FRIDAY 1 JANUARY
The melancholy of a New Year. Especially this year. Stayed in bed late. Something struck me. We have all discovered a new way of hurting. Loved ones filled with fear and anxiety. Loved ones we can’t hug. Loved ones stuck in nursing homes as their lives run down. Loved ones who can’t come home. Loved ones who can’t get on with their lives. Loved ones getting sick. Loved ones dying.
Shook myself out of those thoughts, and, like I do every New Year, I thought about goals for the year ahead. More COVID communication and research. Podcasts with Newstalk. Support the lab in their work. Teach. Hope for the trials being run by Roche. I’d love it if we made another significant discovery but this time for COVID-19. I have a great team now, so why shouldn’t we?
Spent the day on the couch. It was a good thing to do.
SATURDAY 2 JANUARY
Went to buy some food with Stevie. Always good hanging with him, even if it’s something as simple as buying groceries. Numbers of cases are climbing. Philip Nolan very gloomy on the radio. The nightmare is becoming a reality. What a start to 2021.
SUNDAY 3 JANUARY
Very bad today – 4,900 cases.
MONDAY 4 JANUARY
Back to the grindstone. It seems Christmas went by very quickly. Day started with an interview on Euronews at 6.15 a.m.!
Up to the Dart and into Newstalk. Streets empty and cold. On my way up Kildare Street I saw the cleaners I see every time I pass, on their smoke break. I wonder what they are feeling. I give out the information for them and everyone. They are welcome to listen. We did an update on vaccines. Israel would be the ‘canary in the coalmine’ – the indicator as to how well the vaccination campaign is doing in the real world. The UK is back into full lockdown, just like us.
TUESDAY 5 JANUARY
Sam came into work with me, as he wants to study in my office for his exams. Gives him a bit of discipline. Nice having him there. Headed out to the RDS for an interview with Eileen of the IDA for their annual staff event, all on Zoom.
WEDNESDAY 6 JANUARY
More non-COVID-19 work, hooray! Had a big planning meeting for a conference on the immune system and cancer. Such an important topic, as there have been great successes there with more to come. Then to a meeting of the Trinity COVID-19 centre. Ed Lavelle gave a super talk on vaccine adjuvants.
Lounging on the couch in the evening, I discovered a new TV show called The Terror. It’s all about the Franklin expedition to find the Northwest Passage who got caught in the ice for two winters. It resonates – let’s hope we only get caught in the ice of lockdown for one winter.
Took down the Christmas decorations because it’s the Epiphany and that’s what you’re supposed to do, otherwise bad luck will befall you. Maybe last year the world didn’t bother.
Number of cases now through the roof – thousands being reported every day. And the death rate is climbing. The big fear we all had has come to pass. But no one imagined it would be such a steep climb. The restrictions will turn this around, but when? How soon will we see progress? The government has announced all schools will stay closed until February at the earliest, as will all construction sites.
Switched over to CNN and saw a bunch of Trump supporters break into the Capitol building. Has the whole world gone mad?
THURSDAY 7 JANUARY
A little bit of snow this morning. Gave me a nice lift. Lovely to see the dusting on the roads with few cars. Now wouldn’t it be great if there was a huge fall of snow, seeing as how everyone is at home? Days off anyway, with no need for the excuse of snow, but it would make everyone feel better.
In Newstalk I met Leo Varadkar. We had a good chat. He remembered me lecturing him when he was doing medicine. That made me feel old! I told him how the Taoiseach had called me, and he said, ‘You’d never find me doing that!’
There are now robust predictions of what will happen once the vulnerable are vaccinated, and it’s remarkable (but obvious). UK scientists are predicting a 90 per cent decrease in the death rate. That is the key metric. Herd immunity will be hard to achieve, but a decrease in death rate and hospitalisation rate will be huge, allowing the fear to dissipate. I will keep reminding people of that. The key role of vaccines, after all, is to prevent severe disease.
FRIDAY 8 JANUARY
On the news this morning – a further 8,248 cases reported (the highest for any single day since the pandemic started). Two weeks since Christmas Day – that’s when many of the people testing positive would have caught the virus. And 2,327 deaths. Grim.
Nearly slipped on the way up to the Dart in the ice and snow. Big eejit.
Some more email messages over the past few weeks:
My dear professor,
We love your optimism here in Australia. We’d love to do a Zoom interview on what makes you optimistic.
