MONDAY 1 MARCH
The year seems to be gathering pace. March already. St David’s Day. Definite evidence of a bit more light.
Did a pre-record with Claire Byrne and mentioned the time I was accosted by an anti-vaxxer in Galway. She asked my view of the riot. People are frustrated and angry but that doesn’t justify the violence, was my reply.
Then straight over to The Tonight Show on the same topic: Marg had five nasty messages left on her answerphone at work. On the Dart a little old lady berated a big guy who was shouting at me, and he backed off.
Feel a little uneasy revealing all this, but I hope it does some good to call out these nasty people. I said how I knew of women immunologists in the UK who were so vilified and threatened with sexual violence on social media they closed their accounts. I said how we must keep at it – keep up the fight. Attacks are horrible, especially against people who are actually trying to help.
TUESDAY 2 MARCH
Still getting some interesting emails over the past few days – really nasty ones go straight to spam, so it’s mainly nice ones:
A dear friend is getting married in June. She’s gone from joy to despair and every emotion in between. But every time you made a positive observation we’d text each other saying ‘I love Luke’. At this stage you’re liable to get an invitation to the wedding (numbers permitting!).
I’m an eight-year-old girl. I thought you’d be a really cool person to Zoom with for my class. This is the first email I have ever sent.
My mother is willing to escort you around Dublin. The woman has been known to turn lightning around. She’ll also teach you to play poker. She’ll accept payment in kind: Cork Dry Gin, tonic water and slice of orange.
THURSDAY 4 MARCH
If you are carrying certain Neanderthal genes, they put you at higher risk of severe COVID-19. It was disputed for a long time whether we humans had sex with Neanderthals when we encountered them in Europe. They were after all brutish cavemen, or so it seems. Well, we did. And we still carry the genetic legacy of that. Some of the genes we inherited from them are involved in the inflammatory process. It looks like they might become over-active when we’re infected with COVID-19. One of them makes a chemokine (an important immune protein that attracts white blood cells to site of infection to fight the germs), so that might be a new target for COVID-19 patients. Now there’s something. A gene we’ve carried for thousands of years, that we picked up from sex with a caveman, hiding away in our genome, is now a target for SARS-CoV2, a virus that only infected us last year. You couldn’t make it up.
Also discussed how the evidence grows and grows that COVID-19 is a disease passed on by super-spreaders. Ten per cent of cases are infecting 80 per cent of people. Why would that be? Some just talk more loudly, so more virus comes out. Speaking loudly has been shown to expel 50 times more virus than talking softly. And as for singing – that’s been shown to release 99 times more virus than talking. This explains why choirs were sadly such dangerous environments.
FRIDAY 5 MARCH
Did an interview today with The Irish Times on my top songs in lockdown. I went for lots of uplifting ones:
‘Mexico’ by Mundy – well I have to have that one, right?
‘Open Arms’ by Elbow – Stevie! Sob!
‘One Day Like This’ by Elbow – ‘… would see me right’. Too right!
‘Cape Cod Girls’ by Baby Gramps – sea shanties have become popular, maybe because it feels like we’re on an interminable voyage with COVID-19. I picked another: ‘Rolling Sea’ by Eliza Carthy. A sea shanty by a woman for once!
Two Beatles songs: ‘Getting Better’ because it can’t get any worse and ‘Here Comes the Sun’, just because.
‘Me and Magdalena’ by The Monkees – because, unlike most of their other stuff, it’s a lovely song. ‘N17’ by TolÜ Makay – a great version that was done at the New Year’s Eve show.
‘A Hero’s Death’ by Fontaines D.C. – because life ain’t always empty.
While I’m at it, my top five albums are Sergeant Pepper, Abbey Road, Hounds of Love by Kate Bush, Balance and Control by Scullion and Sunshine on Leith by The Proclaimers.
SUNDAY 7 MARCH
Another window visit with Desiree today. Sam came with me to see his granny. Bitterly cold again, so she kept worrying we were freezing outside. She wasn’t in wonderful form today – didn’t know my name. But yet again, a lovely smile as I left.
Went for a walk in Dún Laoghaire. I said to hell with it, Sam, let’s make a day of it and get an ice-cream. Got one from a van near the People’s Park. The man recognised me and insisted that the ice creams were on him. He said he’d seen me on the TV talking about the abuse I’d got. Yet more evidence of the kindness of people.
