Covid-19: Let’s stop pretending we can be New Zealand

Elimination of coronavirus in Ireland is a fantasy. It is a dream that will not be achieved in the immediate future. There are calls for Ireland to adopt a New Zealand model, but New Zealand is not a part of the European Union, and it does not share a common border with Northern Ireland. This model will not work for Ireland.

Advocates of this model are calling for strict quarantine and testing for all who return to Ireland. But they fail to come up with a detailed plan. Who is in charge of testing at the airport (there currently is none)? How do we patrol our borders between the North and South?

Why pretend we can be New Zealand and 'eliminate Covid-19' where it is very clear we must 'minimise' the virus and live with it safely

We have focused on the returning traveller, which represents the minority of new coronavirus cases in Ireland, and have spent our energies over the summer weeks discussing red lists and green lists, and green lists that are not really green lists.

We have chosen a different plan than the EU, which really makes no sense because we are part of the EU, and have a shared border with the United Kingdom, and it would seem sensible and practical to share best practice with our neighbours. A green list was to be put together so we could move forward safely with opening up our economy, allowing Irish to travel and return safely. And for international business to succeed. The term “non-essential” travel has never been defined by the Irish Government. Our current plan is not implementable.

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Why pretend we can be New Zealand and “eliminate Covid-19” where it is very clear we must “‘minimise” the virus and live with it safely. Dr Michael Ryan, from the World Health Organisation’s Health Emergencies Programme group, has recently announced that “elimination” of the virus is not a realistic plan.

It is imperative we move quickly with our plans and make quick decisions. We need a detailed plan at every step of our journey, involving representation from every “stakeholder” who is affected by coronavirus, for Ireland to live safely with this virus. In the last week new outbreaks of the virus were reported in New Zealand which were not clearly travel related, but may represent coronavirus transmission within New Zealand, from one New Zealander to another. Let’s get over the New Zealand model and develop our own realistic and detailed Irish plan.

We need our Ministers to return as soon as possible to work, to support their portfolios on moving forward with a detailed plan on how to reopen our country and to move forward and safely live with the virus. For example, rather than pointing fingers at Ryanair who is being accused by some of “thinking only of profit”, we need the Ministers with the portfolio for travel and industry to work with our travel industry to restart this economy safely.

We cannot continue to bankroll those who are out of work indefinitely on borrowed monies. We need to work with public and private sectors to ensure we can safely live with the virus. Safety is about physical, mental, and financial health. We need to start generating incomes safely, and this requires a detailed coronavirus prevention plan, and Governmental-supported programmes to resource all sectors of society to successfully re start.

So what does the future bring? Scaremongering about “dangers of travel” and dangers of a new surge of the virus like we had in February and March 2020 in Ireland, are, in my opinion, not accurate. Will we surge again like we did four months ago? I do not think so. We are much better prepared than we were back then. We will continue to have coronavirus “blips”, similar to most other countries in the world. We may need to develop regional strategies and adjust our plans based on new clusters.

We need to allow non-EU countries with a good coronavirus record to travel in and out of Ireland

These clusters keep flaring up month after month, and we need to fix the problems that are creating these clusters, not just close down the offending sites. Best practice will require that Ireland commits to chase this virus over the next few years. Despite reports of vaccines on the horizon, these reports in the press represent early stage studies of these vaccines and there is no guarantee they will be successful.

We need compliance on the part of the citizens of Ireland to accept all necessary coronavirus prevention measures and to follow these measures to the letter of the law. We need strong media messages supported by the Government targeting special groups: for example youth and young adults, to get them to “buy into” coronavirus prevention, and make them personally responsible and educate them on the consequences of their failure to comply, not punish them when they fail to comply. A proactive and not a reactive plan.

We need ownership by our governmental organisations to deal with the virus, to eliminate unnecessary bureaucracy, to work with partners at all levels to develop a very detailed plan to live safely with the virus. Our economy is failing, and there are safe ways to restart and scale up and start generating an income. Every week of delays sees more businesses failing. Every week of delays sees patients showing up to emergency rooms with psychiatric problems, attending GPs for substance misuse problems, as a function of their difficulties in coping with current problems precipitated by the virus.

This is a very dangerous virus, as we all know. We have already wasted too much time by comparing ourselves to New Zealand. We are interdependent on the EU and the UK and we need to work together, not in isolation. We need to allow non-EU countries with a good coronavirus record to travel in and out of Ireland. We need to have a robust screening plan at the airports and our borders which include selective coronavirus testing. We need to collectively work out an Irish plan that permits us to safely move forward. Our medical and economic health are interdependent.

Dr Jack Lambert is professor of medicine and infectious diseases, Mater and UCD School of Medicine