A biochemistry expert has warned that pubs and spectator sports will not be able to resume any time soon.
Professor Luke O’Neill, Chair of Biochemistry at Trinity College Dublin, outlined the findings of two new studies on The Pat Kenny Show this morning.
The first, published in the journal Nature, proves that 44% of virus infections are spread by people with no symptoms. Meanwhile, 50% of people who have been diagnosed with the virus have not experienced any symptoms.
The second study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, proves the theory that the virus can be spread through speaking.
The Phil Lynnot statue outside Bruxelles Pub wears a mask, 19-03-2020. Image: RollingNewsProfessor O’Neill said we release microscopic aerosols droplets that carry the virus when we talk – and the louder you speak, the more droplets you generate.
“That is fascinating because there has always been an idea that places like pubs would be places where transmission would happen a lot,” he said.
“People are shouting at each other and that will generate much more droplets. Now it is clear these tiny little droplets that come out of your mouth when you speak are infectious.”
The authors of the study note that people should be wearing masks wherever an infected person may be nearby. They also warn that places where infected people “are known to be or may recently have been” should be adequately ventilated.
The Oliver St John Gogarty and The Auld Dubliner pubs in an empty Temple Bar in Dublin, 16-03-2020. Image: RollingNewsDr O’Neill said all the evidence now suggests that we should be wearing masks in public.
“I think it is heading in that direction,” he said. “The original idea was that you wear the mask to protect the other person from coughing, but now we know that you can breath the stuff out, you have got to wear a mask to protect the other person for definite.
“This science absolutely supports that.”
He said the studies are also bad news for anyone hoping for the swift return of spectator sports.
“If you have 20,000 people roaring, that is a miasma of virus spreading there all over the stadium,” he said. “It is horrendous.”
“Imagine a football stadium for a minute and there may be 10% of people who are infected and they are all shouting their heads off.
“That little cloud of aerosol will rise above that crowd and blow on the breeze across the pitch to the far side.
“So, the notion, sadly, of big crowds anywhere gathering is definitely gone. That can’t happen for months and months and months.”
The boarded-up Norseman pub in an empty Temple Bar in Dublin, 25-03-2020. Image: Leah Farrell/RollingNewsLater on the in the show, one of the doctors leading Ireland’s response to the virus said officials need to “balance the benefit versus the harm” when deciding whether to recommend ‘masks for all.’
Dr Cillian De Gascun, Director of the National Virus Reference Laboratory, said people who are not used to wearing masks tend to touch them a lot, contaminating their hands and other surfaces.
“It is not about saying people are not capable of wearing them properly it is just, at the population level, what is the balance of risk versus harm?” he said.
“There is evidence to suggest that if people wear masks a lot, that can increase a sense of complacency and it can actually increase the environmental contamination because they touch the mask.
“If you are not used to wearing a mask, the chances are you will adjust it and you will fix it. That is not a criticism of anybody it is just something we have to take into account.”
He said the National Public health Emergency Team would consider the findings of the new studies.
