Anthony Staines Profile picture
Now @astaines@mastodon.ie Irish medical academic, Prof. of Health Systems, working on public health & policy. FG'er * +353866069713 * anthony.staines@dcu.ie
Sep 15, 2021 25 tweets 27 min read
Oireachtas health committee today - highlights
@CMOIreland
Many outbreaks in nursing homes
Rates falling in 16-29 year olds.
High rates in primary school children as school returns
Vaccination alone will not control the spread of #COVID19
1/
media.heanet.ie/page/bcadcac5e… @CMOIreland And @cmoireland - vaccination allows a move to 'personal judgement' and 'personal protective behaviours'.
Rapid self-isolation should be facilitated (but does not say how this is to be paid for).
2/
May 4, 2021 10 tweets 4 min read
So @President_MU presents some positive news this evening. Things are steady, but not steady in a good place.
This is his take :
Here are some estimates of R (how fast this is growing or shrinking)
In brief, it has stopped going up, which is good, and it's likely to stay close to 1 for the next while - so case numbers will fall very slowly.
Oct 8, 2020 14 tweets 4 min read
Choices - a thread

#COVID19 is rising all over Ireland and has been rising at about the same rate for many weeks.
Left to itself we will have 1,000 cases a day in November, and 4,000 a day for Christmas.
The health service will melt, and many people will die.
@ISAGCOVID19
1/
We should perhaps have gone to level 4 on September 1st.
After some drama we've now gone to Level 3 which may help to stabilize the situation, but is unlikely to make it better.
2/
Aug 21, 2020 11 tweets 2 min read
This is not a good answer to what is a very reasonable question.
The key argument is that we can swap high contacts in adults, for very low contacts in adults and high contacts in kids in school.
That’s not true.
Why?
1/ What’s a contact?
It’s spending enough time close enough to someone, and often enough, for effective viral transfer. It’s a (probably) non-linear function of distance, time and *frequency*.
2/
Sep 16, 2019 17 tweets 8 min read
Getting ready for the @DCU_Brexit_Inst seminar today on #Brexit and finance. Now @Paschald preparing for the start of the session.
Apr 10, 2019 10 tweets 4 min read
Talking on @BreakfastNT about the NCH report
@LeoVaradkar described it as 'pretty grim reading' He wasn't wrong.
So what next?

merrionstreet.ie/MerrionStreet/… 1/ The report is utterly damming of the NPH Development Board
Did not challenge the executives
Left crucial decisions to their design team (contractors)
Signed off on a flawed business case
Failed to oversee risk registers