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The Health Service Executive has said that he “dissociates himself and rejects” comments made by a senior doctor who said that Covid-19 is less serious than the annual flu and that draconian restrictions are no longer required to contain it.
The claims, made by Dr. Martin Feeley, were reported by The Irish Times.
Dr Feeley, clinical director of the Dublin Midlands Hospital Group, said that the measures taken by the government made sense at the time, but given what is now known about the virus, they are no longer necessary.
He said people at low risk of contracting the virus should be allowed to be exposed to it, which would allow the country to build herd immunity, thereby protecting vulnerable groups.
Dr. Feeley said that any measure to contain the virus must take into account people’s quality of life and that the restrictions have disproportionately affected young people.
In response to The Irish Times report, HSE Clinical Director Dr Colm Henry said: “For the avoidance of any doubt, the position expressed by Dr Feeley in the Irish Times today is not HSE’s position on this. important topic “.
An HSE statement added: “WHO declared a COVID-19 pandemic on March 11.
“There have been more than 28 million cases and 900,000 deaths worldwide, many of them among older and vulnerable populations.
“This is a new coronavirus for which there is currently no cure or vaccine and against which our population has no immunity.
“Herd immunity to an infectious disease occurs when a sufficient proportion of the population develops sustained immunity, either through vaccination or previous infection.
“Relying on infection, as we now know, has the power to overwhelm health care systems and cause large-scale illness and death, particularly in vulnerable populations.
“According to the WHO, the threshold for establishing herd immunity is not yet clear.
“The duration of immunity after infection is also not known. The most effective way to protect older people and vulnerable groups is not to wait for them to protect themselves, but rather for everyone to adhere to the public health advice that they will limit the transmission of the virus between individuals and homes. “
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The World Health Organization says that data to date suggests that 80% of Covid-19 infections are mild or asymptomatic, 15% are serious oxygen-requiring infections, and 5% are critical and require ventilation.
Generally, you must be 15 minutes or more close to and within two meters of an infected person to be considered at risk or in close contact.
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