Former minister Jim McDaid has claimed under-35s should be excluded from any future lockdown.
The Donegal doctor and ex-Fianna Fáil TD says he 'lost it' when he heard NPHET had recommended a nationwide move to level five.
He has now written a letter to the Taoiseach and Tánaiste expressing his frustration with the current coronavirus policies, and arguing that NPHET should have a more 'background role'.
Speaking on The Pat Kenny Show, Dr McDaid said he doesn't want any confrontation - but he does what 'alternate views' to be part of the debate.
He said: “Unfortunately, in my opinion - and in the opinion of quite a number of other people - NPHET has not followed the science.
“We have come so, so far from February or March… [with] our knowledge of [the virus].
“[NPHET members] appear to be all on the one side of it, and they're coming up with these decisions … we’re asking that there be an open debate with people who do have alternate views.”
He claimed that the country appears to be 'lurching from crisis to crisis' as a result of policy and mismanagement.
As a Donegal GP, Dr McDaid acknowledged there has been 'skulduggery' such as football matches and weddings impacting the recent surge in cases there.
However, he also argued that Donegal is the ‘hinterland’ of Derry, and there’s a huge amount of interconnection between them.
He suggested he's never seen ‘so many people’ from Northern Ireland in Donegal as he did during this summer.
Excluding the 'younger cohort'
Dr McDaid says he is opposed to level five and would have preferred restrictions to be left at level three.
He observed: “I’m not from the far-right or far-left or far-centre or anything like this - I’m just giving an opinion. There are people who are far more learned than I am about the scientific issues."
However, he stressed he would like to see more focused protections brought in.
He told Pat: “In the next lockdown, we should exclude the under 35s… the younger cohort, if you want… lockdown should not apply to those people.
“All of our resources should be focused on people who are vulnerable.
“The longer-term treatment for this condition is not a decision that can be determined by NPHET or the Government… I think this is eventually going to go down to the people.
“The people are going to have to make a decision about how we’re actually going to deal with this, while we’re waiting for a vaccine and the possibility of never getting one."
He said he is not at all opposed to vaccines, but being over 70 himself he is hesitant to take any COVID-19 vaccine approved in the coming months.
He explained: “I am not saying don’t take it - it [will be] a European-advised vaccine.
"It’s just my old grey self perhaps… I just have concerns around a vaccine that was made within seven months instead of seven years.”
Dr McDaid also highlighted a picture he recently saw in a newspaper of an old man staring out the window.
He explained: “I said to myself… will he ever see normality again.
"When I heard this level five [recommendation]… it made me very angry. Do we want to accept that’s the world we want to live in?”
Some doctors and experts have called for the virus to be allowed spread among young people - although many others have warned it could be a dangerous approach to take.
There have also been a number of warnings about the potentially serious impacts of COVID-19 on young people.
