Keep Calm and Trust the Science E-Book

Luke O'Neill

• Herausgeber: Gill Books
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Beschreibung

Professor Luke O'Neill has become one of the most well-known and trusted voices of Ireland's COVID-19 pandemic, thrust into the spotlight as we struggled to make sense of a crisis that saw the country grind to a halt. In these personal diaries, Luke reveals what life was like behind the scenes as he endeavoured to keep calm and trust that the science would save us. Luke's lockdown diaries show the highs and lows of work at the cutting edge in his Trinity College lab, as well as his experience of the disappointments and the breakthroughs in science around the world, and ultimately the contribution scientists made to the health outcomes of millions globally. Shot through with the natural positivity and humour that have made Luke a home-grown hero, Keep Calm and Trust the Science is a compelling account of a dramatic year in Irish history from one of its key players.

Leseprobe

KEEPCALM

AND TRUST

THESCIENCE

AN EXTRAORDINARY YEAR INTHE LIFE OF AN IMMUNOLOGIST

PROFESSOR

LUKE O’NEILL

Gill Books

To all the scientists working on COVID-19,whose work will finally release usfrom the pandemic.

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Dedication

Introduction

January 2020

February 2020

March 2020

April 2020

May 2020

June 2020

July 2020

August 2020

September 2020

October 2020

November 2020

December 2020

January 2021

February 2021

March 2021

April 2021

Epilogue

Acknowledgements

Copyright

About the Author

About Gill Books

INTRODUCTION

At the beginning of 2020 things were looking really good for me. I’d been a research scientist from 1985, when I did a research project on Crohn’s disease. I then trained as a scientist in the UK, continuing to work on inflammatory diseases, moving into rheumatoid arthritis. Finally, I established my own lab in Trinity College Dublin and, with my team, made some interesting discoveries about the immune system, and how it goes wrong in various diseases. I’d published lots of papers, and even won some awards, including becoming a Fellow of the Royal Society in the UK. Having ‘FRS’ after your name makes you something of a Jedi knight, although as one friend told me at the time, it stands for ‘Former Research Scientist’.

So the science was going well, and that had allowed me to do two other things that give me great satisfaction and pleasure: communicating science and turning scientific discovery into new treatments for patients.

I became an academic because I like teaching. I’d been doing that for the general public too. I’d had a weekly slot with Pat Kenny on Newstalk radio for a few years. I had written two columns for the Sunday Independent, with a promise of more to come. I had done a bit of TV, including making a documentary on RTÉ about the Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger. He had worked in Dublin and given his famous ‘What Is Life?’ lectures in 1943, which sparked the revolution in biology that led to the structure of DNA being solved, explaining how genetics works. I’d loved all that.

In December 2019 I’d been asked to help with a Prime Time item on synthetic meat and had almost finished writing my second science book for a lay audience – named, to my great joy – Never Mind the B#ll*cks, Here’s the Science. I’d already published Humanology, about the science of being human, and a science book for children called The Great Irish Science Book, both of which had done well. I’d grown to love all of it – the radio, a bit of TV and the books – because I want to communicate science to as many as I can reach.

In early 2020 we were also making advances with new medicines, begun in my lab, for patients with serious diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. The company I had co-founded, Inflazome, was attracting interest from a couple of big pharmaceuticals and I thought it possible that one might offer to buy us. This was an especial thrill. Even though I had published lots of papers, I wanted my discoveries to ultimately help patients, and that was becoming an increasing possibility. I’d failed in that before with a company called Opsona, so there were no guarantees; but it was looking more and more likely.

All of this is what I thought I would be doing with my science in 2020: generating data, benefiting patients – and hopefully having fun along the way. It was going to be a special year.

I was also becoming aware of a new coronavirus. And so I decided to keep a diary, something I hadn’t done since I was a teenager. Every night, usually well after midnight, like a 21st-century Samuel Pepys, I would record what had happened during the day. When everyone else was in bed asleep, I’d be working.

Yet I never imagined that, like Pepys, I’d be writing about a plague.

JANUARY 2020

THURSDAY 16 JANUARY

Woke up in the Pickwick Hotel, San Francisco. Saw the headline: ‘Chinese respiratory illness claims first life’. So there’s this new virus in China. Intriguing, but nothing to worry about. It could be like SARS.

