Who is popular today?

Sir, – Jennifer Bray rightly says that, in determining the State’s Covid-19 vaccination plan, “after the events of Christmas, pretty much no one in Government had the appetite to push back against Dr Holohan” (“No one in Government has appetite to push back against Tony Holohan”, Analysis, February 6th).
However, it’s not just the steep rise in infections and deaths since before Christmas that has left the Government beholden to Dr Holohan.
The relationship between the politicians and the chief medical officer (CMO) is still fundamentally affected by Leo Varadkar’s ill-judged attack on Dr Holohan in an interview on last October’s Claire Byrne Show.
Then the Tánaiste inappropriately accused the CMO of making recommendations that were “not thought through”.
After last year’s intemperate RTÉ interview, the Fine Gael leader refused to back down from his personally offensive remarks. Instead, Mr Varadkar doubled down, saying the next day that he had since made it clear to Dr Holohan: “This will not happen again.”
The Tánaiste bullishly asserted that he told the CMO: “Nphet and the Government need to get back on the same page.”
Clearly, at the time, Mr Varadkar didn’t anticipate that – in significant part due to his own characteristically rash behaviour – the script on that “same page” would be written in future mostly by Dr Holohan. – Yours, etc,
JOE McCARTHY,
Arbour Hill,
Dublin 7.