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Ireland is in much worse position than people think…

Written by Joerg Steegmueller

The number of infected people is steadily growing again for the last two months or so. In Ireland this is happening despite the very high vaccination rate of well above 90% of the adult population and the only answer that doctors and politicians have, is to insist that people have to show their vaccination certificates and that they should get vaccinated more.

Vaccinations clearly help with SOMETHING as the number of deaths is lower than previously. But people can only die once. So when the people that were in the highest danger of dying from Covid are dead, then they can’t die a second time and naturally, the death rate will drop. Based on the infection numbers we see, it seems that the 90+% vaccination rate is possibly having much less an impact on that metric than people were told it would have.

On 04 Nov, the daily infections was reported as 3024 new cases (www.rte.ie/news/coronavirus/2021/1104/1257803-covid-ireland/), that is a small number if you compare to the world and there are many people in Ireland who don’t think this number is a cause of worry. But let’s put it in perspective!

Ireland is TINY, so therefore the numbers are small-ish. Ireland has 5,011,588 inhabitants. Germany has 84,142,708 inhabitants. That is a factor 16.79.

In Germany the authorities are close to panic station, because today 34,000 new cases were reported and RTE (possibly with some level of glee) reported the news here www.rte.ie/news/coronavirus/2021/1104/1257971-covid-transmission-europe/

3,024 vs 34,000 seems very clear! Ireland: good! Germany: Bad!

But let’s look at the real figures. With Germany being 16.79 times the size of Ireland. this would mean that Ireland – if it was the size of Germany – would have reported 50,370 new cases. FIFTY THOUSAND!

So now, how does the comparison look like?

Germany-sized Ireland: 50,370 vs Germany-sized Germany: 34,000

Anybody still think Ireland is in a good position?

Corona Virus, Covid-19, Elsewhere, Overexaggerations, ,

Total ban of “single-use” bags? Don’t overdo it!

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Total ban of “single-use” bags? Don’t overdo it!

We (hopefully) all know about the environmental problems plastic causes. We see regularly pictures and read reports about animals that were interfered with by getting caught in or swallowing items made of plastic. The plan is to forbid forks and knives, straws and plates and cups made of plastic and while there is a lot of sense in some of this, there is the possibility to go overboard a bit in an over-exaggerated “we have to do something” drive.

Ireland was one of the earlier countries to charge for the use of plastic bags and in the meantime MANY countries caught up or even did better by forbidding certain type of plastic bags. But at a visit in Germany a few months ago, I came across a situation that showed me that we really can overdo it!

I was in a middle sized town and had a look at some shops without any clear intent to buy something. C&A, a big clothes shop, was also there and I went inside to have a look. They are known for good quality for low prices. Not as low as Penney’s, but still very competitive. And while having a look around, I found a T-Shirt that I really liked and one or two other items that looked great and were at the right price.

So I went to the till and pushed the clothes across the counter to pay. The employee behind the counter scanned the labels of the three items and pushed them back to me. :-O I looked at her in a quizzical way and she said “Oh, do you need a bag?” I said “Do you have a paper bag?” Her reply: “No, we don’t do paper bags, but you can buy a plastic bag.” :-O :-O

I had no interest in using a plastic bag, but I also didn’t want to walk out of the shop with three pieces of clothing clenched under my arm just because I hadn’t pre-planned the purchase and therefore didn’t bring my own bag!!

Is it too much to ask to get at least the flimsiest of paper bags to put your purchases in if you go clothes shopping? C&A also sells suits and evening dresses. Would you not think that it is in the interest of the shop to provide customers with basic means to bring their garments home unblemished?

I am all in favour of protecting the environment, but that experience did annoy me quite a bit. I could have bought a plastic bag, but I decided not to (for environmental reasons), so I DID walk out of the shop with three items of clothing clenched under my arm. :-O

Elsewhere, Environment, , , ,
 
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