Went for a delicious steak dinner with Jeremy, Angus and Thomas, my Inflazome colleagues. Too much red wine, but we deserved it. Spent the last four days trying to interest all the big pharmaceutical companies in us. We have a drug that might treat Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, ulcerative colitis, asthma, heart disease, you name it. And it’s not snake oil. It’s an NLRP3 inhibitor, so there. NLRP3 is a really important inflammatory protein that goes wrong in so many diseases, and we might have found a great way to stop it.

Damp and cold outside. Loads of meetings. All the drug companies here as usual and we made our pitches again. Several are interested in us, which is great. Good to have competition. But Roche seem especially keen. They sent 20 people to meet us. We sat on one side of the table, and all 20 sat on the other side in a huge big line, poker face after poker face.

The latest on this Wuhan virus, though, is that it has killed someone. The Chinese don’t seem too worried because they think it just passes from animals to humans. No evidence yet for human-to-human transmission. But they are watching things closely.

I avoid virologists at conferences as they always bang on about the risk of a global pandemic. Fun-crushers! Looked into it a bit. On 31 December the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission put information on its website saying there was a pneumonia outbreak in the city of ‘unknown aetiology’. Reuters picked up on it. The origin was likely to be Huanan seafood wholesale market: it had been heavily disinfected and stallholders were all told to wear masks. Hong Kong responded by saying they would put anyone coming from Wuhan into a 14-day quarantine. They had SARS before and don’t want a repeat.

The same day the Shanghai Centre for Disease Control said they were able to contain it and no human-to-human transmission had been reported. That’s enough of that.

Today I have to fact check more chapters in my new book, Never Mind the B#ll*cks, Here’s the Science. So pleased with myself that I came up with the title, which came to me on a flaming pie over Christmas.

Right, up and at ’em! First a big American breakfast in the Pickwick’s restaurant. It has lots of drawings of Dickens’s Pickwick Papers on the wall. I like this hotel: old fashioned and comfortable and my desk at the window has a good view of downtown San Francisco. All the cars rushing by, each with people with their own separate cares.

I’ll do the chapter on vaccines today.

SATURDAY 18 JANUARY

About to take off. Long haul to London and then Dublin. It’s been a good week. We met them all – GSK, Pfizer, Eli Lilly, Takeda, BMS, Novo Nordisk, Sanofi. All the big boys. Literally boys. I noted how many women were in the meetings – 10 per cent, I’d say. Why is that? I much prefer meetings with a mix. All the men look and dress like me. Jacket and trousers. Shirt but no tie. Checking our phones every five minutes.

Heard from Eithne of Prime Time that the clip I sent of me eating an Impossible Burger in Burger King in San Francisco, for her piece on the future of meat, worked well. She had interviewed me on 3 January in my lab for a piece she’s doing on lab-made meat and then asked me to eat one in Burger King. Me and Jeremy had fun filming it – a welcome break from all the meetings. It will be the first time on Prime Time for me – delighted Eithne asked me and it was great working with her. I suspect this will be my one and only time on Prime Time, so I thought: why not?

Settling into my nine-hour flight, but it’s OK – no one can get at me! I pull the blanket over me as the US and the Atlantic Ocean rush beneath me. A sense that I’m going somewhere. Reflected a bit on Inflazome. It began with the discovery in my lab in Trinity of a drug that blocked the inflammatory protein NLRP3. We knew it might be useful for many diseases. That led to a conversation at a conference in Australia with Matt Cooper, a chemist working in the University of Queensland. Between us we hatched the plan, with backing from Manus Rogan of Fountain Healthcare Partners, who invests in new companies. Matt’s lab improved on the initial drug (which had been found by Pfizer) and we tested what he made. Now we have some very interesting ones that we think could really work. We need a big pharmaceutical company to take them on now, and get them to patients. Imagine that. What a dream that would be. And it might well happen this year.

I thought about other academics who make discoveries and then try and make them count by forming companies. Many don’t realise us ivory-tower types can raise finance and get companies going and yet it’s not uncommon. Here’s hoping it all works out.

