‘It should have been mandatory from the start’: Ireland says people should wear masks in shops to stop COVID-19 – but why did it take so long?

Under an agreement reached in June, Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin took over as giant, as Irish Prime Minister, from Fine Gael leader Leo Varadkar until 2022. It is a polite, if not perfect, game of musical chairs. maintain stability in turbulent times.

It was like a minority coalition with 43.1% of the vote together, like a coalition with the left-wing Sinn Féin party, which received 24.5% of the vote in the February general election, and the life began as the political arm and / or voice of the Irish Republican Army, a terrorist organization.

What does all this have to do with coronavirus? The nation’s legislators have, perhaps more than usual, been concerned about not upsetting this delicate balance of power and / or calling on the public by making sudden movements or missteps as the nation turns from the economic effects of the pandemic. .

Six months after the first case of COVID-19 in Ireland was confirmed, the government finally decided to ban the wearing of face masks in stores. As of Monday, people risk a fine of up to € 2,500 ($ 2,947) or six months in prison. Before that, the government had only issued an opinion.

Schools also reopened in September. The government has recommended that all high school teachers and students wear face masks if a distance of 2 meters cannot be maintained. However, this remains an advisory rather than an enforcement measure.

Speaking at a press conference at Dublin Castle, Martin said of the new shopping policy: “As we have seen with face-to-face coverage of public transport and the many other requests made by citizens in the wake of the pandemic: When people get a clear direction they follow it. ”

More on the pandemic: If every American today started wearing a face mask, this is how many lives can be saved

‘Enormous level of compliance’

Martin’s comments may suggest that his previous “advice” was net a clear direction and people did net follow it. Yet Justice Minister Helen McEntee complimented people on their “enormous level of compliance.” But that depends on what store you are visiting, and how you define “enormous”.

In June, the Irish government advised people to wear masks in shops. If you want to wear a mask? Be our guest. Beat yourself out. Help stop the spread of coronavirus and protect the health of the sales assistants in the store, but he or she may not even have a face mask.

And if you do not want to wear a mask? OK then. You risk wearing an eye roll of a disgruntled mask with mask, which – depending on your perspective – suffers from “mask anger” or just trying to get everyone to work as a team, so we get this without spike in new cases.

And so life goes on in Ireland. In fact, it would be hard for you to notice that there is – or is – a potentially deadly virus. If you listen closely, you might hear music from a house party or two. Bad people wear masks on the street. Some do in stores, but not all.

Even if there was an “enormous level of compliance”, it does not account for the costs paid by those who are subject to non-compliance by other people. Facial coatings are primarily worn to stop the asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic carrier from spreading the virus unconsciously.

As Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the American National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for three decades and an expert on infectious diseases for four decades, told this reporter in an interview last month, “If half the people do not , it ignores that kind of purpose. ”

More about the pandemic:Why are some people asymptomatic with coronavirus – and what makes them so contagious?

“Are you not wearing a mask?”

“It should have been mandatory from the beginning, lives could be saved,” said Elizabeth O’Connor, a homeowner of 40 things in Dublin. “I think a lot of people have had COVID without knowing it and have probably spread it to others because they did not wear masks.”

“An apparently high percentage of our teens, 20-somethings and 30-somethings think they are bullet proof and out of their behavior and have little concern for the more vulnerable in our society who may become ill with COVID with severe consequences,” says se.

The advice on the mask led to inconvenience, including this small vignette outside a pharmacy in Donnybrook, a thriving and loving suburb of Dublin. An agitated senior woman in a mask asked a middle-aged father with his young daughter (both mask-free): “Are you not wearing a mask?”

Except when he was performing some sort of black magic, it was 100% clear that this man was net wearing a mask, and he was not happy that he was asked about the fact that he chose not to wear one. ‘I forgot,’ he replied, without making eye contact. The conversation did not end there.

Three minutes later, he was still dealing with anecdotes about how people did not wear masks in supermarkets, and what a cheek they had by not doing so. “I can not believe some people!” said the woman from behind her mask. (When he read this, by “some people”, she meant you.)