From the Chief Optimism Officer, The Centre for Optimism, Melbourne, Australia.
You may remember I asked your advice on how to shoot a film. Well, we did it! Your tips on ventilation and social distancing, plus regular testing, meant we never had one case in the six weeks of shooting.
I’ve been feeding your words and information to teachers in Cambodia – thank you and hugs for the New Year.
Dear Professor Luke, I enjoyed your accordion-playing on the TV. I have two sons with autism. They are absolutely fascinated by vaccines. Can you please send them some information?’
SATURDAY 9 JANUARY
Another wonderful TV moment. I was sorting through the laundry with Shrek on in the background. It was a perfect combination of activities. The satisfaction of folding freshly laundered clothes while watching Shrek and Donkey.
But now the South African variant is here, as well as the UK variant. In the name of all that’s holy, we don’t need these variants. How to inform people without alarming them?
Today is the first anniversary of the first death from COVID-19, in Wuhan. One year on, millions infected, millions dead.
SUNDAY 10 JANUARY
Ireland now has the unenviable achievement of having the most precipitous growth rate in the world. In the world. And all because of Christmas. It’s so upsetting. The bottom line is clear. This is a very contagious virus and all it took was for a percentage of us not to follow the guidelines – indoors, stuffy rooms, close contact. Bang – cases skyrocket.
MONDAY 11 JANUARY
Even though it was 9 a.m., it was dark and gloomy outside when we started the show. Pat asked me about a quote I’d given to Kitty Holland in The Irish Times – that there might be 100 deaths per day at worst. I said it was possible but that hopefully there wouldn’t be too many days like that because the average age of those in hospital is lower and treatments are better. A lot of people texted in questions. Hope we gave some comfort.
The Taoiseach was on after me. The first question Pat asked him was, ‘We have the worst numbers in the world. Are you and your government ashamed of that?’ Today feels like maybe the darkest day so far. I took a step back and turned off the radio. Gathered my thoughts and reminded myself of the situation regarding the huge success with the vaccines.
Ireland had the highest number of cases in a single day per million of population of anywhere – I’ll write that again – anywhere, in the world. There’s real fear now that the hospitals will collapse from the strain.
TUESDAY 12 JANUARY
Watched another episode of The Terror. Fascinating. I’d read a wonderful book (Erebus: The Story of a Ship) by Michael Palin and saw an exhibition in Anchorage a couple of years ago. The show is pretty gruesome, though – attacks from a giant polar bear, people going crazy from tinned-food poisoning, most likely caused by lead. And cannibalism. Not quite as bad as Level 5 lockdown, so there’s that.
WEDESDAY 13 JANUARY
Today started with a one-hour Zoom call with the whole of Mount Anville primary school. There were more than 200 attendees, the pupils and their parents. It was something to behold. It took Leah, the teacher who had invited me to join, at least 20 minutes to get everyone on mute. A cacophony! Finally, they got there. She said later that every day was like that. I spoke for 15 minutes or so and then got loads of questions from all age groups, from six-year-olds up. They had watched my RTÉ Junior talk on the immune system. One question was ‘What is your favourite memory as a scientist?’ Another: ‘What is the best discovery you’ve made?’ I said my favourite memory was when I made my first discovery about the immune system. I told them my best discovery was of an important ‘on switch’ for the immune system that we’d discovered – we called it MAL. It was a joy to do.
THURSDAY 14 JANUARY
Recorded two podcasts with Jess. One on the ageing process and one on how the cold affects life on Earth, including winter swimming. Very topical. Really enjoyed them. She told me we’d got to number 3 in the Apple podcasts listings, whatever that is. I told everyone to jump in the sea.
Then a session with the Science Gallery on vaccines. They also had a clinical trials expert, someone who had had the vaccine and a psychologist talking about vaccine hesitancy. This was followed by a Zoom call with Frances, who heads up the Community Foundation. They had handled the millions raised on the Late Late toy show and will disburse it to those most in need.
Then did an interview with Arthur Beesley of the Financial Times. And RTÉ Six One came in to film. We talked about the likelihood of concerts coming back. Prime Time and The Tonight Show both asked me on tonight, but I couldn’t because of everything else going on.
Realised I’m getting over-exposed. It’s hard to say no, though, as I want to give people my knowledge. But I’m well aware of how annoying it can be for the same person to be on over and over again. We’re all irritating, eventually. Our tics and turns of phrase. I keep saying ‘gangbusters’.