MONDAY 20 JANUARY

In Rotterdam. Oh, this is a good one! Conference on viruses and immunometabolism has begun. All about how viruses change how immune cells use nutrients. A new idea really, as there is evidence that when a virus infects a cell, it changes how that cell uses glucose and fats. If we can understand more about that we might come up with better ways to stop viruses. There was some chat in the coffee break today about this new Wuhan virus in between the usual topics us scientists talk about. How we were shafted by a journal that wouldn’t publish our work, or a grant agency that won’t give us money. Or some rival dissing our work. It’s therapy.

Some of the scientists here are experts on SARS so they are hungry for more information. They don’t seem especially worried. One said to me that it will be quickly contained as the Chinese learned from SARS and can efficiently isolate infected people. We did learn, though, that 41 people are reported to have died so far. A funny-looking pneumonia, it seems.

Great meeting John Hiscott again – old friend and collaborator. He’s currently working in Rome doing more work on interferons and how they limit viruses. He has new stuff on Dengue virus. John typifies what I love about this job. Very generous guy. Always encouraging. I remember when I first got to know him at a conference I organised in Dublin in 2003. Five hundred immunologists in Dublin Castle for the big reception. I was at the top of the stairs welcoming them all and he came up to me and shook my hand and thanked me for getting him to Ireland, where he had the inevitable ancestors who had emigrated to Canada in the 1800s. He gazed around St Patrick’s Hall in awe, and I could see a tear in his eye. The Old Country. I said to him, John, it was the Brits who built this place. He laughed out loud. Can’t beat two colonials slagging off the Brits.

WEDNESDAY 22 JANUARY

The podcast I did with Blindboy a couple of weeks ago has gone down well. It was a great romp through immunology. I’m a big fan of Blindboy – he has huge warmth and humanity about him.

After dinner with the virologists, I walked back through the docks in Rotterdam – cold, foggy and atmospheric. Made me think of what the city must have been like in the old days – a bustling port, taverns full of sailors. I feel like I’m in a movie when suddenly there’s a timeslip and I’m dressed in 17th-century clothes and about to get on a ship. Weird. Must have been the copious wine at dinner.

The virologists are anxious. One from New York said there was a report of the first case of this new virus in the USA, so it hasn’t been contained by the Chinese. And the evidence now indicates that there is human-to-human transmission. It suddenly looks more serious. He said that if it hits the US it might mean more research funding, which has been neglected in the area of coronaviruses. Typical scientist – always looking for funding! He is still hopeful that if it’s related to SARS it might be possible to quickly contain it.

Went to bed with the song ‘Rotterdam (Or Anywhere)’ by the Beautiful South playing on Spotify (ah the joy of Spotify!). Nice little guitar riff on that one.

THURSDAY 23 JANUARY

On with Pat Kenny on Newstalk. Did it from my hotel in Rotterdam. Talked a bit about the Wuhan virus. In my mind because of all these virologists. Gave the history, and Pat had some killer questions – will it be just like SARS? Told him SARS had emerged in 2002, got to 37 countries, infected 8,000 and killed 69. MERS then cropped up in 2012, infected 2,500 and killed over 800. All planes and trains have been stopped coming out of Wuhan and 41 events have been cancelled. Pat and I agreed that this was one to watch.

Thinking about it afterwards, it does look like China might be suppressing information. The BBC says that scientists and doctors were told not to publish anything and to transfer all samples to one institution. An ophthalmologist has reportedly been officially reprimanded for making false comments on the cases of the SARS-like disease in the Huanan market. Another scientist did, however, release the sequence for the virus on 10 January. Secretly sent it to a lab in Melbourne where it was passed to one in Edinburgh. A new virus, alright.

Also looks like that by early January, Chinese scientists had ruled out 26 other respiratory viruses and by 3 January they had found a new virus, naming it 2019-nCoV. Imagine being the person to see that virus first. Mind you, may not be that big a deal if it’s like SARS, which could be contained. The first death was recorded on 9 January – a 61-year-old man with chronic liver disease. The WHO have said that China has responded quickly to contain the virus. Good news.

Also read today that China has reported finding a bat virus with 96 per cent similarity to the new coronavirus – so it might have come from a bat, just like SARS. A publication has also stated that the entry point for the virus into cells is the same as SARS: a protein on lung cells called ACE2. So there’s no doubt in my mind that this new virus is highly related to the SARS virus.

