Skip to content
  • Home Home Home, current page.
  • Moments Moments Moments, current page.

Saved searches

  • Remove
  • In this conversation
    Verified accountProtected Tweets @
Suggested users
  • Verified accountProtected Tweets @
  • Verified accountProtected Tweets @
  • Language: English
    • Bahasa Indonesia
    • Bahasa Melayu
    • Català
    • Čeština
    • Dansk
    • Deutsch
    • English UK
    • Español
    • Filipino
    • Français
    • Hrvatski
    • Italiano
    • Magyar
    • Nederlands
    • Norsk
    • Polski
    • Português
    • Română
    • Slovenčina
    • Suomi
    • Svenska
    • Tiếng Việt
    • Türkçe
    • Ελληνικά
    • Български език
    • Русский
    • Српски
    • Українська мова
    • עִבְרִית
    • العربية
    • فارسی
    • मराठी
    • हिन्दी
    • বাংলা
    • ગુજરાતી
    • தமிழ்
    • ಕನ್ನಡ
    • ภาษาไทย
    • 한국어
    • 日本語
    • 简体中文
    • 繁體中文
  • Have an account? Log in
    Have an account?
    · Forgot password?

    New to Twitter?
    Sign up
laineydoyle's profile
Elaine Doyle
Elaine Doyle
Elaine Doyle
@laineydoyle

Tweets

Elaine Doyle

@laineydoyle

Writer and researcher. Particularly interested in the history of medicine. Formerly: historian, PhD (QUB), MPhil (University of Cambridge)

Dublin and LA
Joined January 2009

Tweets

  • © 2021 Twitter
  • About
  • Help Center
  • Terms
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies
  • Ads info
Dismiss
Previous
Next

Go to a person's profile

Saved searches

  • Remove
  • In this conversation
    Verified accountProtected Tweets @
Suggested users
  • Verified accountProtected Tweets @
  • Verified accountProtected Tweets @

Promote this Tweet

Block

  • Tweet with a location

    You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more

    Your lists

    Create a new list


    Under 100 characters, optional

    Privacy

    Copy link to Tweet

    Embed this Tweet

    Embed this Video

    Add this Tweet to your website by copying the code below. Learn more

    Add this video to your website by copying the code below. Learn more

    Hmm, there was a problem reaching the server.

    By embedding Twitter content in your website or app, you are agreeing to the Twitter Developer Agreement and Developer Policy.

    Preview

    Why you're seeing this ad

    Log in to Twitter

    · Forgot password?
    Don't have an account? Sign up »

    Sign up for Twitter

    Not on Twitter? Sign up, tune into the things you care about, and get updates as they happen.

    Sign up
    Have an account? Log in »

    Two-way (sending and receiving) short codes:

    Country Code For customers of
    United States 40404 (any)
    Canada 21212 (any)
    United Kingdom 86444 Vodafone, Orange, 3, O2
    Brazil 40404 Nextel, TIM
    Haiti 40404 Digicel, Voila
    Ireland 51210 Vodafone, O2
    India 53000 Bharti Airtel, Videocon, Reliance
    Indonesia 89887 AXIS, 3, Telkomsel, Indosat, XL Axiata
    Italy 4880804 Wind
    3424486444 Vodafone
    » See SMS short codes for other countries

    Confirmation

     

    Welcome home!

    This timeline is where you’ll spend most of your time, getting instant updates about what matters to you.

    Tweets not working for you?

    Hover over the profile pic and click the Following button to unfollow any account.

    Say a lot with a little

    When you see a Tweet you love, tap the heart — it lets the person who wrote it know you shared the love.

    Spread the word

    The fastest way to share someone else’s Tweet with your followers is with a Retweet. Tap the icon to send it instantly.

    Join the conversation

    Add your thoughts about any Tweet with a Reply. Find a topic you’re passionate about, and jump right in.

    Learn the latest

    Get instant insight into what people are talking about now.

    Get more of what you love

    Follow more accounts to get instant updates about topics you care about.

    Find what's happening

    See the latest conversations about any topic instantly.

    Never miss a Moment

    Catch up instantly on the best stories happening as they unfold.

    Elaine Doyle‏ @laineydoyle Jan 1

    Everyone knows that the case numbers in Ireland aren't real, right? Or rather, that they're wildly undercounted? That we've hit a ceiling of 1700 cases per day *because that's the max no. of cases that can be confirmed* by an over-subscribed public health system, right? Right?

