The blanket abolition of the mask rule was not only foolhardy, but also dangerous

Do you get side eyes from wearing a mask and wondering am I going insane? Anxiety and fear are normal responses to dangerous situations.

Clinically, anxiety is disturbed when there is no evidence to support the perceived threat. Let’s examine the evidence.

Days before Ireland’s “Day of Freedom”, Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove of the World Health Organization (WHO) dismissed the misconception that Omicron infection is inevitable and mild as “dangerous”. It can cause serious illness, long covid (multi-organ damage) and death. She urged governments to maintain protective measures to prevent widespread transmission and further mutations.

Now in the grip of a predicted subvariant wave, she warns of misinformation that Omicron is mild and the pandemic is over.

The pediatrician Dr. Liqa Ur Rehman is also concerned about misinformation, and last week tweeted some of his “mild” Covid cases: an eight-week-old with severe croup, a six-month-old in respiratory and cardiac arrest requiring CPR, a two-year-old with a fever and convulsions.

He asks why masks have not been reintroduced in Ireland to reduce transmission, viral loads and severe symptoms in children. dr WHO’s David Nabarro called Ireland’s abolition of mask mandates and testing “foolhardy” because personal responsibility cannot be exercised if we do not know where the virus is. The WHO also criticized Ireland for “brutally” scrapping public health measures.

The unions INMO and IAEM (Irish Association for Emergency Medicines) have sent Dr. Tony Holohan wrote asking for the mask mandate to be reinstated and warned: “On the 27th That means 6.2 per cent of Covid infections occurred in about 1 to 2 per cent of the period of the pandemic.

“Hospitals are currently not safe for either patients or staff due to overcrowding and Covid infection rates.”

A code red alert that hospitals are unsafe for staff and patients has been ignored. The lifting of the mask mandate deepened the crisis, but requests for a reintroduction to slow transmission were denied.

In March, the Dáil Bar Association reinstated the mask mandate to prevent disruption of “an essential service”.

In the meantime, the disruption to education and health care that has made them and public transport inaccessible to many since the mask requirement was scrapped, is it okay because they are…not essential?

22 healthcare workers died from Covid in Ireland. Around 6,000 are on sick leave with Covid and Long-Covid. They risk their lives to save ours. How far have we fallen that our hearts have hardened in their sacrifice. When Paul Reid celebrated “Freedom Day” by going for a pint, Dr. Liqa Ur Rehman to get his refresher; Instead, he covered sick colleagues.

France and Austria have reintroduced mask requirements because rising case numbers are causing avoidable deaths. Ireland is recording an average of 10 preventable Covid deaths a day, so what’s the plan? Doing nothing is not an option. Relying on vaccines alone is not enough.

While extremely effective at preventing serious illness and death, they do not prevent transmission, they decline within months and new variants risk even greater escape. A study in science magazine This week shows that there is no natural immunity to Omicron with a previous Covid infection. Herd immunity doesn’t exist.

That’s why the WHO is pushing for a “vaccine-plus” strategy, including masks, distancing, testing and isolation. A recently lancet Study shows increased mask-wearing reduces infection, which reduces absenteeism. It’s not masks that are disrupting the economy and life, it’s the unchecked spread of a highly communicable, disabling disease.

We are experiencing collective trauma, the effects of which are affecting those who are at greater risk.