It is five years to the day since then-Taoiseach Leo Varadkar announced that schools, colleges and childcare facilities in Ireland would close until the 29th of March due to COVID-19.

What was initially proposed as a two week closure soon spiralled into a string of lockdowns and restrictions that lasted nearly two years until early 2022.

On this five-year anniversary, immunology professor at Trinity College Luke O'Neill told The Pat Kenny Show that, while we may not remember the pandemic too favourably, it still left some positive impacts.

“What’s happening is, of course, we’re looking back on [COVID-19] now in some ways in amazement, but there are some positives for definite,” he said.

“Let’s start with the one that you might not expect, which is oxygen – that's a strange one.

“So, you may remember people in hospital were put on oxygen and there was a shortage of oxygen, and it was a huge problem, especially in low and middle-income countries, that improved massively.”

Prof O’Neill said this may sound like a minor thing “but oxygen can really save lives”.

Hold oxygen mask. Image: chanawit sitthisombat / Alamy. 2 June 2014

He also said that disease surveillance has since increased, as waters are now more frequently tested for viruses and bacteria, while mRNA vaccines mean we would now be better equipped to tackle another pandemic.

An mRNA vaccine is a preventive treatment that trains your body to fight infectious diseases, which is currently only used in COVID-19 vaccines.

“They stopped people getting severe disease, which, remember at the time people said they don’t really work because they don’t stop you getting infected - which is true - but they do stop you getting a really bad illness,” he said.

“The fact that they were invented was a great thing and they’re the future, of course - if and when the next pandemic arrives, we can deploy the mRNA technology very quickly.

“The other big one is they’re now being used in developing vaccines for cancer, using that technology as well.

"So, in terms of a new invention that came on the back of the crisis, the mRNA vaccines will be seen as a real advance.”

'Probably too stringent'

According to Prof O’Neill, antigen tests were also useful for proving that the public were capable of carrying out home-testing on themselves, something doctors had previously been doubtful of.

He acknowledged that the pandemic had a range of negative impacts across education, social contact and the cost to the taxpayer, however, he said “it’s easy now to say” that measures at the time were “probably too stringent”.

Main image: Luke O'Neill in the Newstalk studio (L) and a man in a high-vis jacket reminding people to social distance during COVID-19 (R).