    4:41 PM - 1 Jan 2021
    • 1,526 Retweets
    • 6,309 Likes
    • Kate Doheny Uniquelyblonde23 Antonio Salvatore Jinni Wilson Bill Clifford Mairéad O'Donnell Ailish Siobhan Clarke Tobi sa bhaile
    134 replies 1,526 retweets 6,309 likes
      1. New conversation
      2. Elaine Doyle‏ @laineydoyle Jan 1

        Officially, Ireland had 1,754 cases of coronavirus today. But that's not the true picture of the state of covid infection. There's a backlog of 9000 positive swabs awaiting verification. In @ShaneHastingsIE helpful graph, that's the bit under the red line, scribbled in yellow.pic.twitter.com/WUrc3QsRwr

        10 replies 168 retweets 634 likes
        Show this thread
      3. Elaine Doyle‏ @laineydoyle Jan 1

        To be clear: those aren't people waiting to be tested. They're *positive swabs*. Positive results. People who went in, got a swab, and had virus was detected. People with covid.

        12 replies 50 retweets 516 likes
        Show this thread
      4. Elaine Doyle‏ @laineydoyle Jan 1

        To be fair: NPHET are very, very clear about this. They've been flagging this for days – there's been a backlog building since just before Christmas, and only getting bigger every day. In today's release, @President_MU added an extra statement drawing attention to the disparity.pic.twitter.com/6Fwc8dhK5F

        7 replies 54 retweets 444 likes
        Show this thread
      5. Elaine Doyle‏ @laineydoyle Jan 1

        Elaine Doyle Retweeted Dr Marie Casey

        So why aren't they included in the numbers? @marietcasey explains: you need to double-check for duplicates. Did one person get multiple swabs? Could this be a +ve from earlier illness, since resolved? It requires a skilled professional and it takes time.https://twitter.com/marietcasey/status/1345081041292296192 …

        Elaine Doyle added,

        Dr Marie Casey @marietcasey
        Reporting takes place in Regional Departments of Public Health. Surveillance scientists take the data from contact tracing and input it into CIDR surveillance system. Some of this is automated, much isn't. https://twitter.com/LauraHoganTV/status/1345079793725939720 …
        Show this thread
        4 replies 31 retweets 325 likes
        Show this thread
      6. Elaine Doyle‏ @laineydoyle Jan 1

        Problem is: our public health system is underfunded, undervalued and under-recruited. People like @marietcasey, @NICU_doc_salone, @DrInaKelly1, @CarolineMasonM1, @DrInaKelly1 @mac_fionn @MaiMannix @AileenKitching and many others have been crying out about this for MONTHS.

        18 replies 76 retweets 729 likes
        Show this thread
      7. Elaine Doyle‏ @laineydoyle Jan 1

        Elaine Doyle Retweeted Caroline Mason Mohan

        .@CarolineMasonM1 describes it, in this thread, as '20 years of neglect'.https://twitter.com/CarolineMasonM1/status/1340608459218284545 …

        Elaine Doyle added,

        Caroline Mason Mohan @CarolineMasonM1
        1/ 20 years of neglect of the Public Health Medicine service left Ire ill-prepared for COVID. PH has been phenomenal responding with such limited human & other resources. Sounded alarm since beginning yet still @roinnslainte won’t talk to IMO despite strike due 14th Jan https://twitter.com/NoonanJoe/status/1340423069656035337 …
        Show this thread
        3 replies 48 retweets 360 likes
        Show this thread
      8. Elaine Doyle‏ @laineydoyle Jan 1

        Elaine Doyle Retweeted Niall Conroy

        .@NICU_doc_salone moved from Ireland to Australia just over a year ago. The contrast is stark. As a public health consultant in Australia, he has a team of 16. His Irish colleagues have 1 or 2 ppl 'to help', no team. And unthinkably more cases to assess.https://twitter.com/NICU_doc_salone/status/1318792110418526208 …

        Elaine Doyle added,

        Niall Conroy @NICU_doc_salone
        ...in Ireland because they get treated worse than other specialist doctors in Ireland. I get very few cases of civid to manage in Oz these days, yet I have a team of 16. My Irish colleagues are managing many many more cases then me, yet a doctor in an Irish PHU might have....
        Show this thread
        1 reply 51 retweets 346 likes
        Show this thread
      9. Elaine Doyle‏ @laineydoyle Jan 1

        Elaine Doyle Retweeted

        Specifically, the IT situation in public health is untenable. @marietcasey has described colleagues recording outbreak notes on paper. PAPER. There is no dedicated outbreak case management IT system in Ireland. Still. 10 months into a pandemic. https://twitter.com/abbeycollins202/status/1332666641877004288 …

        Elaine Doyle added,

        This Tweet is unavailable.
        8 replies 84 retweets 493 likes
        Show this thread
      10. Elaine Doyle‏ @laineydoyle Jan 1

        Let that sink in. As a commenter pointed out above, you couldn't run a shop or a pub in this day and age without an appropriate IT system. Yet in 21st century Ireland, in a pandemic, we're groping in the dark for want of appropriate technology.

