Irish Examiner view: We need to eradicate TB for good

Irish Examiner

2 days ago

Tuberculosis in Ireland has had a tragic and unforgettable human cost, having taken as many as 10,000 lives a year in Dublin alone at one point, in between its epidemic years of 1880 to 1950.
Poor housing, overcrowding, and starvation were the main reasons TB struck terror throughout the country, from the tenements of the capital city to the smallest rural communities.
Up until the mid-1940s, when a vaccine capable of treating it finally emerged, it was a silent and deadly killer.
While we eventually managed to contain the disease in humans, bovine TB later emerged and it has been claimed that the State has spent the equivalent of the cost of building the new National Children's Hospital — well over €2bn at the last count — to try to eradicate the disease.
It has not worked yet — but it must. With efforts to stamp out bovine TB regarded as essential to securing Ireland's access to European and world markets for our beef products — and, by extension, also protecting farm incomes — the failure to eradicate it is as embarrassing as it is pressing.
We know the recorded number of infected cattle hit a historic low in 2016 but has been rising steadily since. As well as animal health, the focus of the eradication plan is largely concerned with ensuring farmers have the requisite herd health status for access to export markets for both beef and milk.
The Government has already acknowledged that disease levels are continuing to deteriorate and has admitted that compensation levels to farmers had reached €20m for the first four months of this year, the same outlay as was the case for the entirety of 2020.
But the incidence rates are growing and not diminishing, despite tremendous efforts to try to quell the bovine TB tide.
In the current programme for government, 2030 is set as the aspirational date for the final eradication of the disease from the national herd but, even working in collaboration with farmers and the agri-sector, that appears optimistic at this moment.
As was pointed out to the Government recently by the chairman of Lakeland Dairies, Niall Matthews, this 'national scourge' shows no sign of abating. He said that some 3,200 farmers supply his company and every one of them faced a deteriorating scenario.
He also asserted that Ireland appears to be 'further away' than ever from achieving the much-desired 'TB-free' status.
With small rural communities and individual farmers across the country currently at their wits' end, the need to finally crack this problem has become imperative.
Vatican warning on US populism
As Donald Trump enthusiastically sent in the national guard to counter protests against his signature immigration policy, giving us some idea of his vision for a police state in America, a timely warning about the dangers of nationalist political movements came from the Vatican.
In what was perhaps the first indication that Pope Leo XIV is intent on addressing the dangers of far-right populism during his papacy, the new pontiff criticised the 'exclusionary mindset' of many modern politicians, without directly pointing the finger at any individual.
His timing — as Trump set his armed forces to work across Los Angeles — was pertinent and the fact he is American was perhaps not as coincidental as might be thought. But Pope Leo's request in Rome last Sunday that God 'open borders, break down walls, [and] dispel hatred' certainly hit the right chord in addressing populists.
Before becoming Pope last month, Cardinal Robert Prevost was not shy about criticising Trump and shared several disapproving posts on X, admonishing the president and his running mate JD Vance. Back in January, he said Trump's plan to deport millions of migrants from the US was 'a disgrace' and he had previously said that Trump was not a Christian because of his view on immigration.
'A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges is not a Christian,' he said of Trump in 2016.
While Pope Leo did not directly address the situation in LA, where Trump is ignoring the wishes of Democratic governor Gavin Newsome with the undoubted hope of provoking havoc in the deeply Democratic state, expressing his thoughts on nationalist politics is undoubtedly opportune.
Bad publicity
If Israel was hoping its grievous behaviour in Gaza could be sandblasted off the world's front pages or global news websites, its hijacking of the pro-Palestine Freedom Flotilla Coalition ship could not have had a worse outcome.
Israeli forces stopped the Gaza-bound aid vessel Madleen and detained those on-board, including climate campaigner Greta Thunberg and Rima Hassan, a French member of the European Parliament, yesterday morning.
In doing so, Amnesty International said, it flouted international law and gave the flotilla's inhabitants the publicity they had sought in the first place.
Voyage organisers had hoped to further highlight Israel's ongoing military campaign in Gaza and its restriction of humanitarian aid into the region where 2m people are facing famine conditions. They certainly achieved that aim.
Ironically, they may also have achieved their aim of getting humanitarian aid to the stricken Palestinian people, as the Israelis said that while those arrested on what it described as 'the selfie boat' would be sent to their home countries, the aid supplies aboard the Madleen would be delivered to Gaza.
Israel might have lost this PR battle, but it is telling that such a realisation pressured the authorities there to publicly state that the aid would be forwarded to those who need it.
Perhaps it's not too much to hope that Israel now commits to enabling all such aid to through to Gaza to feed its starving inhabitants.
Read More
Irish Examiner view: Listening is an important precursor to change