Brendan Hoban: Thank God for NPHET

We should be thanking God for Nphet

Western People July 13^th 2021

When James Geoghegan, the Fine Gael candidate in the recent Dublin Bay South byelection, was asked during a candidates’ debate on RTÉ’s Week in Politics programme for a comment on the reopening of indoor drinking and dining, he responded: ‘The idea that we are shut to September is an outrageous suggestion’ and argued that antigen testing must play a part in the reopening of society.

Geoghegan, a politician, in the throes of a by-election campaign, in which he was neck-and neck with joint-favourite Ivana Bacik, was making a pitch for support. The last thing he wanted to do was to alienate any cadre of voters, least of all that burgeoning constituency of middle-class Ireland who like to eat out most of the time and that even greater constituency of Irish drinkers who need a pub environment to enjoy their alcoholic tipple.

Context, of course, is everything. I suspect that most listeners on hearing a politician on the make endorsing a twin populist anthem – reopening pubs and supporting antigen testing – would have thought to themselves, as Mandy Rice Davis famously said in a very different context, ‘Well, he would say that, wouldn’t he?’

Geoghegan was deliberately endorsing the most popular side of an ongoing public debate – should we reopen society, specifically the present twin sticking points of wet pubs and restaurants.

On one side is Nphet, the National Public Health Emergency Team, who urge caution in view of the spectacular number of estimated Covid cases – possibly 2,000 a day in four weeks’ time – in the expected aggressive wave of the new Delta variant during July and August. And Nphet is not convinced by the wisdom of antigen testing.

On the other side are the voices of those who are demanding that society (and the economy) reopen. Both sides seek to justify their conflicting aims.

Nphet argues from a mathematical or scientific perspective. Their ‘modelling’ has been eerily accurate so far in the predictions that have emerged from the application of their highly regarded academic and professional expertise. Their focus is on public health. And they’re not convinced that antigen testing is safe or reliable. Others point to the economic argument, the damage being caused to the economy, the debts accruing, the businesses and jobs lost, the mental health legacy of the lockdowns and so on. The antigen test, they point out, is in widespread use outside Ireland.

While heretofore, Nphet was in the driving seat with a huge and undisputed reputation for care, calm, caution and public responsibility with Dr Tony Holohan, the Chief Medical Officer, in particular being held in the highest regard, the tide is now turning.

A continuous public voicing of unease, impatience, frustration, resentment and sometimes anger has created a populist wave being surfed by self-interested parties who are challenging the previous public confidence in Nphet’s analysis and advice. A number of factors has given momentum to the anti-Nphet campaign: doubt has been cast on the Nphet projections and demands presented for an independent assessment of them; publicans are now demanding that Nphet attend their meetings with the government; Ryanair and a pilot’s group are lecturing Nphet on the virtues of antigen testing; and Dr Holohan has been subjected to such abusive attacks by self-interested groups that the Minister for Health has had to defend him.

Throwing more petrol on the anti-Nphet fire are a number of groups with their own agendas who claim that Nphet is unfairly targeting them. These include church groups unhappy that important family occasions – First Communions, Confirmations, Baptisms – are not given special consideration in view of the exceptional efforts to sanitise churches and to implement the official protocols. But, as the government has continually reminded church authorities, the problem, for example with First Communions, is not what happens in the church but the gatherings for the now standard party from all corners of Ireland. The plain and simple fact is that while church authorities can control the ceremony, the party is something else altogether. Hence, the danger.

That advice and direction from the government, Nphet, the Chief Medical Officer and the HSE has been clear and consistent from the very beginning and is only adjusted when the science indicates a lessening of the danger of contracting the virus. That seems sensible and responsible, particularly now in the context of the expected (and inevitable) increase in the numbers contracting the aggressive Delta variant.

It was disappointing to say the least that from the outset of the pandemic, church authorities didn’t immediately and consistently urge the adoption of the government protocols for the common good and, not give credibility to the vested interests by joining an ever-lengthening queue of groups who requested and sometimes demanded precedence. I’ve argued here before that if the church had adopted that stance it would have given prophetic witness to a central tenet of our Christian faith – the importance of sacrifice for the common good and for public health.

Common sense demanded that First Communions and Confirmations could be postponed indefinitely and that the fall-out from that necessary decision – disappointment of children, cancellation of parties, buying of outfits, etc. – though all important and enjoyable in terms of faith and family, were not cumulatively more important than the loss of life to Covid.

The trouble with interest groups arguing their own individual cases is that they lose sight of the larger picture. It’s sad, without using a stronger word for it, that Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh, the putative head of the Catholic Church on this island, felt that the manner of the announcement of the recent postponement of Communions and Confirmations disrespected Catholics and that he was’ extremely disappointed’ with ‘the cavalier approach to communication’ from the authorities.

If over 50 years ago Cardinal Josef Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) recognised that in a different world the Catholic Church would ‘lose many of her social privileges’, after the misery of scandals and reports over the last three decades in Ireland, it defies belief that some Catholic Church leaders are still demanding precedence and ‘respect’.

As if the authorities hadn’t more to think about.

Instead of criticising Taoiseach Martin, Tánaiste Varadkar, Dr Holohan, Nphet and other authorities for imagined slights to our self-importance, we should be on our knees thanking God that key decisions over health and life are in such sure and responsible hands – rather than with chancers like Boris Johnson.

 

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