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Naomi O'Leary Profile picture
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12 Apr, 9 tweets, 3 min read
I think the evidence that Covid spreads through air, which has been apparent since the earliest days of the pandemic, was ignored and denied because its implications required institutional change. 'Distance and wash hands' puts emphasis on individual.
We knew how to reduce transmission in schools last summer before they went back and just... didn't do it
I'm not saying there was a deliberate conspiracy or something. Just a kind of laziness, cowardice, preference for whatever requires the least action -- basically a lack of leadership.
As a lot of people have pointed out, the parallels and implications for the challenge of climate change are really concerning.
The argument over pandemic response in the West was distorted from the outset into crude binaries.
The loud, minority 'herd immunity let it rip' contingent portrayed the alternative as permanent lockdown, and their opponents to be advocating that. When actually, what many were arguing for was more precise and effective action: to simply do what had already worked in Asia.
I tried to find that clip of a woman on British TV suggesting that South Korea could be looked to for ideas and being greeted with scoffing laughter. I couldn't find it but found this instead
Apologies, it was in fact Taiwan and Singapore she was referencing, explaining facemasks, quarantine etc, and citing the WHO.
A GP is presented as the expert. Over confident GPs have become media stars in several countries for making status quo arguments.
Travellers to Taiwan can quarantine at home btw, as long as its fit for the purpose of being kept separate from others. The WHO is agnostic on the buildings used.
It just has to be effective. Which either way, requires support from public health officials irishtimes.com/news/health/co…

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More from @NaomiOhReally

Naomi O'Leary Profile picture
30 Mar
France vaccinated 400,000 people in a day this week.
For context, by population size that's the equivalent of the United States vaccinating 2 million people a day, which is the rate the US hit this month.
To compare to a closer neighbour with the same size population, the UK's daily record was 844,285 in a day on March 20. However, the NHS has warned of a "significant reduction in weekly supply" of vaccines in April.
Let's see some other countries.
Belgium vaccinated 39,000 a day in its best week, which is the equivalent of 1.1 million a day in the US in proportion to population -- the rate the US hit in January.
There are strong regional variations in Belgium, with Wallonia currently leading
Read 9 tweets
Naomi O'Leary Profile picture
29 Mar
In Ireland we don't have a coherent national medical data system. So how does someone who eg knows they are group 5 for vaccination, but also knows they aren't on the records of those giving the vaccines, make their presence known?
There are different ways of doing medical/official records. I think Ireland should look to Estonia and the Nordics for inspiration for how to do it well and securely. It's too late to build one for this pandemic, but still useful for the future
As soon as you introduce this kind of thing, 'you have to call 'your' consultant' (assumption of a consultant, access, a team taking the calls, a phone, time, organisation, the instruction reaching people that they must call) you're adding delay and exclusion into the system
Read 4 tweets
Naomi O'Leary Profile picture
28 Mar
The idea of a vaccine pass is alluring to many, seeming like a get-out-of-jail free card from the pandemic.
But when you look at the practicalities, there are deep pitfalls and tradeoffs, and the resources required to do it are immense.
Remember the contact-tracing apps?
They were hard enough to get off the ground and they didn't have nearly as many thorny rights and liberties questions.
I do struggle to see the proposed pan-EU system becoming a reality by this summer.
I think the countries pushing hardest for it, e.g. Greece, will probably just go ahead and introduce a vaccine exception for tourists.
And just like with test certs for travellers now, in some places recognised proof of vaccination won't be available, and in some places it will.
Read 5 tweets
Naomi O'Leary Profile picture
27 Mar
Well. Image
"The plan was described by a British cabinet minister as a "poke in the eye for Brussels" because it could disrupt EU unity" hmm
The key question is when.
If "spare" means "after all adults in Britain have been offered one" it means after July, under the UK's current schedule.
Ireland's plan is 80% of adults by the end of June.
The supply squeeze is really the next 4-6 weeks.
Read 6 tweets
Naomi O'Leary Profile picture
27 Mar
I'm told this is related to the large number of doses that were in the Rome finishing site
The background is that a Dutch factory waited until this week to apply for cert to supply the EU, for unexplained reasons. It was approved yesterday, bringing it into the EU AZ supply chain
The Dutch Halix site previously sent a small number of doses to Britain, the kind of amount you would send for quality control, before following with a big batch.
Then the EU introduced a system that would require AstraZeneca to request a permit to send any such batch to UK.
Next thing, Italian authorities find an unexpected trove of 29 million doses in a Rome finishing site.
AstraZeneca announced that 13 million of these were for Covax and 16 million were for the EU.
Read 6 tweets
Naomi O'Leary Profile picture
25 Mar
Thread on a sub-fight at the European Council.
Austria appointed itself champion of countries that are lagging in vaccinations because they initially turned down Pfizer/Moderna jabs, and are now worse affected by AstraZeneca shortfalls.
A breakdown of EU vaccine rates is here:
There's an argument that 10 million extra doses that are coming from Pfizer shouldn't be given pro-rata, but instead weighted towards countries with more infections and less vaccines.
Austria champions this, but insists that it must be among the countries to get extra.
A glance at the chart shows why this argument from Vienna has not gone down well, and indeed has held up agreement on whether to divide according to need rather than population.
Read 6 tweets

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