As Dublin heads into further restrictions, framing the pandemic…

Got to love the framing for the latest news that further restrictions are likely in Dublin – at least the framing in the IT. The story that announces that on mobile and on the front page of the IT has a photograph of a closed pub. That this is was a near inevitability, that restrictions would increase given the virulence of the pandemic and the manner in which it has been allowed to spread seems to escape them. As do the implications for a return to anything close to what once was known as normality.

How bad is the situation in Dublin? Very bad.

Public health experts are today expected to recommend new restrictions for Dublin to limit the spread of coronavirus, as fears grow that infections are heading out of control.

Last night, public health experts expressed a high degree of alarm at the current rate of infection, with one saying he was “more concerned than at any point in time since late April”.

The National Public Health Expert Team (NPHET) will meet today to decide its advice to Government, which is likely to be conveyed this evening.

And tellingly:

“If the numbers continue as they have been, this is only going one way,” said a Government source.

Some senior figures in Government were highly critical of the failure to take heed of NPHET’s advice last week and restrict travel from Dublin. A letter from acting chief medical officer Dr Ronan Glynn to the Government last Thursday warning that Dublin was a “disease reservoir” was only published yesterday.

But it would take someone unable to read media, understand statistics and numbers, not to realise that this was what was happening, and not for the last week, or two, but for months now.

Needless to say though, as the report continues, some folk in government know the real problem:

There were also recriminations in Government yesterday following the launch of the Living with Covid roadmap, which was beset by confusion.

And it’s not just Dublin:

…incidences were growing at broadly the same rate across the whole country.

Dr Glynn told the briefing the situation has deteriorated nationally over the past week. “Along with Dublin we have seen particularly concerning trends in Louth, Waterford and Donegal. It is now absolutely essential that people action public health advice and act as if they or those close to them are potentially infectious.”

Speaking of framing RTÉ has a headline that:

‘Quite typical’ to see rise in Covid-19 cases after rules are relaxed – WHO

But you have to read the piece to see the meaning of that statement.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Dr Margaret Harris said unfortunately we have seen across Europe that people did not get the message that you need to continue with the change in habits to suppress the virus.

She said private gatherings are one of the worst scenarios where people go back to close physical contacts and being in crowded settings.

She said they are asking everyone to understand that stopping the transmission of Covid-19 is in their hands, and warned that if too many people get ill then hospitals become overwhelmed very quickly.