Government recognizing 'the pandemic is coming to an end'

France and Ireland are following England in announcing the lifting of a host of COVID-19 restrictions.

The Irish Independent reported Friday that the majority of COVID restrictions in Ireland will be removed by 6 a.m. Saturday, including vaccine passports. The paper said the government also will eliminate "limits on household visits, early closing time for hospitality and events, capacity restrictions for indoor and outdoor events including weddings, social distancing, the rule-of-six at a table ... and the requirement to maintain contact details for close contact tracing."

The moves mark the "end game" for the pandemic, said Luke O'Neill, a professor of biochemistry and Immunology at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland.

"I'm smiling here, tonight," O'Neill said in an interview Friday with RTÉ Ireland, the national TV and radio broadcaster.

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The government, the health scientist said, "must have accepted that the pandemic is coming to an end and we're in the endemic phase of this disease."

See O'Neill's remarks:

In France, Le Monde reported Prime Minister Jean Castex announced a timetable on Thursday for dispensing with some COVID restrictions. Among them are the mandatory wearing of masks in outdoor locations and the closing of nightclubs and stadiums. The prime minister said the government could suspend its vaccine passports if the situation regarding the pandemic improves further.

However, the vaccine passport requirement will come into effect Monday, Castex said, and people will no longer be allowed to show a negative test to enter restaurants, bars, theaters, museums and stadiums or travel on trains, Politico reported. Proof of vaccination will be required.

On Wednesday, after the models upon which he based his policies proved to be "wildly incorrect," British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the lifting of COVID-19 vaccine passports, mask mandates and work-from-home guidance in England.

Regarding masks, the prime minister said the basic policy will be to "trust the judgment of the British people and no longer criminalize anyone who chooses not to wear one."

Sajid Javid told a Downing Street press conference that "we cannot eradicate this virus and its future variants."

"Instead we must learn to live with Covid in the same way we have to live with flu," he said.

Meanwhile, the government of Austria passed a law this week essentially making it illegal to be in the country without COVID-19 vaccination, assessing large fines to violators. WND spoke with an Austrian activist who is helping lead a growing resistance to draconian COVID-related restrictions in his country. Across Europe, including in France and Ireland, massive public protests against vaccine mandates and other measures have been taking place every weekend for the past several months.

In the U.S., with the more contagious yet much milder omicron variant now about 99% of new cases, nearly every state last week was recording a doubling of cases from week to week. But seven states this week were recording a decline in cases. In New York state, new COVID cases dropped by 75% over the past two weeks.

A Reuters analysis published Friday found new coronavirus cases are falling in parts of the U.S. hit hardest by the omicron variant.

A federal judge in Texas on Friday blocked the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate for federal workers, ruling the order exceeded the president’s authority.

The case, wrote Trump-appointed Judge Jeffrey Brown, is about "whether the President can, with the stroke of a pen and without the input of Congress, require millions of federal employees to undergo a medical procedure as a condition of their employment."

Already the Supreme Court has blocked Biden's vaccine mandate for private employers while upholding his mandate on workers at health-care providers that receive federal funds.

The hard data and studies from around the world show the lockdowns and other severe mitigation measures didn't stop the typical waxing and waning of a respiratory virus pandemic.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Last year, America's doctors, nurses and paramedics were celebrated as frontline heroes battling a fearsome new pandemic. Today, under Joe Biden, tens of thousands of these same heroes are denounced as rebels, conspiracy theorists, extremists and potential terrorists. Along with massive numbers of police, firemen, Border Patrol agents, Navy SEALs, pilots, air-traffic controllers, and countless other truly essential Americans, they're all considered so dangerous as to merit termination, their professional and personal lives turned upside down due to their decision not to be injected with the experimental COVID vaccines. Biden’s tyrannical mandate threatens to cripple American society – from law enforcement to airlines to commercial supply chains to hospitals. It's already happening. But the good news is that huge numbers of "yesterday’s heroes" are now fighting back – bravely and boldly. The whole epic showdown is laid out as never before in the sensational October issue of WND's monthly Whistleblower magazine, titled "THE GREAT AMERICAN REBELLION: 'We will not comply!' COVID-19 power grab ignites bold new era of national defiance."

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https://www.wnd.com/2022/01/france-ireland-follow-england-lifting-covid-restrictions/