Top doc Dr Gabriel Scally has said he believes images of some RTE presenters posing for photos at a retirement gathering led to an increase in Covid-19 cases at Christmas.
Yesterday, we revealed the State broadcaster would face no charges in relation to the retirement gathering for Phil Collins, which was held on November 12.
Dr Scally, President of Epidemiology & Public Health at the Royal Society of Medicine, said he cannot understand why RTE has been cleared, saying: “it was such a flagrant breach of the rules.”
Speaking exclusively to The Star, Dr Scally said: “I was very critical at the time because they were arms around each other on a map that says social distancing. It was just incredible.
“I can’t understand why. It was such a flagrant breach of the rules and not only that but it set an extraordinarily bad example that these prominent media voices could ignore the guidance that they were talking about every day and I thought it was astounding.”
Several Rte stars including News at One host Bryan Dobson, Blathnaid Ni Chofaigh, Eileen Dunne, Miriam O’Callaghan and David McCullagh apologised at the time, saying how remorseful they were.
But Dr Scally said he believes the attitude by some at Rte led to the public becoming complacent in the run-up to Christmas.
“I think it was the sort of attitude that led us to having a really lax run-up to Christmas and all of the problems and the hundreds if not more than 1,000 deaths that happened afterwards,” he added.
“I think the laws are there to be obeyed and if they are not obeyed, well, people should be reprimanded using the law.
“I’m very disappointed that no action is being taken. I think at the very least there should have been a legal reprimand and a finding that they were wrong to do that in law.”
Dr Scally had been highly critical of the photos at the time, saying it left him “speechless”.
He previously said: “People with their arms around each other. Amazingly, photos of people close together, standing on a mat which says keep at least two metres distance.
“They’re standing on the mat which says to keep their distance and with their arms around each other’s shoulders.”
