thing at the same time to slow the spread.

But NI is not Britain. It's part of the UK but it's nearest neighbour has taken a different approach. Look what happened in Italy when they tried to control particular areas. Loads of people just went to the areas where there weren't the same restrictions and took the virus with them.
I don't give a shit whether Johnson has the right approach, NI is on the island of Ireland not the island of Britain and should follow what they are doing on the majority of the island it's on.

Anyone know what's happening in Gibraltar?

bellini maybe I should have said everyone who is British.

Ultimately it's for the NI assembly to decide.

theulsterfry.com/local-news/well-respect-irish-border-says-coronavirus/

N.Ireland should do whats best for N.Ireland not whats best for the republic of Ireland. If its that big a deal Ireland could close its borders. Doing so for 2 weeks for health reasons is entirely different to doing so permanently for political reasons.
We will see the virus continue to spread in Ireland when they reopen in 2 weeks as they will have no herd immunity.

Will Ireland follow N.I. quarantine measure when the UK do theirs?

@Random18

Let me know what the Uk government are doing to follow this guideline from the WHO:

"Third, reduce #COVID19 transmission.

Do not just let this fire burn.

Isolate the sick & quarantine their contacts.
Measures that increase social distancing may help reduce transmission. These measures should be based on local context & risk assessment

..........

The UK are letting this fire burn. There is no guidelines in place for social distancing aside from what private businesses are implementing themselves. We have pubs in Belfast and Derry closing because social distance isn't possible without strict guidelines. How can schools practice social distancing when kids are crammed in like sardines? None of which we have been given because we are currently leaderless - none of our leaders are giving us any direction.

Especially Boris, he hasn't been seen in two days. Not surprising though considering he wasn't seen in the weeks running up to the election...

It's confusing to say the least but I'm not one bit surprised that the twits in stormont have managed to turn this into a green Vs orange decision, it would never be that Arlene agreed with the Republic response and Michelle agreed with Britain's response.

The thing is Arlene isn't saying no school closures, just not yet. I have no idea what's the right decision but I know my ds5 has a cough, cold symptoms but no fever so I've had him in isolation since Friday and won't be sending him to school tomorrow anyway.

Let me know what the UK government are doing to follow this guideline from the WHO

Have you not been following the news about anyone with a simple cough or temperature to go into isolation?

Zombie fan, what about the social distancing?

It truly is a geographical thing not a political issue. The whole island should be protected, not split measures. All I sadly see here is a hard border coming back. It was there before, it is not beyond the realms of belief that it might be forced back. And as well as other issues, those of us that have family on both sides are going to be separated from our loved ones.

Boris probably will announce he has Covid-19 and retreat into no10. I have zero faith in this man or any of the eejits "running the show up here" . I'd really rather they listened to the WHO.

The UK are not just letting this burn.

They are trying to delay the spread. The sick are to isolate. Contacts not being told to isolate at this time but that will come very soon.

Over 70s and hopefully those with underlying health conditions will soon be told to self isolate

And then schools will be shut and we will all have to keep apart from each other as much as possible.

The hope is to do it slow enough to be enable to NHS to cope as well as it can but not too slow as it runs into the winter months where there are many more additional demands on the NHS.

So it is wrong to say the UK is not doing anything.

It may not be as quick as some people like, but I would like to think that the UK experts know about the UK.