FRIDAY 24 JANUARY

Saw something worrying today in The Lancet. People can be asymptomatic for several days before developing the disease, which might increase the risk of contagiousness. This is not like SARS, where people with symptoms are the ones who spread the disease. The Lancet also published a very good paper confirming human-to-human transmission. We could be in much bigger trouble than we thought.

SUNDAY 26 JANUARY

On a flight to Denver for the big Keystone immunology meeting in Boulder. I had trouble getting to sleep last night. I was thinking about the piece I’d written for the Sunday Independent on this new virus in China. Name is currently 2019-nCoV, or 2019 new coronavirus.

Don’t want to frighten people – there’s a lot we don’t know. So I said there was nothing to be too frightened of yet. It has no name yet – I suggested ‘Wuhan Respiratory Syndrome’ or WURS. That would make it easy to remember as it’s like its relatives, MERS or SARS. I wrote that if it’s a bad descendant of SARS, it might cause worse disease, although so far that doesn’t seem to be the case. I did say that one worry is that they now know that it can spread from human to human. A man working at the seafood market in Wuhan caught it and then spread it to his wife who hadn’t been to the market. It causes pneumonia. Those who become sick have a cough, fever and breathing difficulties. Those who have died are known to have been already in poor health. The Chinese are trying to stop it spreading. Travel restrictions have been imposed. The Chinese and the WHO are hopeful that it can be contained like SARS, but they have highlighted the role of ‘super-spreaders’ – one person spreading it to many, as seems to have happened in Wuhan. The WHO have also said that the world now needs to act as one against this new virus.

Every five minutes I’m getting another update. Since writing the piece, disturbingly, the whole province of Hubei has gone into quarantine. That’s millions of people in quarantine. They must be worried. And Hong Kong has declared a state of emergency, closing all schools. Jeez.

TUESDAY 28 JANUARY

Went to some interesting talks at the conference, especially one on coeliac disease by my old friend Ludvig Sollid – whose surname I always thought reflected his science … Ludvig the Solid. Got to know him on an immunology committee I chaired at the European Research Council for three years. He’s a world expert on coeliac disease and his talk was a great update on this issue, which is common in Ireland, most likely for genetic reasons.

The deadline for Never Mind looms – finished the addiction chapter in my hotel room, and then gave a talk to undergraduate students from the University of Colorado. They would not normally attend the main conference but the organisers are keen to involve them. Thirty of them traipsed into quite a small room so they were a bit on top of me. It was a great atmosphere and a great session. They were keen and asked lots of questions on cytokines and innate immunity. The next generation! No mention of the Wuhan virus so it hasn’t quite registered yet, which is good.

Word has come from Germany indicating that indeed, this virus can spread from one person to another with no symptoms. This worries me. It looks like it’s spreading widely. Only a matter of time until it hits Ireland. Also – scientists in Australia have reported that they can successfully grow and study the new virus. All we can do right now is hope that public health measures can control it. I feel unease, however.

WEDNESDAY 29 JANUARY

Gave my talk at the conference. A tiny bit nerve-racking. Wi-Fi was down in the hotel so I told the audience that for once they should pay full attention as opposed to being on their phones (which is the way of things these days). Talk went well, though. Gave them our new data on itaconate as a possible anti-inflammatory agent. Itaconate is made in inflammatory cells; our data points to it being a natural anti-inflammatory factor. May well have potential for several diseases, just like our NLRP3 inhibitors.

Taxi ride all the way from Boulder to Denver Airport with three other scientists. I always feel a bit melancholic heading home after a great conference. You get used to the rhythms of each day and I enjoy hanging out with other like-minded scientists. The buzz of the chat. People are always surprised when I tell them how sociable scientists are. We’re like everyone else, really. The taxi drove through beautiful scenery; the snowy peaks of Colorado. Saying goodbye to my fellow scientists, we all shared how much we were looking forward to our next conference in the coming months.

Denver airport is magnificent. Huge white structures that look like snowy mountaintops and a huge sculpture of a horse on its hind legs. Saw in the airport that Air Canada, British Airways and Lufthansa have cancelled all flights to and from China. Air Canada says until 29 February. They must think the whole thing might be in abeyance by that date.

