The pandemic will lead to a number permanent changes in our daily lives – including new building techniques, more mask-wearing and more outdoor socialising, according to Dr Gabriel Scally.

On The Hard Shoulder this evening, the visiting Professor of Public Health at the University of Bristol, said previous pandemics have changed the world ‘enormously.’

He noted that modern water systems were introduced to combat the “terrible cholera epidemics of the 19^th century’ and said between 50 and 60 new schools were built in Belfast due to the high levels of cholera in the north east of the island.

Two women wearing face masks walk past a spaceman with balloons mural in Dublin. Picture by: Sasko Lazarov/RollingNews.ie

He said this pandemic will see a change in “our definition of fresh and clean air.”

“We will see a real change in the way in which buildings are designed,” he said.

“We will have to combine this of course with dealing with climate change but we will see more opening windows - we will see them open more often - and we will see filtration.

“That sort of stuff, I think, will become the normal way of life and it will have to be in the coming years anyway because COVID-19 isn’t going away. We have had three really significant variants so far and there is absolutely no reason why there shouldn’t be a fourth, fifth or even a sixth variant so we really need to make these changes.”

Pictured John Collins, Sandra Whitney, Keelin and Aoibh from Dublin wearing face masks and holding their Covid Vaccine certs in Dublin Airport so they can travel to France, 19-07-2021. Image: Sasko Lazarov/RollingNews

He said masks a more widespread use of masks will be the main change we see in our personal behaviour.

“I think a lot of people – particularly those who have chest problems or other serious conditions, where getting ill really can be very bad news – have recognised how good masks have been in terms of protection,” he said.

“All of us have recognised I think that we haven’t had the usual colds, we haven’t had the usual flus, we haven’t had the outbreaks of the winter vomiting virus – all of that – because we had a more hygienic life.”

Public health

He noted that the Asian culture of wearing masks in certain situations is largely to protect others from any bugs the wearer may be carrying.

“That is a great thing to do and I think there will be a lot of people who will be more cautious about that sort of thing,” he said.

He said societies change all the time and rarely return to the way things were.

“You can’t think oh we are going to go back to what it was like a few years ago – we never do that; we always move on and some of these moves forward are going to be good,” he said.

“The sort of masks we need to wear have to be appropriate for us - not the face coverings we started off at the beginning of the pandemic with because, really, there was nothing else, we needed all the proper ones for the hospitals as well as the staff.

“Things have changed now and there are really better-quality masks available now and we should be wearing those if only because the latest Delta variant is so infectious that we really need good quality, tight-fitting masks with really good filtration.”

Outdoors

He said he expects to see people socialising outdoors more into the future.

“When I think back, there were outdoor schools - the last one in Belfast I think closed in 1960 - but they were operating for decades and they really did a lot of their teaching - when they could because of the weather - out of doors.