MONDAY 8 MARCH
Much brighter morning. Spring is here alright! Spoke about long COVID. It’s been renamed ‘post-acute sequalae of COVID-19’ or ‘PASC’. Docs love to name diseases. $1 billion is being invested in research. Also said how there is anecdotal evidence that vaccination is providing some relief for those with PASC.
WEDNESDAY 10 MARCH
Johnson & Johnson has been approved in the EU. Vaccine number four. Four vaccines! I still can’t quite believe that.
THURSDAY 11 MARCH
The trials for vaccines against the variants will be much faster because it’s the same technology that will be used. And we now know a lot more about why COVID-19 is more severe in men. Looks like testosterone is boosting the levels of ACE2 in the lungs and so men get more infected. In women, oestrogen seems to protect them from inflammation. Pat asked should we give men oestrogen and I said, well, that would have other effects too.
The US is now vaccinating over 1 million people a day. This is the biggest global vaccination campaign in history. Every country is involved. The goal is nothing short of vaccinating the entire Earth’s population. I have to pinch myself when I think of the huge scientific success this is. Bring it on.
Got an unusual letter today that is worth recording:
Dear Professor O’Neill,
Many women hang on your every word and like Doctor Tony you have certainly helped thousands since this deadly virus began to stalk our land. I live with my ageing husband on our small farm in the kingdom. I am wondering if alternative medicine might have a role in combating COVID-19. I have studied aromatherapy and I believe tea tree oil might have some benefits?
My late mother also had a cure for any illness. At night I still follow her advice. I boil onions and cloves of garlic and spread this paste on my husband’s chest and my own. In the morning I put a couple of slices of onion in my socks before I venture out for my constitutional. I also spray my body with vinegar, then put some soap up my nose. Of course I also wear a mask and a pair of plastic gloves. I take castor oil to keep myself regular. You should really try garlic and onions. They would certainly discourage young thugs from attacking you on Grafton Street.
Sadly, my husband still believes alcohol will cure everything. He insists on sprinkling brandy on his cornflakes in the morning, and I am convinced he is keeping his spirits up during his frequent visits to the hayshed.
Our son is faring slightly better. He believes in the curative powers of cannabis. As a 12-year-old he left a plastic statue of the Virgin Mary in his bedroom, which I came upon. Her crown had been covered with wire gauze and a plastic straw protruded like a pipe from her bottom. At the time I was very vexed but now he smokes it openly in the farmhouse and I am happy to inhale the fumes.
Like all of us, I am hoping for the best and say a decade of the rosary every evening for the country and our salvation. My son is worried that the vaccine will lead to us all being injected with Chinese microchips. Even worse, he tells anyone who will listen that Micheál Martin invented the virus in order to take credit for saving our lives and convince us to vote Fianna Fáil. I just don’t know what to do. Should I stick with my tried-and-tested traditional remedies or put my faith in modern medicine? I have no one else to turn to and I hope to hear from you soon.
P.S. Have you ever considered a move to Hollywood? At the very least you should have your own chat show on RTÉ. You would be a big improvement on Tommy Tiernan.
Yours, etc.
I wonder if Tommy Tiernan wrote the letter?
Had a few cans last night, so was a little fragile this morning. Checked my phone on waking. I’d missed calls with Sky News, RTÉ news, Newstalk and Al Jazeera. What the hell? Checked the headlines. The AstraZeneca vaccine has been stopped in Ireland because of four cases of unusual blood clots in Norway. I got back under the duvet.
MONDAY 15 MARCH
Did a lot of reading about what’s happening with AstraZeneca. These blood clots are extremely rare events – 1 in 160,000. You’re more likely to be knocked down on your way to the vaccination centre than be harmed by this vaccine. On with Pat and laid into it – said it was a big mistake to stop the roll-out as the risk was so low compared to COVID-19, and people would now not be vaccinated. They might get infected and have a severe disease. What’s being applied here is the cautionary principle, but this is all wrong. If you take an action out of a sense of caution, that action shouldn’t risk causing harm in another way, which is exactly what is happening here. I also said it could increase vaccine hesitancy. It’s a bump in the road. I think it’s because of the intense spotlight on the whole vaccine campaign.
