Books: "Stay Extremely Safe"

'Please for the love of God'

‘A memoir full of empathy, bravery, humanity.’

Dr Tony Holohan ‘Needs to Talk’ to someone. Perhaps, while preparing his memoir, he could check in with Ireland’s Premier Anti-vax Expert. Based at Termonfeckin Institute of Expertise (TIE) this less well-known personality has penned his own punchy paperback.

In a foreword to the book, ‘Busting Anti Vax Myths’, US based Dr Anthony Faucet reveals details of his early correspondence with the Co Louth expert.

“When the world was hit by the greatest threat it has ever faced in the form of covid 19, I knew this was the man I needed to call,” Dr Faucet wrote of the TIE professor.

Founder and Provost of TIE, the east coast based scholar devoted his lockdown experience to developing ‘seriously expert arguments’ countering those questioning the narrative. Having founded his university of expertise in Termonfeckin, the professor then set about ‘advising all government cabinets everywhere of the supreme value of masks, lockdowns, mandates and being vaccinated at least once a month.’

In this seminal self-published work, Prof. Oisín MacAmadaín delivers a series of hard hitting chapters designed to quell any argument put forward by ‘quacks, crackpots, anti-vaxxers and tin foil hat thickos.’

He tackles territory few others dared to venture such as the issuing of specific advice to Romanian authorities following reports of vaccine hesitancy in that country. The professors’ advice was issued in correspondence following an incident at his family home, involving the family’s Romanian house cleaner, Elena. The Prof describes how he and his wife read an article in a paper of record under the headline ‘Vaccine Hesitancy in Ireland highest among Eastern Europeans.’ He recounts how both he and his wife came to suspect Elena of being unvaccinated after reading the report.

“Simultaneously, we both said, we can’t have unvaccinated droplets in the house,” he said.

The professor recounts his attempt to alert Elena to the dangers of her position.

“After the incident was over … and the living room fumigated, I settled down to write to the Romanian Embassy,” he said.

The Romanians required a more engaging marketing policy in order to push vaccine uptake, the professor argued. He suggested making use of their cultural folklore.

“How about a vaccination campaign centred around images of Dracula? With the text ‘Just One More Bite and You are Immune’,” the covid expert wrote.

In his book, titled ‘Busting Anti-Vax Myths’, Prof. Oisín MacAmadaín moves seamlessly through covid policies across the world in his snappy engaging style, which is peppered with personal insight. In one exchange between he and his wife in the kitchen of his home, the expert set out his admiration for the Irish national broadcaster.

“They have done a sterling job of reminding all of us about exactly what kind of devilment covid was up to at any given moment. So much so, in fact, that I remember one morning when, totally innocently I said to my wife, ‘Darling will you turn on Covid Radio One please?’”

“Such Actions Save Lives”

Tracking ‘ruthlessly correct decisions’ made by government that turned out to be ‘utterly spot on’ the eminent professor took a deep dive into much lauded state policies including Mandatory Hotel Quarantine.

“The government, acting correctly on the principle that caution is king, was also wise to the possibility of world-threatening outbreaks from even the most unlikely sources - tiny countries such as Monaco, Andorra and San Marino. Sure, in San Marino, a country of 33,000, they were typically having all of 25 cases a week. That’s 25 people who might have otherwise decided that now was the time to visit Ireland. Such actions save lives,” the professor said.

Prominent anti-narrative personalities such as ‘Ivor look at the data Cummins’ gets a mention as do a group the professor describes as ‘a whole range of far right extremists protesting in Dublin.’

“This was not only unsporting behaviour on their part but also put the Guards in danger. I mean, the vaccine roll out hadn’t begun at that point and therefore the Guards couldn’t club any of them without putting their own health at risk,” Prof. MacAmadaín pointed out.

While broadly appreciative of Ireland’s response to covid, the expert professor laments one aspect that he perceives as a government fail.

“I felt somewhat ashamed that we hadn’t adopted this way of going about things in Ireland, as terrific as our efforts were. This other approach leads to a world where no one is ever sick from covid, no one dies from it and everyone stays safe forever. They call this approach Zero Covid.”

*Buy the author a coffee - single use disposable cups only #stayextremelysafe

Prof. Oisín MacAmadaín’s book ‘Busting Anti-Vax Myths’ is available online.

Dr Tony Holohan’s ‘courageous’ memoir ‘We Need to Talk’ will be published in time for Christmas.