FRIDAY 15 JANUARY
How badly is Ireland doing? Very badly. A lesson for the rest of Europe it seems. But numbers are climbing everywhere, and Ireland is not the only place where Christmas drove a huge spike. The key issue was the Irish love Christmas.
Got sent some more old photos today. Some of my old friends from Bray have been doing this. Me aged four at Tony Martin’s birthday party. Me on a scout camp to Germany when I was 17, with 5th Wicklow Sea Scout troop. I sent that to an old Sea Scout pal, Jamie, who has been living in Holland for years. He sent me back a photo of him wearing his old ‘5th Wicklow’ T-shirt that we were all wearing in that photo. He’d kept it for all these years.
SATURDAY 16 JANUARY
This afternoon I had one of those magical, transcendent moments. In the simplest of ways. I sat down on the sofa having done the hoovering followed by the shopping. Put on the TV and The Towering Inferno was on. Pure escapism from my childhood. I remember seeing it in the cinema when I was around ten, with my dad. Steve McQueen as the fire chief and Paul Newman as the architect. It’s just great to lose yourself in an old movie. I guess it’s safe and nostalgic and somehow comforting. Even though in this case it’s a disaster movie. Interesting that a blazing fire in a skyscraper is light relief.
SUNDAY 17 JANUARY
On Grafton Street today an anti-vaxxer grabbed the collar of my coat from behind and shouted abuse at me. I just walked on.
My piece on all the vaccines came out today in the Sunday Independent. A neighbour knocked and gave me a black cowboy hat, because I had said the spike protein is a bit like the black hat on the bad cowboy. The immune system is shown the black hat, and then when the bad guy turns up with the hat on, he’s arrested. Exactly how the vaccines against the spike protein work. He said that at last he understood!
I must be bored rigid as watched a football match – Liverpool v. Manchester United.
At 8 p.m. I did a live interview with ABC in Australia for a morning TV show. Beamed into a country where there is no lockdown! Feeling envious.
MONDAY 18 JANUARY
Wrote a piece with Christian on a recent paper showing that iron is essential for vaccines to work. They speculate in the paper on iron’s role in COVID-19. Turns out if you’re deficient, you might be in trouble, as your immune system won’t work properly. It’s by a lab in Oxford headed by Hal Drakesmith, who I know. I’ll tell people to make sure their iron stores are up.
A kind man emailed me today. Amazingly, he’s done the genealogy on my father’s side and traced it back to Letterbrock, Drummin, Westport. We have a common ancestor in a family called the Berrys. Mary Berry is my great-grandmother. Her daughter Agnes was my grandmother, the one who emigrated to Salford when my dad was a baby. I’m a descendant of a Mary Berry! This must be why I’m such a good cake-maker. He also sent my grandfather’s death cert. He died in Whitworth Hospital of liver cancer, which is what triggered my grandmother to emigrate to Salford. I knew that, but I though he had died of pneumonia. Getting all this information is an unexpected benefit of being on the telly!
TUESDAY 19 JANUARY
Had a big session today with HABIC, the Hair and Beauty Industry Confederation. Gave them an update on vaccines and various aspects of COVID-19 and when reopening might happen. It’s been so hard on hairdressers and barbers.
THURSDAY 21 JANUARY
The new variants are causing concern, but let’s see what the science tells us. Told our listeners all about mucus – scientists have used a method called Sinusoidal Outcome Tool 22 (SNOT22) to assess mucus from COVID-19 patients, and have found 375 proteins at a higher level than in normal mucus. Imagine that for a minute. Our snot is full of proteins. Gross joke coming up: maybe that’s why we ate them as children. The fact that they have found ones only in snot from COVID-19 patients might prove useful one day. Also spoke about how losing your sense of smell and taste might actually predict less severe disease, which is unexpected. Not clear why this is.
Did a call with Deutsche Welle, a German public broadcasting agency, which apparently reaches millions. I think what happened is journalists saw me on TV in Germany and then want me for their own shows. The good part of this is it never generates any hate. This might be what is called a control group. Why would an appearance on Irish TV generate hate, and yet on German TV not? Hmmm … ah yes, I’ve got it – good old Irish begrudgery.
After midnight I stayed up to watch the concert for Joe Biden’s inauguration. Jon Bon Jovi sang ‘Here Comes the Sun’. So appropriate. Oh I’d love to sing that one too, to an audience in Ireland, when we come out of all this.