But the Novavax vaccine is giving great results in trials. And a study on healthcare workers has shown that the Pfizer vaccine is preventing transmission by as much as 70 per cent. Yet again, that vaccine is top of the class.
WEDNESDAY 17 MARCH
A lazy Paddy’s Day if ever there was one. Drank cans of Guinness in the front garden with Sam. Sun shining. Marg, Brian and Claire went for a swim in the Forty Foot while I held Marg’s bag. They said it was refreshing. I said they were mad.
THURSDAY 18 MARCH
On Morning Ireland – the AstraZeneca pause is still the big news. I explained how the clots were so rare and not typical because of where they are, which is mainly in the brain and abdomen. The EMA were bound to say the vaccine should continue to be used, because of the very low risk. A survey had shown that 38 per cent of people in Ireland were now reluctant to take it. You see? I predict they will say there is a possible link to the vaccine. None of this is unusual when it comes to new medicines or vaccines. Give it to 30 million people and you’re bound to see a few adverse events.
We talked about how the FA Cup will go ahead with fans. They are letting 10,000 into a 90,000-seat stadium. Whether they have to show evidence of vaccination is being discussed too. Fans cheering in Wembley again will be a sure sign we’re on our way from misery to happiness.
Did an interview with RT, the English-language channel in Russia. It was for a programme called Worlds Apart and was a one-on-one interview with Oksana Boyko for almost 30 minutes. She said they had recently interviewed Richard Branson and Richard Dawkins. We covered all the key issues around COVID-19, particularly the EU’s performance with the vaccines. She asked me about Sputnik and I said it was an excellent vaccine and could we have some please?
Then out to Prime Time at 7 p.m., where they showed a film by Yvonne Murray from China on the origin of the virus. This is still not certain. Yvonne filmed in the Wuhan market and at a press conference with Chinese officials. Not many answers. I said it was disconcerting that months after the first case we don’t know exactly where the virus came from. I interviewed Adrian Hill – asked him what he thought. He said it was right to examine these rare cases but that there was no need to stop the vaccination campaign, which is what the EMA are saying too. So, our government has gone against the EMA and the MHRA in the UK. Brave of them.
A Norwegian scientist talked about what happened in the four people with clots. Germany is reporting cases of clotting too, so the numbers are rising somewhat.
Big meeting in the lab with Tristram, and also Roger, our clotting expert. He was on Zoom. It was dead good! The data are looking great. DMF is clearly blocking clotting factors both in macrophages and also in a mouse model of clotting in the lungs. Oooh … here’s hoping. Might this be a whole new way to stop clotting during infection?
SATURDAY 20 MARCH
Well, I’ve made it. I was slagged off big time on Callan’s Kicks: ‘Luke O’Neill is everywhere.’ He had me being elected Pope (In the Name of the Pfizer), winning an Oscar and also on the moon with Neil Armstrong, telling Neil he was outside his 5k. It was laugh-out-loud funny. Thanks for helping my immune system, Oliver. It’s no wonder there’s no far-right here – Oliver and his ilk are so good at taking the piss, it must destroy their credibility. Ah, they’ll miss me when COVID-19 is gone!
SUNDAY 21 MARCH
Got a classic nasty email: O’Neill, you are the most annoying man on TV. Your voice is grating. You’ve got what you deserved, being called out by Philip Nolan and Oliver Callan. Ha! Ha! I’m sick of your stupid smile and stupid phrases about beer gardens being opened. Just go away. From a very disappointed Trinity graduate. Maybe I should ask him or her for a donation to our Trinity COVID-19 centre?
But on the plus side, I got a lovely letter from poet Gerald Dawe. He sent me a copy of his book Looking Through You, which is a quote from a Beatles song. He said how he loved my choice of ‘Getting Better’ at the end of the Prime Time edition. A nice counterbalance to the nasty stuff.
MONDAY 22 MARCH
Great session with Pat about the huge promise of the Sanofi vaccine, which is in development and looks promising. I told him it had a great immune booster in it – a biochemical called squalene. Can’t beat getting the odd scientific term in! And how something we covered before is looking better. A drug called clofazimine, discovered in Trinity for leprosy all those years ago, can kill SARS-CoV2.