THURSDAY 30 JANUARY

Landed in Heathrow and got another flight to Manchester, where I’m assessing the Medical School in the University of Manchester. Dermot Kelleher, a former colleague from Trinity now in Vancouver, and Alan Irvine from the Children’s Hospital in Crumlin are also part of the committee. We gave a good grilling and then the three of us had a few drinks in the bar. Three Paddies together again. I defied the jet lag (not much sleep in 48 hours) with good whiskey and excellent conversation. Dermot asked me what I thought of this new virus. I said it’s interesting alright but we both agreed nothing to worry about yet.

The WHO, however, declared today that the virus was a ‘Public health emergency of international concern’ and that all countries should get ready for testing and isolation of those infected. The fear level went up a notch reading that. I wonder how many countries will heed that call? It’s now very certain that there is human-to-human transmission going on. This was uncertain earlier this month but I wonder if the Chinese knew all along and didn’t act on that?

China is already developing a vaccine. Now that’s fast! Could take months. Let’s hope it’s not years. The quickest vaccine ever – for mumps – took four years. Good Lord. If it takes four years and this gets really bad, then we’re fucked. Steady now, Luke. Steady.

FRIDAY 31 JANUARY

Home at last! Pure exhaustion. Slept the sleep of a dead man for 20 hours. You know, that feeling when you lie down on clean sheets and immediately relax fully and fall into a deep sleep. Great to see my wife Marg and younger son Sam again. Absence makes the heart grow fonder … but I must avoid familiarity breeding contempt. It’s funny how sayings always have an opposite. Maybe we should just combine them. Absence breeds contempt? Many hands spoil the broth?

I wake up and read on my phone that a new committee has been set up by the government to co-ordinate the national response to the virus. Catchy name, though: National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET), pronounced ‘Nefet’. Looked up the membership and can’t see a single scientist on it. Bah!

Italy has now declared a state of emergency. The first EU country to do so. So has the US, who say they are closing their borders to all foreign nationals. And Trump just banned all flights from China.

A lot of talk about bats in the science literature today. They seem to tolerate coronaviruses by ramping down their inflammatory response. This might involve my favourite protein, NLRP3, which can drive inflammation during infection but is absent in bats. Is it possible that we humans invaded the bats’ territory and so the virus then infected us? Revenge for us ruining their environment? This debate will rage on.

Had a cup of tea in front of the telly and fell into another deep sleep. I like it when January ends. Yet looking back, it was a good one. A successful trip to San Francisco, which might help us sell Inflazome. Progress with Never Mind. Two great conferences, and the hope of publishing our work.

Typical enough, I guess, except for one thing. This virus. Can’t help but think of the movie I watched on one of those many flights. It was called The Gathering Storm.

FEBRUARY 2020

SUNDAY 2 FEBRUARY

Another month begins. St Bridget’s Day. I always feel winter is starting to yield when we get to February. I think I can see the tips of buds on the trees just outside the front door getting a bit sticky. Weather still red raw though.

Saw in the news that several landmark buildings in the United Arab Emirates were illuminated on Sunday night to show support for Wuhan and Chinese communities around the world. This was to recognise the suffering they’ve been going through. Nice gesture.

WEDNESDAY 5 FEBRUARY

A lot of teaching this week. Lectures to final-year immunologists and biochemists. I give my usual cytokines lectures. I really enjoyed giving these – you can’t beat cytokines! These are the proteins that control every aspect of the immune response in our bodies. I’ve been working on them since 1985, when not many were known. There are now hundreds of them. I tell the students how blocking them can really work in some inflammatory diseases. Such a complex business. All the acronyms must drive the students mad: JAK, STAT, SOCS, NF-kappa B, MYD88, MAL (the one I named, yay!), TRAM, TRIF. Like a whole new language. Always mention how knowing this stuff might help us get new therapies for diseases like rheumatoid arthritis. It’s striking how many new medicines have come from the world of cytokines.

Met with Trinity’s technology transfer office in the Science Gallery café to talk about Inflazome. Gave them an update on how things had gone in San Francisco and how you never know, we might be bought and Trinity, as a shareholder in the company, might make some money! Very long shot – but you never know. I could tell by the way they looked at me that they could sense something in what I told them.