        6 replies 43 retweets 495 likes
        Show this thread
      11. Elaine Doyle‏ @laineydoyle Jan 1

        Elaine Doyle Retweeted Dr Marie Casey

        Instead, they have what @marietcasey has called a '20 year old' system which cannot give real-time info. Our specialists WANT to give us this info, but are held back by out-of-date & not-fit-for-purpose systems. (In a PANDEMIC!)https://twitter.com/marietcasey/status/1302561541036937216 …

        Elaine Doyle added,

        Dr Marie Casey @marietcasey
        Replying to @marietcasey @newschambers @hpscireland
        We have a 20 year old disease surveillance system (CIDR) which is not real-time. We have no outbreak management data system yet (delayed procurement). These are key enablers to real time reporting, as well as staff to collect, input, quality assure.
        2 replies 36 retweets 312 likes
        Show this thread
      12. Elaine Doyle‏ @laineydoyle Jan 1

        (I could fill half this thread by simply typing IN A PANDEMIC!!! in all caps and with too many exclamation points, but I digress)

        1 reply 10 retweets 200 likes
        Show this thread
      13. Elaine Doyle‏ @laineydoyle Jan 1

        In a pandemic, we need to know WHAT is happening, and WHERE; we need to move at lightning speed to get ahead of the virus. Yet our public health specialists are working with one hand tied behind their backs.

        4 replies 24 retweets 256 likes
        Show this thread
      14. Elaine Doyle‏ @laineydoyle Jan 1

        Elaine Doyle Retweeted Caroline Mason Mohan

        Completely mystifyingly, our public health specialists aren't given the status of consultant. Yet, as @CarolineMasonM1 points out, they are TRAINED to be consultants.https://twitter.com/CarolineMasonM1/status/1333071823223869443 …

        Elaine Doyle added,

        Caroline Mason Mohan @CarolineMasonM1
        You’re going to need at least 70 consultant contracts @DonnellyStephen, not just the one. Current proposal not seen by @IMO_IRL so no agreement on it. All of us are trained to be consultants. https://twitter.com/DonnellyStephen/status/1333071030437470208 …
        2 replies 30 retweets 238 likes
        Show this thread
      15. Elaine Doyle‏ @laineydoyle Jan 1

        This isn't an academic point. As @marietcasey points out (across multiple threads below), lack of consultant status hobbles her ability to do her job. She is seen as a 'participant' rather than a 'leader', unlike public health specialists in the UK.pic.twitter.com/QdqfPnYARj

        2 replies 26 retweets 246 likes
        Show this thread
      16. Elaine Doyle‏ @laineydoyle Jan 1

        We need at least 70 new consultants in public medicine. Our Minister for Health, @DonnellyStephen, has promised one. ONE.

        5 replies 65 retweets 347 likes
        Show this thread
      17. Elaine Doyle‏ @laineydoyle Jan 1

        The contracts are so crap that we had no state epidemiologist (!) for 3 years (!!) because we were unable to recruit one. Qualified candidates simply withdrew. This is the person who would represent us at the @WHO and @ECDC_EU. *We had noone in that position for 3 bloody years*

        4 replies 54 retweets 359 likes
        Show this thread
      18. Elaine Doyle‏ @laineydoyle Jan 1

        Elaine Doyle Retweeted Aileen Kitching

        Public health specialists are at their breaking point: over-worked, working impossible hours, and trying to hold an entire pandemic response together with string. For months. And they're about to break.https://twitter.com/AileenKitching/status/1333547451953926144 …

        Elaine Doyle added,

        Aileen Kitching @AileenKitching
        Replying to @ProfTomCotter @marietcasey
        Things ARE appalling work-wise. There is no OOH cover for PH in parts of the country. Not alone can we not recruit to fill current positions, it’s doubtful we will retain all current SPHM past Christmas - everyone has an exit strategy. What would you do?
        2 replies 25 retweets 208 likes
        Show this thread
      19. Elaine Doyle‏ @laineydoyle Jan 1

        And so, in the middle of a PANDEMIC(!!), we may be facing a public health strike this month. After decades of neglect, pushed beyond the brink, they've simply crumbled. It is painful & difficult, but they are doing this FOR US, in 'a last-ditch effort to stabilise the service'.pic.twitter.com/xdMhNFPJHH

        2 replies 34 retweets 240 likes
        Show this thread
      20. Elaine Doyle‏ @laineydoyle Jan 1

        Elaine Doyle Retweeted Caroline Mason Mohan

        COMPLETELY coincidentally (this has nothing to do with it, right?), public health specialists in Ireland are 80% women.https://twitter.com/CarolineMasonM1/status/1342076044325613570 …

