Professor Patricia Kearney:

The reason our group is called Zero-Covid Island is because we are an island and it makes sense for us to work together. Separate from the political challenges, there is a history of us working together across health. There has been clear interest in Northern Ireland in taking a zero-Covid approach. We know that the route between Dublin and London is one of the most popular in Europe. In terms of some of the concerns expressed about the consequences if we were to succeed with this approach, the reality economically would be that we could get our economy up and running in Ireland and in the UK and then work together. As other places successfully eliminate the virus, we would continue with that travel. To be clear, we are advocating that people will still be able to come to Ireland. For example, people come here to study to be future doctors and nurses who will be needed to fight this infection internationally. Appropriate processes need to be put in place to make sure that people who need to travel do not transmit the virus, going back to the idea that our goal is zero community transmission.