A chara, – The "awful boo-boo" made by Minister for Health Simon Harris in relation to the number of coronaviruses prior to Covid-19 was worrying for a couple of reasons ("Simon Harris sorry for 'awful boo-boo' about 18 viruses before Covid-19", News, April 23rd).
This wasn’t a simple slip of the tongue. He clearly and confidently stated that there had been 18 coronaviruses prior to this one – even going on to say that there hadn’t been a vaccine to any of those supposed 18 coronaviruses. He apparently only became aware of the actual number of previous coronaviruses when Dr Tony Holohan corrected his mistake at his briefing.
Nearly four months into what has become a global pandemic, the Minister for Health – the person charged with overseeing the response of the health service to this virus – went on national radio and gave out wildly inaccurate information. Not only that, but the misinformation he disseminated had the potential to increase the level the of fear and worry associated with Covid-19.
The second worrying aspect is the apparently soft time Simon Harris has received for this massive blunder. The Irish media has often engaged in what can only be described as schadenfreude when government representatives from other countries – particularly the United Kingdom – have made less serious errors than that of Mr Harris. Yet he displays an alarming lack of knowledge about a virus that is devastating lives all around the world, and his self-deprecating "silly me" approach seems to have earned him a free pass.
The Fourth Estate has a responsibility to ensure that our politicians are up to leading the task which they are asking the citizens to undertake. –Is mise,
SIMON O’CONNOR,
Crumlin, Dublin 12.
A chara, – Minister for Health Simon Harris is not alone in his way of thinking that Covid-19 had 18 prequels.
The title of the film The Madness of King George was selected based on the assumption that if they called it The Madness of King George III, the name of the stage play it was based upon, then attendance would be decreased by people believing they had missed the two prequels. People who go the theatre are different. – Is mise,
DERMOT O’ROURKE,
Lucan, Co Dublin.
Sir, – I have decided that in this household we will replace the phrase “a senior moment” with “a Simon Harris moment” because, as with Covid-19, it is comforting to know that such moments can affect younger age groups as well with equal severity. – Yours, etc,
JACINTA McLOUGHLIN,
Ashbourne,
Co Dublin.