THURSDAY 6 FEBRUARY

Today’s Pat Kenny show was in front of a live audience, broadcast from the Cliff House restaurant on St Stephen’s Green. A sponsor, I guess. I discussed the latest science on why we go grey. It turns out that cells in our scalp makes a natural type of bleach, which makes our hair go grey. Most of the audience were grey, like me and Pat, so I told them all we’re all in the same grey-headed club and they laughed.

Didn’t talk about coronavirus even though the US reported its first death today – a woman died of myocarditis (heart inflammation) caused by the coronavirus. The WHO have also said that there are no known therapeutics or drugs that are effective against the virus. This is to counter a lot of reports on possible therapies working, with the WHO saying they don’t work. It seems all kinds of snake-oil salesmen are coming out of the woodwork. I suspect there will be a lot more of this kind of thing.

Went for my usual slot on The Six O’Clock Show with Muireann and Martin. (I’ve been on a few times. The first time I was on I plugged my previous book Humanology when, during the interview on the science of attraction, I asked Muireann if she was ovulating. Deirdre O’Kane, who was also a guest that time, found this very funny. Later we were in the kitchen, standing around chef Kevin Dundon as he poured hot chocolate sauce over a sponge cake. Deirdre shouted, ‘Jaysus, I’ve just ovulated!’)

We talked about how optimism is good for your immune system, and how to stay optimistic in these wintry days and we always have a laugh or two. Badly needed in these dark days of February! After the show I got a taxi into the city centre, where the science students in Trinity asked me to be the MC for a fundraiser quiz in J.W. Sweetman’s pub. It was packed to the rafters, everyone shouting and roaring. Myself and two colleagues, Emma Creagh and Áine Kelly, shared out the questions. Then they handed me a guitar to play songs for the music round. What am I, a performing seal? Didn’t mind at all, of course. Great to see the students doing this kind of thing, kicking back a bit and enjoying themselves.

SATURDAY 8 FEBRUARY

Guest of honour at the Irish Science Teachers’ Association annual dinner. I am the incoming president. The outgoing president is weatherman Ger Fleming. He was supposed to come along and hand the chain of office over to me, but two things happened on the way to the dinner. First, he was called away to some weather emergency in Eastern Europe; and then, while he was away, the ceremonial chain was stolen from his house. An inauspicious start to my term of office.

I made an after-dinner speech and told them the story of how I had met up again with my old biology teacher from Bray. I’d been on the radio last summer, interviewed by Keelin Shanley. It was a great interview as I was very fond of Keelin. She had a degree in biochemistry from Trinity, so we chatted about the science of what I’m doing in the lab. She asked me how I’d got into biology, and I mentioned my old teacher Fran Mooney. He’d really inspired us all – in fact, I can still remember the day he told us about DNA.

A week or so later I got a letter from him to thank me for mentioning him. He said he might turn up at my next public lecture. And lo and behold, he did. It was in the Smock Alley Theatre. He came up to me at the end and I put my hand out. He grabbed me and gave me a big hug. As we separated he said, ‘Er, I don’t remember you.’ Thanks, Fran. We’re blessed in Ireland with our cohort of science teachers who make a huge difference. It’s one reason why Ireland does well when it comes to overall scientific literacy. Long may it continue and to hell with the begrudgers!

TUESDAY 11 FEBRUARY

Dinner for the board of Inflazome after the first board meeting of the year. I love meeting the investors and board members who are, more often than not, scientists themselves. They come to Dublin from Europe and the US and it’s great to chat to them, not just about Inflazome, but other things they are working on. They are very smart people – often have medical degrees, PhDs, MBAs. I guess they have to, as they are handling so much money! We had a delicious dinner in the Marker Hotel. Lots of good wine. This is standard – a reward for all the hard work, but also a chance to relax and talk issues through in a more convivial setting, which can help the business side no end. Ended up in the bar after as Dhaval, who is a key board member, formerly of Novartis, loves Irish whiskey. Great chat about possible future companies.

News on this coronavirus continues to emerge from China, and we spoke a bit about that. Dhaval said it looks a bit more serious with Wuhan going into quarantine. But we all agreed that hopefully, like SARS, it will be contained. No sign from what I can tell that it’s any worse.

