Chinese companies bought up massive amount of medical supplies and shipped them back home, Chinese medical supplies to Europe don't work, a petition to remove the head of the WHO reaches over 500,000 signatures, Taiwan says it told the WHO about human transmission of COVID-19 3 weeks before the WHO announced it, and a spokesperson for the WHO has a ridiculous interview after he refuses to accept he can hear any question that has the word Taiwan in it.

#gript

https://gript.ie/podcasts/trsi-72-the-world-health-organisation-is-a-threat-to-public-health/

Spring has arrived

#gript

Photo credit: Peter Carvill

A 101-year-old Italian man has recovered from coronavirus

#gript

https://gript.ie/a-101-year-old-italian-man-has-recovered-from-coronavirus/

MATT TREACY: O'Neills are now making protective equipment - they could teach the Government how to stand on our own two feet

#gript


https://gript.ie/oneills-are-now-making-protective-equipment-they-could-teach-the-government-how-to-stand-on-our-own-two-feet/

ON THIS DAY: 29TH MARCH 1974: Farmers discovered the Terracotta Army

In 1974 local farmers digging a well near the Chinese city of Xian came across one of the greatest archaeological discoveries ever made. The discovery of a clay warrior figure soon revealed many more by state archaeologists. In fact there may be 8,000 terracotta figures in total, each individually modelled and purposely arranged in three pits to guard the tomb of the Chinese Emperor Qin Shi Huang Di (246-210 B.C.)

The figures vary in height according to their roles, with the tallest being the generals. The figures include warriors, chariots and horses. Estimates from 2007 were that the three pits containing the Terracotta Army held more than 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses, and 150 cavalry horses, the majority of which remained buried in the pits near Qin Shi Huang's mausoleum. Other terracotta non-military figures were found in other pits, including officials, acrobats, strongmen, and musicians.

Photo credits: Peter Morgan,

People over 60 are more affected by the coronavirus and most deaths have been of people over 70. With this background, a new study on perceptions of the elderly shows attitudes to ageing are overwhelmingly negative, according to a new study by the Centre for Ageing Better, with older people subject to a litany of damaging stereotypes.

#gript

https://gript.ie/britons-have-discriminatory-attitudes-towards-the-elderly/

600,000 ‘defective’ masks bought from China recalled in Netherlands

#gript

https://gript.ie/600000-defective-masks-bought-from-china-recalled-in-netherlands/

US Politician sparks outrage after suggesting we sacrifice older people to save the economy

#gript

https://gript.ie/should-we-sacrifice-older-people-to-save-the-economy/

German state Finance Minister allegedly takes his own life out of “despair” at economic impact of coronavirus

#gript

https://gript.ie/german-state-finance-minister-allegedly-takes-his-own-life-out-of-despair-at-economic-impact-of-coronavirus/

A Sinn Fein Senator has told people to watch porn to see them through the crisis, and shared state-funded advice telling people to keep "hooking up" if "they don't want to stop":


#gript

https://gript.ie/warfield-watch-porn-coronavirus/

Let’s face it: The Government made a total mess of Protective Equipment for our healthcare workers

#gript

https://gript.ie/lets-face-it-the-government-made-a-total-mess-of-protective-equipment-for-our-healthcare-workers/

Aina talks to Seamus, her husband and a secondary school history teacher, about what parents can do to help children who are sitting the leaving cert this year.

You’ve Got Kids 19 – Homeschooling for the Leaving Cert during COVID-19

#gript

https://gript.ie/podcasts/youve-got-kids-19-homeschooling-for-the-leaving-cert-during-covid-19/

SIGN up for news alerts

https://gript.ie/sign-up/

ON THIS DAY: 30TH MARCH 1849, Doolough Tragedy where a large crowd of starving people died on the journey to receive food they were promised

170 years ago on Friday night, March 30th, 1849, during the starvation, 600 people, including women and children, were living in the town of Louisborough. The starving people were told to go to Delphi Lodge for inspection and if they did not go, they would be cut off any relief programmes. They were promised food and relief.

On a bleak and freezing cold night they set out to meet the landlord and council guardians in Delphi Lodges. Wearing rags and torn clothes with only shawls for protection in bitter weather conditions, they walked 20 miles, many in their bare feet. When they eventually got to the Lodge the following morning, the starving and helpless crowd were told that the guardians could not be disturbed while they were having their lunch. When they eventually did see them, the people were sent away empty-handed and most of them died on the journey back.

Later

On March 10th, the HSE wrote to nursing homes and hospitals telling them to "lift visitor bans" that many such homes had put in place. Three weeks later, almost half the "clusters" of Coronavirus in Ireland are in Nursing Homes

#gript


https://gript.ie/hse-nursing-homes-coronavirus/

60 Minutes Australia is reporting that Dr Ai Fen, head of the emergency department at Wuhan Central Hospital and one of the first doctors to publicly talk about COVID-19, has disappeared.

https://gript.ie/60-minutes-wuhan-whistle-blower-dr-ai-fen-has-disappeared/

The HSE has issued advice to Irish health workers saying wearing masks is "is not supported by evidence".

But the Irish doc leading the WHO response says that the idea of health workers NOT wearing masks is "horrifying".

Who's right? It really matters.

#gript


https://gript.ie/government-health-workers-masks/

MARGARET HICKEY asks: "Are the Greens redundant as Covid-19 makes the world greener and cleaner?"

#gript



https://gript.ie/are-the-greens-redundant-as-covid-19-makes-the-world-greener-and-cleaner/

DAVID MULLINS: Parasites in the age of the virus

"It is almost 100 years since the Money Lenders Bill 1929 was introduced in Dáil Eireann. At that time the practice of lending relatively small sums of money to low income or destitute families at extortionate levels of interest was described as “an evil that is almost ineradicable.” "

#gript

https://gript.ie/parasites-in-the-age-of-the-virus/