FRIDAY 22 JANUARY
Watched The Late Late Show. A woman came on to talk about how her husband had died of COVID-19. No underlying condition. A complete surprise. It was heartbreaking to listen to it. Then a trad band came on, and the emotion in the music got to me. Lump in my throat. The power of music. My emotions are running ragged tonight.
SUNDAY 24 JANUARY
Heavy snow falling when I woke up. The magic of it! Brave Marg still went in for a swim. Window visit with Desiree. She was smiling away, as usual. I had the umbrella up – bitterly cold, sleet falling. Looking in the window at her smiling face. Left her a box of Lindor chocolates. One of the nurses had told me she scoffs those in no time.
Today was the first day of our three-course meal plan. My idea. One of us does a starter, the other a main, and the other dessert. Sam did crab claws, I did chicken cacciatore and Marg did a fruit salad. I wonder will we keep it up?
Case numbers still high, hospitals nearly full, government bickering and dithering. And these new variants – is there no way out?
MONDAY 25 JANUARY
Had a classic anxiety dream. I was due on Newstalk but was late and went into a park to find a quiet spot to do it by Skype. I dropped my iPhone into a flowerbed and it got covered in soil and wouldn’t work. Panic stations! Couldn’t call Eimear as the clock wound down. Felt really bad that I was letting them down. Woke in a sweat. Looked at my phone – working fine and only 6.30 a.m.! Had one of those great snoozes.
On the show I spoke about how allergy to the Pfizer vaccine is actually very rare. Only 21 cases out of 1.9 million people vaccinated. Hope this reassures.
Then I was on Al Jazeera! Yep. Something of a thrill, it has to be said. Quick interview, again about Ireland’s disastrous situation.
From 4 p.m. I was at the online Keystone conference on immunometabolism. It was supposed to be in Keystone, Colorado. Gave my talk. It was good! First online conference I’ve enjoyed. The science really resonated. Listened to four talks and they were interesting. Not the same, though. But nice to see familiar faces on the Zoom – my old scientific friends, still there. It’s just so strange not to be going in person to conferences. A year since I did that. A year! Can’t wait to meet them in real life again. It’s the spontaneous conversations that really matter. Maybe something subconscious goes on, and then you get a scientific idea. Head has to be in the right place for it, and I think that happens more when you’re actually with someone. At least that’s the way of it for me.
TUESDAY 26 JANUARY
I chaired a session at the conference today. Strange to be doing it that way. Introducing speakers to apparently no one. Still, it went off OK. Then did an interview with French TV channel TF1. They’re in Ireland to cover the lockdown.
Devastated that the country got it wrong in December and we’re now paying the price.
Someone texted someone in the lab to say they’d seen me on TF1 talking French. We had a look: I’d been overdubbed.
THURSDAY 28 JANUARY
Advocated strongly for antigen testing and also vitamin D supplements on Newstalk. Antigen testing may actually be a better predictor of someone being infectious than the PCR test. A positive has been shown to correlate with increased infectiousness, which is not the case with the PCR test. There is really good evidence correlating low vitamin D with more severe disease. People over 50 in Ireland are deficient in winter. So I pressed home that there should be a recommendation to take a supplement. It won’t harm anyone, and at a minimum, it will help strengthen bones.
Finished the day with a lovely interview with Jennifer O’Connell as part of the Winter Nights Irish Times interviews. She asked me which I preferred, Oasis or Blur. That would be an ecumenical matter, I replied. She asked me would we be back in the beer gardens by June, and I said yes. I said it to give people something to look forward to, which is so important.
Headline in The Irish Times this morning: Luke O’Neill says we’ll be back in the beer gardens by June. Gulp!
New data from Novavax on their vaccine, which is another efficacious one. The results from the Johnson & Johnson trial also were released. Coming thick and fast now. This led to another interview on Newstalk on The Hard Shoulder. By then, the EMA had approved the AstraZeneca vaccine. Such a good message to give people ahead of the weekend: two more vaccines working very well and one more approved. And the weekend! Let’s party! Er … maybe not just yet.
SUNDAY 31 JANUARY
Dull January comes to an end. Nothing but bad news on the case numbers. Tony Holohan said today that there had been more cases in the month of January than for all of 2020, with over 1,000 deaths and more than 100,000 cases. The price of Christmas. But the vaccine hope burned a bit brighter. Like the Pilot song ‘January’, I’m sick and tired of it hanging on me.