And the virus has a name! The WHO have named it SARS-CoV2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2). Because it’s a close relative of SARS, which has been renamed SARS-CoV1. It must have been like that after World War Two, when the Great War was renamed World War One. And the disease it causes has been named Coronavirus Disease-19 or COVID-19, with 19 because that’s the year it started. I’ll bet people get that mixed up – they’ll think its virus number 19. Still, at least we have a name for the virus and disease now.

WEDNESDAY 12 FEBRUARY

Went to Keelin Shanley’s funeral today. Huge crowd. She was so well loved. Strange I remembered her the other day at the science teachers’ dinner. Had a brief chat with her dad, Derry – knew him from Trinity when he was Dean of the Dental School. He said how I had given Keelin comfort, which I wasn’t aware of. I’d met her a few months back for a drink in Fitzgerald’s when she gave me an update on the experimental treatment she’d been getting at the NIH for her breast cancer. I’d told her how I had lost my own mother at 17 to breast cancer. She said it gave her hope for her own teenage children. Good Lord, it can be a tough old business, this life. I won’t forget Keelin.

THURSDAY 13 FEBRUARY

Pat and I had our first big chat about COVID-19. I explained the difference between SARS-CoV2 and COVID-19, and I said one was the name of the virus and the other the name of the disease, like HIV and AIDS. We talked about whether it can be contained in China.

A good day in the lab today: Z’s paper got accepted for publication in Nature Communications. A very good journal. It was a long journey and I’m happy for Z as he showed such perseverance with it, dealing with lots of criticisms from editors and reviewers, but we won in the end. This happens. People don’t realise how tough it can be on scientists. It’s an important paper about a protein called caspase-4, which we implicated for the first time in asthma. This might stimulate drug companies to go after caspase-4. We raised a few glasses to celebrate, as per usual.

Outbreak on a cruise ship, the Diamond Princess currently in Japan. There have been 218 cases – what is called a high attack rate. It’s worrying because it confirms that COVID-19 is highly contagious. An 80-year-old passenger got off the ship in Hong Kong on 25 January. He began to feel unwell and six days later he was admitted to hospital, where he tested positive for COVID-19. They then tested everyone on board and registered all those positives. The ship was put into quarantine in Yokohama on 4 February and it’s still there.

SATURDAY 15 FEBRUARY

I submitted Never Mind to Gill today. I made lots of back-ups, because imagine if I or they somehow lost it? 80,000 words would have to be rewritten. Even put it on a memory stick for good measure. I read bits of it randomly and still liked it, so I guess that’s what’s important. Satisfaction.

I also gave my first ever online lecture to a big audience organised by Eleanor Fish, the eminent virologist. She said the idea is to allow as many people as possible to attend. Strange experience, talking into my computer screen with no audience reaction. Can’t imagine this being the future. We’re social creatures.

SUNDAY 16 FEBRUARY

On the Brendan O’Connor Show on RTÉ Radio One. I am a big fan of Brendan’s. We have the same sense of humour, I think, and I remember his one and only hit single ‘Who’s in the House? Jesus in the House!’ He’d heard me on Pat Kenny talking about COVID-19 and wanted a quick chat. We also spoke about going grey, as I had a short piece in the Sunday Independent on that. Brendan seemed more worried about that than COVID-19! Strange enough in that I was a big fan of Marian Finucane, who sadly passed away and who Brendan replaced. I’d also thought it would be great to be interviewed by her. It wasn’t to be, and yet there I was on with Brendan.

MONDAY 17 FEBRUARY

Hosted a small meeting in Trinity of immunologists, who came over to discuss projects in the area of immunometabolism in my other company, Sitryx, which is developing new drugs that target metabolism in the immune system as another way to treat inflammatory diseases. We went through some of the projects. Such a productive day.

Over dinner though, all we talked about was COVID-19. I took them to the Ginger Man pub and asked them all, just how serious is this going to be? Jon Powell from Johns Hopkins said cases are going up exponentially in China and nearby countries. Doreen Cantrell from Dundee said the medics in her university are getting concerned as they know that if it was to come to the UK, the hospital system couldn’t cope. Haven’t seen anything quite like this, where someone says something, we are all silent and then someone else says, ‘Can you repeat that?’ A part of me doesn’t believe any of it. Or perhaps what I’m actually feeling is, I don’t want that to be the case. There was definitely a sense of foreboding in the air tonight. We couldn’t change the topic of conversation.

