Paul Hopkins

The Fact OfThe Matter

PAUL HOPKINS Where have all the cowboys gone?

ere was a time when you couldn’t walk through the neighbourhood without almost being knocked at o your feet by children on bikes, trikes and scooters, or young lassies playing beds, kickthe-can or follow-the-leader, or swinging from the nearest lamp-post, or the boys as the sheri and his deputies galloping o into the next estate or two to go chasing after the ‘baddies’.

Granted it still goes on, but not to the same extent, in that we live now in a di erent world. A world where some children stay glued to the television or the X-Box or the computer, indoors at play. A world when a stranger is now indeed a stranger and you dare not let your children out of your sight for fear of the consequence.

Soon the children will be well and truly settled back into school, there is the business of after-school curricula, sports, eld trips and the like and by the time little Johnny or Jemima trundles home after a ‘hard day’, playing outside is the last thing on their mind when plonking themselves in front of CBBC seems the easier option.

With the school ‘extras’, which of course are to be welcomed, there lies the danger of play becoming too structured. Its opposite, unstructured playtime, where caution is thrown to the wind, has become an endangered species.

While it’s perfectly okay to value achievement and competition, do we really believe that the more extra-curricular activities our children have, the better o they are?

Ask any parent how their child is doing and

they won’t say: “Great — he or she plays at home ve times a week.’’

By over-scheduling our children, not only are we eliminating unstructured playtime, but perhaps we’re setting them up for stress, anxiety, and even, dare I say it, depression. If you asked any adult to schedule in football, swimming, an art class, girl scouts, and a science eld trip after their day at work, they would call you crazy.

It is important for parents to place a priority on play and unscheduled time for their children. It can be an unstructured play date where the kids take all the blankets to the back garden to make forts. Or an evening after dark where their friends come with ashlights to play. Or maybe a group that gets together for an afternoon treasure hunt. e ideas are endless — I leave those up to your own wonderful imaginations — but what it all comes down to in the end is that children just need time to be children. ey deserve the same joy and freedom of playing that we enjoyed growing up. is doesn’t mean we should eliminate organised sports and activities from our children’s lives. But we do need to caution ourselves against over-scheduling. We need to be con dent in allowing our children to use their imaginations, play their own games, and negotiate their own rules. is is the joy of play. By de nition, play is purposeless and all-consuming. And, most important, it’s fun.

As my psychologist friend from Magherafelt says: “It’s not the kids with skinned knees that I worry about, it’s the ones without a scratch.”

Unstructured playtime is valuable, he says. Children need time to round up their peers, play kick-the-can, or whatever today’s equivalent is, even scrape their knees. e job of parents is to make unstructured playtime a priority — and be there to supply the Band Aid afterwards.

As for us adults, taking time to play feels like a guilty pleasure — a distraction from ‘real’ work and life.

But, as Dr Stuart Brown illustrates in his thought-provoking book Play (Penguin), play is anything but trivial. It is a biological drive as integral to our health as sleep or nutrition.

In fact, our ability to play throughout all our life is the single most important factor in deter- mining our success and happiness.

Now — out you go and play to your heart’s content.

As for me, well my three children are all grown up. As are their peers. e street where I live is virtually empty now, devoid of children.

And the silence is deafening.

‘ Time to give kids a little unstructured play time ...

Long-Covid numbers high in South East, says new study

Up to 336,000 people in Ireland could potentially have been a ected by longCovid, according to new research, with Carlow having the highest incidence, followed by Wicklow and Wexford

No o cial gures exist in Ireland for how many people have su ered after-e ects of Covid-19, but Independent TD Denis Naughten says if results from a recent study in e Lancet and data from blood donors were applied here it could mean as many as 336,451 people have been left with a legacy of symptoms — including fatigue and brain fog.

Based on Mr Naughten's analysis, 100,650 people have su ered from longCovid in Dublin; 34,251 in Cork, 18,245 in Galway; 16,791 in Kildare, 14,317 in Limerick; 14,071 in Meath; 12,093 in Donegal; 10,734 in Louth; and 10,511 in Tipperary.

He said the time has come to treat long-Covid with the same urgency as the initial virus. "We cannot just sleepwalk into a crisis of chronic illness, which will push people waiting on treatments since before the pandemic even further down already horrendous waiting lists,” he said. " e numbers are just staggering. By population, Co Carlow has the most patients with long-Covid at 4,750, while their neighbours in Co Wicklow have the lowest incidence by population at 8,636, followed by Co Wexford at 9,023.”

Recently, the British medical journal e Lancet reported a Dutch study that suggested as many as one in eight people who catch the virus can develop longCovid symptoms.

It found that common long-Covid symptoms include chest pain, breathing di culties, muscle pain, loss of taste and smell and general fatigue.

Mr Naughten said the research described long-Covid as the next public health disaster in the making which "clearly indicates that the Government must now treat this illness and the patients with it as a matter of utmost priority”. e HSE has said it recognises the need to provide follow-up support and care for patients experiencing symptoms of Covid-19.

It has developed an interim model of care for longCovid with the aim of providing a national approach to the provision of services and supports for patients.

It recommended the development of eight post-acute clinics and six long-Covid clinics. " e aim of the post-acute Covid clinics is to ensure that patients who have recovered from the acute phase of Covid-19 are followed up in a timely and appropriate fashion, taking into account factors such as disease severity, likelihood of long-term respiratory symptoms and functional disability,” it said.

Post-acute clinics will be led by respiratory consultants and will provide assessment and ongoing care for patients within "12 weeks of infection”.

Long-Covid clinics are a specialist service for patients with symptoms that develop during or after a Covid-19 infection, continue for more than 12 weeks and are not explained by an alternative diagnosis. ese will be led by infectious disease consultants. However, the proper level of sta has yet to be recruited. e HSE said: "In many incidences the designated hospital sites are providing long-Covid and post-acute clinics on an interim basis while awaiting recruitment of full sta ng”

The next generation of vaccine

An Omicron-specific vaccine developed by Moderna has been approved for use in the UK after trials showed promising results.

The 'next generation' coronavirus booster jab which may only need administering once a year has been approved for use in adults.

Known as mRNA1273.214, the dose is an updated version of the Moderna vaccine which is already in use for first, second and booster doses, and it will be the first dose approved in the UK which targets Omicron and the 2020 strain of the virus.

Now, a new disease alert following heavy rainfall

A new disease following the heavy rainfall could be highly contagious. Leptospirosis or Weil's Disease is an infection frequently found both in domestic and wild animals, and can spread to humans through contact with rat or dog urine or foetal uids from cattle.

Infected urine or contaminated water can be found in sewers, ditches, ponds, canals and slow- owing rivers and riverbanks, according to Dr Hraham Fry.

Dr Fry, Founder of the Tropical Medical Bureau, said the risk of Leptospirosis in Ireland was "high over the next few days" due to the severe rainfall, following the country’s heat wave.

“Leptospirosis can be spread to humans through freshwater exposure, rivers and lakes, in Ireland. is is frequently associated with heavy rains after a prolonged dry spell where the water washes infected urine into the rivers and lakes where humans then go swimming,” said Dr Fry.

If a person comes into contact with infected urine, the bacteria which causes Leptospirosis can get into the body through cuts and scratches and through the lining of the mouth, throat and eyes.

Flu-like symptoms are common in people with Leptospirosis, including persistent and severe headaches, muscle pains and chills.

In some cases, infected individuals can develop meningitis. In rare cases the disease can develop into the severe form known as Weil's Disease, which can cause liver and kidney failure. is can be fatal in a small number of cases.