Boris Johnson Playing Fast And Loose With Irish Lives
Éirígí spokesperson Breandán Mac Cionnaith has accused Boris Johnson of playing ‘fast and loose’ with tens of thousands of Irish lives. Mac Cionnaith’s comments came as Johnson finally moved to close schools, colleges, pubs, restaurants, gyms and other venues across Britain and occupied Ireland.
Mac Cionnaith said, “The decision to close schools and social venues in the Six Counties comes a full eight days after all childcare facilities, schools and third level educational facilities were shut in the Twenty-Six Counties and five days after social venues were closed.
When you are dealing with a virus that is spreading exponentially, like Covid-19, every hour of delay will be measured in additional illness and additional deaths.
The refusal to close schools and introduce other social distancing measures until now is part of Johnson’s strategy to achieve ‘herd immunity’ against a virus that was completely new to science three months ago.
The British government don’t know the mortality rate of Covid-19. Nor do they know if those who recover from Covid-19 gain permanent immunity from it. Nor do they know the long-term health implications for people who have recovered from the virus.
Despite all of these knowledge gaps Johnson willingly and deliberately facilitated the spread of Covid-19 to ensure that it gained a strong foothold in multiple communities across England, Wales, Scotland and here in occupied Ireland.
Despite criticisms from the World Health Organisation and hundreds of British scientists Johnson refused to take any meaningful measure to slow the transmission of Covid-19 until this week. Because of his inaction the NHS is now going to be hit with a massive surge of Covid-19 cases that may overwhelm it.
Johnson isn’t just being reckless with the lives of the British people. He is also playing fast and loose with Irish lives in both the Six and Twenty-Six Counties. All of the effort that people are making across Ireland to slow the spread of Covid-19 are being significantly undermined by the British government.
Covid-19 doesn’t recognise or respect borders. We need an all-Ireland strategy to slow the spread of Covid-19 across the island to prevent the HSE and NHS becoming overwhelmed with seriously and critically ill patients. At all costs that doomsday scenario must be avoided.
The Dublin government have a responsibility for the 1.8m Irish people that live in the Six Counties. They cannot allow us to be used as guinea pigs in an insane Boris Johnson experiment. They must use all of their influence to deliver a single all-Ireland strategy against Covid-19.
And if necessary they must provide financial, medical and other practical support to all Irish people, regardless of what side of the border they live in.”