# RTE report that Ireland has had the highest number of healthcare workers infected by Covid ?



## Prosper (23 Jun 2020)

Is this possible? Reported on the 6 o'clock News and not corrected on 9 o'clock News. It seems to me that RTE have a tendency to put info about Covid and the governments handling of it in the worst light. Obviously they should have reported it as the highest "rate" not "number".


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## odyssey06 (23 Jun 2020)

Link to the Journal. It is a claim by the INMO general secretary, who further claims it was due to HSE policy and supplies of masks and PPEs.









						'An absolute scandal': Ireland has the highest Covid infection rate for healthcare workers in the world, committee told
					

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar this evening suggested that the figures provided by the INMO were wrong.




					www.thejournal.ie


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## Prosper (23 Jun 2020)

odyssey06 said:


> Link to the Journal. It is a claim by the INMO general secretary, who further claims it was due to HSE policy and supplies of masks and PPEs.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Yes but she said "rate" and RTE headlined (twice) with "number".


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## Protocol (24 Jun 2020)

Prosper said:


> Is this possible? Reported on the 6 o'clock News and not corrected on 9 o'clock News. It seems to me that RTE have a tendency to put info about Covid and the governments handling of it in the worst light. Obviously they should have reported it as the highest "rate" not "number".



It is a false statement.



			https://twitter.com/higginsdavidw/status/1275542336714539008


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## Protocol (24 Jun 2020)

A detailed reply:



			https://twitter.com/Care2much18/status/1275513651319975936


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## Drakon (24 Jun 2020)

Leo said the figures provided to him were lower.


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## Purple (24 Jun 2020)

odyssey06 said:


> Link to the Journal. It is a claim by the INMO general secretary, who further claims it was due to HSE policy and supplies of masks and PPEs.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


These are the same people who keep coming up with the nonsense figures about people on trolleys in A&E. Unions in general, and the INMO in particular, telling lies in order to further their own ends shouldn't be a surprise to anyone.


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## odyssey06 (24 Jun 2020)

In 12 months time I wouldn't be surprised though to see an avalanche of injury claims to the hse from workers claiming  negligence etc on this policy and lack of masks.


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## Sunny (24 Jun 2020)

Whatever about the figures, it is hard to explain why it took so long for masks to be mandatory in healthcare settings. Especially if they made it a discipline issue when someone wore one. As Odyssey06 says above, I think we better set aside some money.


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## Leper (24 Jun 2020)

Some weeks ago the Conservative government in the UK offered £60,000 "compensation" to the family of each healthcare worker who died as a result of the coronavirus.  Many families stated that this amount was too small etc. Dear ol' Ireland better brace itself there may be many compensation claims lodged in the near future.

On a lesser point, the medical profession has been on the receiving end of much litigation for years. The profession now has the ball at its feet, believe me, they'll use it.


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## Purple (24 Jun 2020)

Sunny said:


> Whatever about the figures, it is hard to explain why it took so long for masks to be mandatory in healthcare settings. Especially if they made it a discipline issue when someone wore one. As Odyssey06 says above, I think we better set aside some money.


You'd think that trained healthcare "professionals" would know that they should wear PPE without it being made mandatory. If the PPE wasn't available that's a different matter.


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## Sunny (24 Jun 2020)

Purple said:


> You'd think that trained healthcare "professionals" would know that they should wear PPE without it being made mandatory. If the PPE wasn't available that's a different matter.



Yeah I know. I don't know the full story but she told a story how one worker was subject to discipline procedures for wearing a mask and was told it wasn't HSE policy. I presume she was wearing it a general health setting rather than looking after COVID patients but again we are hearing one side I suppose.


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## Purple (24 Jun 2020)

I find the story as presented by the Ms. Ní Sheaghdha hard to believe as the facts that can be verified have been shown to be totally false.


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## Prosper (24 Jun 2020)

Prosper said:


> Is this possible? Reported on the 6 o'clock News and not corrected on 9 o'clock News. It seems to me that RTE have a tendency to put info about Covid and the governments handling of it in the worst light. Obviously they should have reported it as the highest "rate" not "number".


The original post was to do with poor journalism in RTE.  How they could headline on the 6.01  and then repeat what could be described as willfully bad journalism three hours later on the 9 o'clock News headlining with _*"The INMO said today it was a scandal that Ireland has the highest number of healthcare workers infected with corona virus in the world"*_. Then an RTE journalist said _*"Today the Special Committee on Covid-19 heard that Ireland had the highest number of healthcare workers infected with the virus in the world"*_. What the INMO General Secretary actually said was _*"Ireland has the highest number of infection rates among healthcare workers globally and that is an absolute scandal in our view"*_. If she's right then it is a scandal that we have the highest "rate" in the world. However the rubbish that was said and reported during the Cervical Smear controversy would make me very cautious.
I'm reminded of the appalling quality of journalism in the reporting of the Cervical Smear debacle where a lot of the reporting gave the impression that a smear test was a diagnostic test ; repeatedly labelling false negatives as errors or mistakes when it is accepted internationally that 30% of smear tests result in false negatives and worst of all reporting in a way that gave the impression that there were many women diagnosed with cancer who were not told they had cancer. This resulted in the head of the cervical smear programme and the boss of the HSE resigning and resulted in bad decisions by a government put on the back foot by all this poor and biased reporting. The narrow taxpayer base will be footing the bill and it looks likely that the same will be the case when the Covid-19 pandemic is over.


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