Immunology professor calls for long-term plan for coping with Covid

Early morning workers wearing a face mask heading to work as the cold weather kicks in as the Omicron Variant surge continues. In the background is the Hapenny bridge. 

Professor of Immunology Paul Moynagh has called for a long-term plan for coping with Covid-19.

Current measures are leading to a “wall of immunity” he told Newstalk Breakfast this morning as he urged that there needed to be a long-term plan.

"The high numbers of people who had already been infected, the success of the vaccination programme and the subsequent booster programme would protect against new infections, but this could wane in time which was why there was a need for a long term plan," he said. 

"While officially half a million cases had been identified in the past eight weeks, and the one million cases mark was reached this week, in reality the figure was more likely to be 1.5 million."

Professor Paul Moynagh says current measures are leading to a “wall of immunity”.

Prof Moynagh added that the virus was now going to find it difficult to find new people to infect.

"The success of the vaccine campaign was the reason why ICU numbers were steady," he continued.

"All the efforts to date had helped build the 'wall of immunity' and that was how the country would get out of the pandemic."

Prof Moynagh also said that he did not understand why approval for FFP2/N5 masks had been withheld until now. 

“We’re coming to this very late," he said.

"All the evidence showed that the higher grade masks performed very well and were better than cloth masks."