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A senior doctor from the Health Services Executive (HSE) resigned just days after criticizing the “draconian” anti-Covid-19 restrictions.
Dr Martin Feeley’s views that the coronavirus is “much less severe” than the flu for most people and that the restrictions were no longer justified were all the rage after they were reported in The Irish Times last weekend. .
The HSE actively disassociated itself from his comments and rejected his suggestion that young people should be allowed to contract the virus to develop herd immunity.
Dr Feeley (70) resigned from his position as clinical director of the Dublin Midlands Hospital Group on Tuesday with immediate effect.
Following his public comments, he came under heavy pressure from HSE management, who told him that his position was untenable.
A physician for more than 45 years and a health service employee for 30 years, Dr. Feeley says he supports his comments, but decided to resign so that the leadership of his hospital group would not be penalized.
He had argued that people at low risk of contracting the virus should be exposed to it so that they can develop herd immunity and reduce the risk for vulnerable groups.
“Experience has taught us that vulnerable and at-risk people can be identified with remarkable precision; and the measures of protection, hygiene, masks, social distancing and cocoon are effective ”.
‘Hysteria’
Deploring the financial cost and quality-of-life impact of the pandemic, he said that the media coverage “borders on hysteria” and said the impact of obesity on outcomes was greatly underestimated.
As clinical director in his hospital group, Dr. Feeley was centrally involved in efforts to improve clinical services at Portlaoise hospital, which had been criticized in several reports of infant deaths in his maternity unit.
However, efforts to reconfigure services in the region were hampered by political opposition to any changes that might affect the hospital.
In response to your comments last Saturday, the HSE highlighted the large number of cases and deaths worldwide and their potential to overwhelm healthcare systems.
“According to the WHO, the threshold for establishing herd immunity is not yet clear. The duration of immunity after infection is also not known, ”said HSE Clinical Director Dr. Colm Henry.
The estimated death rate for Covid-19 is 10 times that of seasonal flu, four leading TCD scientists noted, adding that herd immunity would cause “substantially more” illness and death from the virus in the Irish population.
“It would also be practically impossible to protect vulnerable people, as a large proportion, up to one in three, of the Irish population is in a high-risk group,” they said in a letter to this newspaper.
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