Professor Luke O’Neill says it would ‘make sense’ to wear face masks during winter flu outbreaks in the future.
The Trinity College immunologist says there’s been ‘hardly any’ flu in Ireland this winter, and that’s likely at least partly down to widespread mask-wearing.
The HSE says there’s been no evidence of influenza viruses circulating in the community during the 2020/21 winter season.
While there’ve been ‘sporadic cases’ of rhinovirus (the common cold virus) and enterovirus, no influenza cases have been confirmed so far.
It comes amid a large-scale flu vaccination programme - including for all young children under 12 - as well as the many social distancing measures in place because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Professor O’Neill told The Pat Kenny Show mask-wearing during flu outbreaks is not a new thing, even if it is new to Ireland.
He said: "It wouldn’t be unusual in Japan to see people wearing masks during a flu outbreak, for instance. That would be the sensible thing to do, so we may be the same.
“The great success, partly, of mask-wearing is less flu in Ireland - that’s probably partly because of mask-wearing.
“We may see sporadic masks and distancing coming out, but obviously we want to get back to some kind of normality as quick as we can.”
Professor O'Neill said in the future we’re likely to see a 'different world' - such as the likes of better ventilation in new buildings - due to the lessons learned from the ongoing pandemic.
He stressed such measures would be nowhere near as stringent as the measures we currently have in place to curb COVID-19.
However, he said it would also make sense for people to wear masks in winter if there was a seasonal flu outbreak.
He explained: “Remember every winter the hospitals were full of trolleys - that was due to flu mainly, and that’s gone away.
“We think it’s partly because of the mask wearing, the hand washing and all the usual things. But there's also less travel of course - international travel brings flu into Ireland every year. Maybe that's another reason.
"It’s a fascination that there’s been hardly any flu this winter.”
