Confronting Coronavirus

Confronting Coronavirus

A news podcast from The Irish Times that covers Ireland's response to the Coronavirus outbreak. New episodes will be published each weekday. 888821

Episodes

The biggest story of our lives, part two

July 16, 2020 • 27 mins
This is the final instalment of the Confronting Coronavirus podcast series. For part two of the final two-part episode, we’ve asked a handful of Irish Times journalists to reflect on the last couple of months and how the pandemic has played out. Today, we’ll hear from Europe correspondent Naomi O'Leary, sports reporter Malachy Clerkin and health editor Paul Cullen.
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The biggest story of our lives, part one

July 15, 2020 • 19 mins
This is the final instalment of the Confronting Coronavirus podcast series. For the final two-part episode, we’ve asked a handful of Irish Times journalists to reflect on the last couple of months and how the pandemic has played out. Today, we’ll hear from Public Affairs Editor Simon Carswell and our Political reporter Jennifer Bray.
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The emotional impact of Covid-19 with Clinical Psychologist Tony Bates

July 6, 2020 • 26 mins
Traditionally, one in five of the population experience mental health challenges. In the coming year there will be many more. In today’s episode, Clinical Psychologist Tony Bates speaks to Deirdre Veldon about the emotional impact of the pandemic and how different sections of society will be affected in the weeks and months ahead.
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“Aid is politics” - lockdown in Uganda with Sally Hayden

July 2, 2020 • 19 mins
In today’s episode, we hear from Irish Times journalist Sally Hayden, who has been living in lockdown in Northern Uganda for the past three months. In March, during the onset of the pandemic, Hayden travelled across the border from Rwanda into Gulu, a city at the epicentre of a two decade long civil war which ended in 2006. Hayden speaks to Deirdre Veldon about the impact of lockdown restrictions on the people of Gulu, in a count...
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“We must demand equal access to future vaccines”

June 30, 2020 • 14 mins
As the global race to find a vaccine for Covid-19 continues, the question of how it will eventually be supplied and distributed is now under the spotlight. Billions of euro have been donated by governments and philanthropic organisations to pharmaceutical companies for research and development of vital Covid-19 vaccines. However, in most cases, few if any conditions for access or affordability have been included as a precondition...
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Lifting the lockdown: What can I do in Phase 3?

June 27, 2020 • 17 mins
Ireland is approaching Phase 3 of the Roadmap for Reopening Business and Society. In this episode, Conor Pope talks us through some of the changes that will be coming into place as the country continues to ease lockdown restrictions.
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A coronavirus surge shocks Beijing - with Peter Goff

June 18, 2020 • 16 mins
The return of restrictions on life in Beijing comes as over a hundred new cases are linked to a huge food market. Peter Goff explains what's happening in Beijing, how the city is handling it and why the outbreak is a major blow to the efforts of China, and the world, to control the virus and reopen economies. Plus, a deadly skirmish on the India-China border.
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"There's remarkable buy-in from prisoners" - How the Irish Prison System kept Covid-19 Out

June 17, 2020 • 18 mins
This week the Irish Prison Service put forward a paper to the World Health Organisation as a model of best practices for keeping Covid-19 out of it’s settings. With 3,738 prisoners nationwide and zero positive cases, there is a lot to be learned from their management of the virus. In this episode, Deirdre Veldon speaks to Irish Times Crime Correspondent Conor Gallagher about the quick action and careful planning which shaped their ...
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How Contagion predicted a pandemic - with screenwriter Scott Z. Burns and Dr Ian Lipkin

June 12, 2020 • 20 mins
In this episode, Irish Times Features Writer Patrick Freyne brings us back to the year 2011 and the release of the scientific thriller movie Contagion. Starring Matt Damon, Contagion tells the story of a deadly virus which explodes into a global pandemic, bringing society to its knees. Nine years on, in the midst of our own virus outbreak, it all feels eerily familiar. Freyne catches up with Contagion’s screenwriter Scott Z. Burns ...
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Lockdown is lifting, but new rules cause many conundrums - with Conor Pope

June 9, 2020 • 18 mins
Conor Pope has been looking at how Ireland is reopening this week, in shops and other public places. His assessment: it's going quite well, but many small problems remain, from queuing to distancing and the wearing of masks. And as more restrictions are eased, more such problems will crop up for Irish consumers and businesses.
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"The psycho-social impact is far greater - and will last much longer"

