Tomás Ryan: Children are still at the starting line in the race against Delta variantVaccination of our teenage population alone will take some months, so in the meantime we must do everything to protect our young people from the effects of Covid-19
Tomás Ryan: A fourth wave of Covid is not inevitable – it’s a choiceWe can turn this around, and it doesn’t have to mean living in lockdown for most of the year. It means learning from successful counties and pushing Covid cases down to low numbers
Tomás Ryan: Who’s afraid of zero-Covid? Our government, that’s whoThere is robust support among the public for an elimination strategy to kill off the virus, yet Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael keep resisting it in favour of half-measures and wishful thinking
Tomás Ryan: Living with the virus has failed: we must fight it with all we’ve gotWe can make this third lockdown our last by aggressively suppressing the virus, serially testing healthcare workers and enforcing meaningful international travel quarantine. But will we?
Tomás Ryan: Travel is the weak link in our battle to defend ourselves against CovidWe‘re proving good at lockdown, but it will all be for nothing if we don’t become good at enforcing travel restrictions
It’s the virus that kills the economy, stupidComment: It’s not just restrictions, but fear and uncertainty created by high case numbers, that wreak havoc on all pillars of our society
A ‘one size fits all’ approach is not what the country needsInstead of constantly firefighting the virus and relying on a one-size fits all approach, a graded system of alerts that could be implemented on a regional basis should aim to suppress the virus as much as possible
Tomás Ryan: Defeating the virus is a race against timeTesting and tracing are our best tools against the spread of Covid-19, but we urgently need to accelerate and streamline the process
Tomas Ryan: Let’s do all we can to keep Covid-19 at bay in schoolsWe will have to tread carefully with this month’s reopening, and learn lessons from the experience in other countries
Analysis: We need a new strategy to beat Covid-19Suppression and mitigation are not good enough when it comes to the coronavirus. We must aim for elimination
Tomás Ryan: Of all Covid-19’s many impacts, its brain attack may be most troublingThe disease can damage several organs, but its possible neurological effects are perhaps the most complex and disturbing
Tomás Ryan: Health versus the economy is a false dichotomyPitting one against the other makes no sense, because they are tied together on the same side of the scales
Tomás Ryan: In the fight against Covid-19, the metre debate is only the startThe physical distancing issue is an important one – but it is not the only variable to consider, and our public health guidelines must reflect the many nuances and complexities