Another pandemic is 'inevitable' and 'could wipe out humanity,' warns Trinity professor

Professor Cliona Ni Cheallaigh, associate professor of infectious diseases at St James’s Hospital in Dublin and Trinity College, said: “I’m not interested in what we did well,” she says. “I’m interested in what we do next.” File photo: Leon Farrell / Photocall Ireland

The chances of a new global pandemic wiping out humanity are “entirely possible”, according to a leading Irish consultant in infectious diseases. Ireland is generally perceived to have "done well" during Covid. 

But according to Professor Cliona Ni Cheallaigh, associate professor of infectious diseases at St James’s Hospital in Dublin and Trinity College, what Ireland and the world "did well" during the pandemic is irrelevant.