June 8, 2020 • 24 mins
In our hospitals and psychiatric clinics, it has already begun. Increasing numbers of people are seeking help for mental health problems associated, in one way or another, with Covid-19. Professionals warn that the psychiatric effects of the pandemic and the lockdown will endure much longer than the physical effects of the virus. And those psychiatric effects are alarmingly diverse: anxiety, psychosis, eating disorders, PTSD. Pr...
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"Compliance is not as good on the way down as it was on the way up"

June 5, 2020 • 25 mins
Next week, Ireland will enter phase two of the roadmap out of lockdown. We’ll be able to travel 20km from our homes and visit another household while maintaining social distancing. Street level shops will open and some sporting and fitness activities will begin again. But will this taste of freedom mean people will push the boundaries even more? Large crowds flocked to beauty spots over the long weekend, while thousands gathered in...
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"It's callous to leave businesses closed if they don't need to be"

June 1, 2020 • 23 mins
Should all retailers, restaurants and tourism be allowed to open sooner? Business affairs correspondent and columnist Mark Paul has been arguing for an accelerated easing of restrictions on businesses, especially for the sake of our small and medium sized enterprises, "the lifeblood of our economy". He tells Deirdre Veldon that no-one seems to be fighting their corner, and that the balance of risks to our society is skewed.
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The effect of lockdowns and the return of mobility: what the data tells us

May 29, 2020 • 18 mins
Barry Smyth is a data scientist. Early on in the outbreak, he was among the first to realise the importance of looking closely at the number of excess deaths in the population, as revealed by website Rip.ie, to track the true toll of the virus. Since then, he has written about the nature of lockdown measures imposed across Europe, as revealed through data. Which countries are strictest, and what happens to the virus when people st...
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Why did it take so long for a nursing home plan to be put in place?

May 28, 2020 • 22 mins
Coronavirus has presented a huge challenge for our health services, especially in our nursing homes. The devastating death toll in these settings has come under the spotlight this week for the Dáil's Covid-19 committee. On Tuesday, the committee heard from Tadgh Daly, the head of Nursing Homes Ireland who claimed the sector was left “abandoned and isolated”. Hundreds of pages of newly released documentation, reveal a timeline of c...
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How to be ready for an unpredictable future - with author Margaret Heffernan

May 27, 2020 • 34 mins
Margaret Heffernan is a businesswoman and author who writes about leadership and strategic thinking. Her latest book Uncharted: How to Map the Future is about the pitfalls of relying too much on forecasting and predictions, and the benefits of a different kind of readiness. In the book, which was published back in February, Margaret presciently writes about pandemics as an example of the uncertainty and unpredictability of complex ...
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"Local lockdowns needed to keep virus at bay" - Dr David Nabarro

May 26, 2020 • 28 mins
Yesterday we reached a significant milestone in our fight against coronavirus. For the first time since the 21st March, there were no new deaths from Covid-19 in Ireland. But how can we keep this figure down as the country continues to emerge from lockdown? In today’s episode, we hear from Dr David Nabarro, a professor of global health at Imperial college London and the World Health Organisation’s special envoy for Covid-19. Dr Nab...
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The Impact of Covid-19 on the young with psychotherapist John Sharry

May 25, 2020 • 21 mins
Among the people most affected by this crisis are children and especially teenagers. Lockdown has put an abrupt stop to their education and their social lives. In today's podcast Deirdre Veldon speaks to psychotherapist and Irish Times columnist John Sharry about the developmental impacts the lockdown will have on young people and how parents can prepare for the weeks and months ahead.
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Rethinking nursing homes and the lives of our elderly after Covid-19

May 22, 2020 • 24 mins
Is it time to dispense with nursing homes? The death toll from Covid-19 in these institutions is bringing the arguments for and against them into focus. Today we talk to two experts about what a different future might look like and the challenges getting there.  Professor Gerard Quinn is a legal academic who contributed to the drafting of the United Nations Convention on the treatment of persons with disabilities, and is now workin...
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Ireland to start antibody testing next month: what that means and how it will help

May 21, 2020 • 20 mins
Political correspondent Harry McGee tells Deirdre Veldon about the news that Ireland will begin a programme of testing for Covid-19 antibodies in the population next month. How does this test differ to how we are already testing, and what benefits will it bring?
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