Johns Hopkins University ranks Ireland as No. 15 in the world on a list of COVID-related deaths per head: 36.5 per 100,000 with a case death rate of 6.7%. For comparison, US ranks at no. 12 with a death rate of 49.6 per 100,000 and a case mortality of 3.2%.

On Sunday evening, the government said there had been 1,772 COVID-related deaths in Ireland, with 68 additional cases confirmed, bringing the total number of infections here to at least 26,712. That, as with all such tallies, is not responsible for most asymptomatic cases.

Ireland has also recorded one of the highest rates of COVID-related deaths in nursing homes in the world, according to a report released in June. Some 62% of deaths due to the virus occurred in nursing homes, a rate was only higher than COVID-related deaths in nursing homes in Canada.

More about the pandemic:Fauci tells Americans to be aware of these important restrictions on all future coronavirus vaccines

‘Still so many will ask so much of such a couple’

And it all seemed to start so well. Varadkar, the former Taoist leader, issued a scathing call for arms on March 17. “Still, so many will ask so much of such a couple,” he said in a televised address, appearing to pay tribute to a speech by Alderman-Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

To help awaken the patriotic duty of the public, Varadkar used March 17 to beg the people of Ireland to stay at home. March 17 is St. Patrick’s Day, a national holiday to celebrate the patron saint of the country who, according to legend, drove out all the snakes from Ireland sometime in the 5th century.

St. Patrick, a Christian missionary, was at the time something of a lockdown himself. He was on a 40-day hardship when he was allegedly attacked by snakes. Because he was so rudely interrupted, he chased them into the sea. (It’s apocryphal, of course. Snakes have never lived on this island.)

Back to the summer of 2020: Varadkar chose net to introduce the nationwide lockdown until March 27th. People were allowed to leave the house after shopping and exercising within 2 miles of home, and the Irish – not known to always play by the rules – followed for the most part.

Why the 10-day delay between the March 17 speech and the save? It could be the same reason that it took six months to implement a mandatory policy for face mask: Political oscillation. Sketchy politicians are quick to take the temperature of the public, and are notoriously reluctant to rock the proverbial boat.

But flattening the curve of new cases does not mean you have beaten the virus. Ireland, which is currently in Phase 3 of the country’s reopening, imposed travel restrictions last Saturday in Kildare, Offaly and Laois, three counties the heart of the country, due to a rise in cases there.

‘This will come as a blow to pub owners’

The lesson from all this unwillingness to take swift action? Listen to scientists – not politicians. COVID-19 is highly contagious. That’s why nearly 20 million people worldwide test positive, a figure that does not account for the number of people who are pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic.

Across the Atlantic, New York Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo, who has the epicenter of the virus in the U.S., put power in the hands of business owners by issuing an executive order in May to businesses. allow to refuse permission to anyone without a face mask.

New Yorkers – as well as St. Patrick – looked into the proverbial belly of the beast, remembering how horrible it was now to give each other space on the street and, yes, six feet apart in the supermarket. Even in Central Park, most people wear round masks.

To be honest, the Irish government has made other bold decisions: In its speech to announce the mandatory mask shopping policy, Martin said pubs, bars, hotel bars and nightclubs will remain closed. “I know this will hit pub owners,” he said.

Cafes serving food in Ireland – less than half of them – are currently only open with table service: there is usually no standing at the bar or walking away from your table. You must reserve in advance, enjoy food and drink and leave after exactly one and three quarters of an hour.

Martin’s late assessment of masks, for this Irish born New Yorker, is still welcome. De fir agus mná na hÉireann – the men and women of Ireland – awakened on Monday to another rule. The mysterious masked woman outside that pharmacy in Donnybrook should be happy.

Martin, meanwhile, took to heart St. Patrick’s question to overcome snakes in his recent speech on the dangers of coronavirus. “It remains as virulent as ever,” he said, adding, “as dangerous as it is, we have shown we can beat it. Each of us has the power to suppress it.”

This essay is part of a MarketWatch series, ‘Dispatches from a Pandemic.’