TUESDAY 23 MARCH
My old dad would be 100 today! Always think of him on his birthday. Big Joseph, as we used to call him, even though his name was Kevin. This was because of a song he used to sing from World War Two: ‘This is the end of Big Joseph. Big Joseph is dying tonight.’ Cheery little number.
Chaired a big conference for the Royal Society today on cancer and the immune system. A welcome break from COVID-19. The biggest breakthrough in cancer is waking up the immune system to kill tumours. It’s working and, dare I say it, it’s getting better all the time. Some excellent speakers. And there was talk of using the new vaccine technology to beat cancer too. It’s happening, I tell you, it’s happening!
THURSDAY 25 MARCH
Bit of a red-letter day. I was presented with the George Sigerson Award by the UCD Biological Society. It’s given to someone who has inspired others in the biological sciences, and I was truly honoured to receive it. Nobel Prize-winner Paul Nurse is a former winner. I gave a Zoom to a load of students and I told them my own history. Also gave them the big message from the movie Little Miss Sunshine – ‘Do what you love and fuck the rest.’ It went off very well and I’m beaming!
SATURDAY 27 MARCH
Spent the whole day at the virtual Irish Science Teachers’ Association annual meeting. There were all kinds of interesting talks and presentations. Yet again I’m blown away by the commitment of our science teachers. There was a talk on how to handle difficult people. The speaker called them CAVE people (Completely Against Virtually Everything). I know lots of people like that. Message was to avoid them and try not to be one yourself!
I gave a talk too – usual update on COVID-19 to help the teachers as they get asked a lot of questions, from both pupils and parents. They are doing such a good job at keeping the schools open and looking after their pupils.
MONDAY 29 MARCH
Big vaccine chat with Pat. So positive (apart from the AstraZeneca debacle). We did a lot on the vaccine supply. So many production plants are now running at full speed all over the world, churning out these magnificent vaccines. All the companies helping each other: Merck helping Johnson & Johnson, GSK helping Sanofi. The list goes on. They’re even making a nasal form of the AstraZeneca vaccine. Israel just looks better and better. Here we go!
Claire Byrne Live tonight was brill. Just keep going, keep going. They made models of the three variants (UK, South Africa and Brazil). I could talk about the science of them. All three have the Nelly mutation and so are more transmissible. They spread more and your lungs might take in more, making you sicker. The vaccines work against the UK variant. They work less well against the others but should protect you from severe disease. The other two have the mutation called ‘Eek’, which leads to antibodies binding less effectively. We’re not fully sure so, as ever, we must be cautious. Public health measures will stop them spreading. We don’t want any more variants, if you please. The virus only has so many tricks up its sleeve. It may have played its best shot.
TUESDAY 30 MARCH
Meeting on Zoom with the governor of Mountjoy prison. He has asked me to give a talk to all the prisoners and staff, which will be beamed into all the prisons in Ireland. Prisoners have done well so far, but they were hearing all kinds of things from their families and there is a level of vaccine hesitancy. I will reassure them all. Imagine being stuck in a prison during a pandemic with your loved ones outside. The Irish prisons have done a tremendous job at keeping infections under control.
WEDNESDAY 31 MARCH
A momentous announcement from the Taoiseach. Vaccinated people can meet up! The start of the vaccine bonus with a lot more bonuses to come. And people in nursing homes can have two visitors inside per week. Get ready, Desiree! We’re coming out of it now for sure. I can really feel it.
Got home exhausted and slumped in front of the TV. Luxury! Watched a documentary about Jack Charlton. Ah, those glorious days. I was in Cambridge when David O’Leary scored the famous penalty against Romania. Jack passed last year and sadly had dementia. A heartbreaking scene had him watching the famous penalty shoot-out but he had no memory of it. He did, however, call out one name: ‘There’s Paul McGrath!’ They had such a special relationship, and Paul said how Jack was like a father to him. Very moving. Yet again, I wonder will our drug with Roche impact on dementia and Alzheimer’s.
March comes to an end. Apart from the AstraZeneca snafu, a great month. Vaccines are working, with more to come. Case numbers and numbers of people in the ICU falling too. And Israel looks promising.
Come on. We can do this.