        Elaine Doyle added,

        Caroline Mason Mohan @CarolineMasonM1
        Yes-the ‘public health officials’ you keep hearing about are SPHMs & DPHs & they’re 80% women, whatever you see on TV daily. Our work is underestimated & unseen. Hope @roinnslainte haven’t underestimated our determination for next generation to get recognition we’ve never have https://twitter.com/marietcasey/status/1342048326074724352 …
        3 replies 42 retweets 368 likes
        Show this thread
      21. Elaine Doyle‏ @laineydoyle Jan 1

        Back to those numbers. In Dec, cases of covid in Ireland began to rise steeply. Meanwhile, our public health specialists - the people charged with investigating these outbreaks & making linkages between them - work with 'silos of data with a patchwork quilt of ad hoc solutions'.pic.twitter.com/XuYLDEAzW1

        1 reply 19 retweets 152 likes
        Show this thread
      22. Elaine Doyle‏ @laineydoyle Jan 1

        Although some aspects are automated, large amounts of data has to be *manually transferred* from one database into another. It is slow, it is painstaking, and it is limited by the number of cases that qualified people can process in a day.

        3 replies 12 retweets 154 likes
        Show this thread
      23. Elaine Doyle‏ @laineydoyle Jan 1

        And so, for the last few days, we've been announcing an eerily similar number of cases. 30 Dec: 1718 31 Dec: 1620 1 Jan: 1754

        1 reply 13 retweets 161 likes
        Show this thread
      24. Elaine Doyle‏ @laineydoyle Jan 1

        1,754 wasn't the number of cases of covid in Ireland today. It was simply the cap on the number of cases our system could confirm. It isn't our case number. It's our system limit.

        10 replies 141 retweets 586 likes
        Show this thread
      25. Elaine Doyle‏ @laineydoyle Jan 1

        We have had 5,573 positive swabs in the last 24 hours. Allowing that Quality Assurance will eventually discard about 5-10% as duplicates or otherwise invalid, that's about 5,000 new cases of covid in Ireland today. 5000 cases. Not 1,754.https://covid19.shanehastings.eu/api/swabs/ 

        15 replies 175 retweets 523 likes
        Show this thread
      26. Elaine Doyle‏ @laineydoyle Jan 1

        This matters. It matters, because @CMOIreland and @President_MU and every person connected with our pandemic response is trying to communicate the urgency of this moment. That we NEED to stay home. That we NEED to respond quickly beyond our current restrictions.

        2 replies 38 retweets 250 likes
        Show this thread
      27. Elaine Doyle‏ @laineydoyle Jan 1

        But how can we communicate this urgency, how can we respond with urgency, if we can't even name what is happening?

        2 replies 14 retweets 159 likes
        Show this thread
      28. Elaine Doyle‏ @laineydoyle Jan 1

        Take this excellent article from @IrishTimes, for example. The article highlights the 9000 case backlog; the headline figure is still 1,745. This is what the front page of the Irish Times looks like. Lots of people don't look beyond the headline. https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/coronavirus-1-754-new-cases-and-11-more-deaths-reported-as-hospital-numbers-pass-500-1.4448184 …pic.twitter.com/UU97nsZOLD

        1 reply 33 retweets 223 likes
        Show this thread
      29. Elaine Doyle‏ @laineydoyle Jan 1

        Can you imagine the shock value alone if the headline figure were 5000 cases today? The conversations that would take place across the radio, tv, internet? In homes across Ireland?

        3 replies 23 retweets 241 likes
        Show this thread
      30. Elaine Doyle‏ @laineydoyle Jan 1

        Elaine Doyle Retweeted Andrew Flood  👨🏻‍💻 📝 🕺

        And, as @andrewflood has pointed out, this number is only going to rise. GP referrals are x 10 times higher than they were at the start of December. (Please read his entire thread)https://twitter.com/andrewflood/status/1345048867134464001 …

        Elaine Doyle added,

        Andrew Flood  👨🏻‍💻 📝 🕺 @andrewflood
        GP referral data from @gpbuddy tells us to expect at least another day of massive positive swabs. GPs are seeing almost 10 times the number of clinically likely Covid19 cases as they were at the start of December pic.twitter.com/781rByGAhf
        Show this thread
        2 replies 18 retweets 163 likes
        Show this thread
      31. Elaine Doyle‏ @laineydoyle Jan 1

        So where do we go from here? 1. When reporting on our daily cases, can we approximate the true number of cases while we're waiting for a backlog to clear? Can we at least say that the est. no. of cases for today was 5000, even if the true official number is yet to be confirmed?

        5 replies 24 retweets 289 likes
        Show this thread
      32. Show replies

    Loading seems to be taking a while.

    Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.

      Promoted Tweet

      false

      • © 2021 Twitter
      • About
      • Help Center
      • Terms
      • Privacy policy
      • Cookies
      • Ads info