Sharon Keogan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have been in this House for eight months and this is the first opportunity I have had to talk to the Minister regarding Covid-19. I welcome him here to listen to our submissions regarding the Government's response to Covid-19 and the level 5 restrictions.

I express my heartfelt condolences to the families of those who have died of Covid-19 and as a result of Covid-19. I appreciate that it is always hard to lose a loved one or a relative regardless of the cause or circumstances. The suffering of those bereaved during this pandemic has, however, been amplified by the Government's policy, which has prevented them from attending funeral and removal services completely, or drastically curtailed the number of people allowed to attend those ceremonies. It is incredibly cruel to limit drastically, or to deny altogether, the right of people to celebrate and mourn the lives of their loved ones. I refer to preventing people comforting one another in their time of grief, loss and sadness by law and the threat of criminal sanction.

Did we have a pandemic preparedness plan prior to 2020? Were level 5 lockdowns, which shut down society, healthcare and the economy and imprisoned people in their homes, part of any pre-existing pandemic preparedness plan? Can the Minister cite public health policy, prior to this year, stating that during a pandemic every other aspect of public health should be ignored and subjugated to the sole aim of dealing with the pandemic?

Will the Minister confirm the total number of deaths where Covid-19 was the sole or primary cause of death? Can the Minister confirm the number of cases reported as Covid-19-related deaths? I refer to some 1, 948 now. How many of these deaths were suffered because of a life-threatening co-morbidity?Can the Minister provide the House with data pertaining to the average age at death of those who have died of Covid-19, as opposed to the average age at death of those who have died with Covid-19? How do these figures compare with the average life expectancy in Ireland? Can the Minister provide a quantitative analysis of how many lives have been saved as a result of lockdown restrictions being imposed in an indiscriminate fashion on the general population? Can the Minister provide data justifying this level 5 lockdown-style approach and proving that a strategy of focused protection for those who are susceptible to the virus would not have been more effective and caused less collateral damage? Can the Minister provide a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the impact of lockdown restrictions on society, the economy and the health of the nation?

Has NPHET analysed the effect of the restrictions versus the effect of Covid-19? The number of deaths is important but so are the life years lost. Where is that analysis? The public deserves to see it. The restrictions will have implications. When will NPHET open up and be transparent about the expected effects of the restrictions and show the public what it expects them to be? This includes the direct health effects, the missed appointments, including mental health appointments, and the economic and related effects. I mention the quality of messaging and the leaks that are emanating from NPHET, the Government and the media. We must do better on that. No one seems to be thinking about what effect this is having on the mental health of the population. Why not? Messaging must be reviewed and leaks must be eliminated to protect the mental health of our people and ensure the survival of our economy. Why do we need daily number announcements and press conferences? The daily drip feed only builds anxiety and an unhealthy behaviour pattern among a large number of the population.

What is the living with Covid-19 plan? The current one is not working. It has caused anxiety, uncertainty and a significant economic impact. The Government needs to pick a series of measures and just stick with them for the long run, rather than the cycle of opening up and locking down. It is too much. People and the economy need certainty and the constant changing of levels only increases anxiety. Will the restrictions being applied get rid of the virus faster or end the pandemic faster? It strikes me that the only realistic endgame to this is the vaccine solution.

Speaking of the lauded press conference and coverage of the imminent vaccine by our friends in Pfizer, can we pin our hat on that? Let us examine the data on this panacea. Out of the 43,000 trial participants, I understand that only 94 people were used in the independent evaluation of it. Can the Minister obtain data from Pfizer demonstrating that this vaccine will significantly reduce hospitalisations, ICU admissions and deaths caused by Covid-19? Additionally, can the Minister obtain data from Pfizer confirming the efficacy of the vaccine in the immunocompromised, the elderly and the other at-risk groups? Can the Minister clarify the number of cases of Covid-19 that are announced each evening and if these include asymptomatic cases? Furthermore, can the Minister provide a breakdown of how many of these cases are infectious at the time of testing?

The Central Statistics Office, CSO, figures show that in the first nine months of the pandemic, there were 876 more deaths than in 2019. The data also show us the neglect of the HSE in dealing with our people in residential care settings. This problem within care homes has not gone away. What lessons have we learned from the first lockdown? To make the same mistake going forward is unforgivable. The restrictions of these lockdowns will not have any impact on the delivery of a vaccine, yet there is a message to the public that the better we behave, the quicker it will all be over. The Government, NPHET and the HSE need to tell the Irish people the truth on what they really mean by living with Covid-19.