Dr. Colm Henry:

The Senator has made a very good point. There has been a huge focus on this; the question is one of acceptance and compliance. The danger has not passed, as we found out this winter, and it is not just about Covid. We have a much more transmissible variant of Covid, namely, Omicron, with its subvariants, and another coming through in the United States, XBB.1.5, which will be even more transmissible again. It might not be more serious than any previous variants but it will nevertheless present a threat. Of course, we know influenza is very transmissible every season.

We have been very consistent in our public health advice. We are telling people to adhere to the basics of washing hands, coughing and sneezing into a sleeve, keeping up to date with vaccines and wearing a mask on public transport and in any place where there is overcrowding and congestion. However, as the Senator knows, people's acceptance of that advice has waned as the worst of the pandemic passed over. The experience of the past few weeks shows how important that public health advice is and that prevention is much more effective than treatment of problems once they emerge.