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Public health experts are not toasting the government’s go-ahead for the “wet” pubs to reopen.
“I am surprised by the decision as the number of cases is increasing and the medical director is warning people in Dublin and Limerick to be especially vigilant,” says Professor Ivan Perry, dean of the school of public health at University College Cork .
“I am also skeptical. Now is not the time to open pubs. Given the close contact, the noise, the indoor environment, the loss of inhibition with alcohol, the general uproar, these are ideal places for the virus to flourish.
Professor Perry said he understood the economic urgency behind the move to reopen pubs, but warned that the move could result in “a false economy.”
“You just have to look across the Atlantic to see what happens when you are in a wild rush to reopen the economy early. We may not have rushed things, but we have rigged them. “
A minority of pubs that serve food did not comply with current regulations, he notes. “Only small amounts are needed with this virus and you run the risk of over-spreading events.”
Dr Tomas Ryan, from Trinity College Dublin’s School of Biochemistry and Immunology, said he could not understand the rationale for the government’s decision, “even if the number of cases is not currently increasing.”
“We are opening three things at the same time: schools, universities and now pubs, so it will be very difficult to untangle trends, to know what action caused what increase in cases.”
It’s only been three weeks since public health officials implemented the latest set of measures, he noted, and therefore it is too early to see how they are working. “We are doing many things at the same time, so it will be difficult to determine the result.”
Given current trends, it might have been better if the government had waited until October and then relaxed restrictions on the county-by-county sector, he suggested.
“It feels like we’re speeding the ship toward the iceberg when we may need to tilt our direction so we don’t point directly at it.”
NUI Maynooth immunologist Professor Paul Moynagh said decisions to be made about lifting or imposing restrictions should be “driven by data.” This would consider the number of outbreaks related to particular environments and would be based on the assumption that there is always some risk involved.
“I haven’t seen any data to suggest that pubs that have been serving food were major sources of outbreaks,” he said.
While he suggested that early summer, when transmission levels were low and schools were closed, it might have been the right time to reopen pubs, he asked, “When will there be a right time? We cannot let the virus rule our lives forever, so we will have to learn to live with it. “
However, the situation was different for nightclubs, he emphasized, and they should remain closed.
As of late August, there were only two outbreaks in hotels and five in pubs, and all of these investigations were closed, according to the HSE. Investigations of five cafe / restaurant outbreaks remain open.
Professor Sam McConkey said the idea is fine if implemented under strict rules and in a cooperative and physically detached way.
That meant outside or in groups of six or less, more than six feet apart, “sitting, very limited households together, only table service, customers wearing masks coming and going and moving to the bathroom, and waiters wearing face masks.” . he said.
“There should also be open ventilation, no singing screams and low or no community levels of Sars 2 circulating.”
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