FRIDAY 21 FEBRUARY

Well, a most unusual day. I went to my old hometown of Bray today to give a talk on my Great Irish Science Book. Linda came down from Sligo for it. Great seeing her again – she did such fantastic drawings for it. We did a few demos for the kids. The book has gone down a storm: over 20,000 copies sold and great feedback. Someone came up to me to give out: they can’t get their son to go to school in the morning because all he wants is to read the book!

Had some pints. I wondered would people ask about COVID-19 but no one did. Is it only me who’s worried? Taxi to Dalkey for the St Patrick’s Parish quiz night. The excellent host Gary German always gets a question in for which the answer is the Neil Diamond song ‘Sweet Caroline’ and then leads us all in a rousing, roof-raising chorus. We didn’t win. I blame the Guinness …

MONDAY 24 FEBRUARY

On Claire Byrne Live tonight. We talked about COVID-19 and she got me to show people how to wash their hands. This has become a clear instruction from NPHET. Other respiratory viruses are spread from contaminated surfaces, so the risk with this one and others is that you’ll touch a surface, then at some point put your hand up to your nose or mouth and infect yourself.

There haven’t been any cases in Ireland yet, but even so we’re being told to keep our distance and wash our hands. I explained how soapy water and suds can kill the virus. I said how it dissolves the fatty bag that contains the genetic material for the virus – the RNA. I suspect it’s the first time RNA has been mentioned on the show. Can it be that simple? If it comes here, and here’s hoping it won’t, will that keep it at bay? Keeping our distance is called ‘social distancing’. A new term to learn. Social distancing and hand washing as the two main weapons against COVID-19: can it really be that easy?

TUESDAY 25 FEBRUARY

Two things always come in to mind on 25 February. The first is that this is the day my mother died, 38 years ago. The second is that it’s George Harrison’s birthday. Mind you, he’s dead too. Very cheery …

Gave a talk in St Joseph of Cluny girls’ school at the behest of Kathy in my lab, whose daughter goes there. I asked them at one point to name a virus and they all shouted ‘coronavirus’! Went back into Trinity and signed some documents to release a lot of funding into Inflazome. The power I have as director! This will allow us to press ahead with our plans in the coming months.

WEDNESDAY 26 FEBRUARY

In London to speak at a Trinity UK alumni gathering. My flight back to Dublin from Heathrow was delayed by two hours so I began working on my next column for the Sunday Independent. Found a quiet spot in a bar and got stuck in. I had prepared a piece about how rock bands are increasingly trying to go ‘green’ with carbon-neutral tours but then I thought, no – I’ll write about SARS-CoV2 and COVID-19. I’ll keep the green rock concerts one in reserve for the next time.

Writing about COVID-19 made me realise it could get bad. Shit. I did a lot of research. In China they have shut down cities, cancelled weddings, closed schools. I got the science in, saying how viruses were first seen in 1948 with an electron microscope. How SARS-CoV2 gets into our lungs via a key-and-lock mechanism – the key is the spike protein and the lock is called ACE2. I explained how, once the virus is inside, it acts like an unwanted guest who goes to your fridge, eats your food then goes to your spare room to have sex, making lots of little viruses. They then leave but blow up your house as they do so, irritating your lungs terribly. You then cough the virus out in droplets so it’s important to wear a mask when you have symptoms, as recommended by the WHO.

I tried to reassure people though, reminding them that they have an immune system to protect them. I even mentioned antibodies and cytokines – I hope that’s not too technical. And I’ve reminded them that there are already efforts to get a vaccine, and also treatments for those who get sick. I didn’t tell them it can take years to make a vaccine. Or that we’ve failed to get treatments for other respiratory diseases. But we can hope. In the meantime, I’ve told them to call their GP if they’re sick, isolate themselves, keep surfaces clean, wash their hands. I’ve told them to keep calm, remain vigilant and wait it out. I’ve said that this too will pass, just like SARS did. I hope so.

Also, a big announcement today. The rugby match against Italy scheduled for 7 March will be postponed. Things must be getting serious if they’re postponing a rugby match.

FRIDAY 28 FEBRUARY

On the way into the lab this morning my phone goes on the Dart. It’s The Late Late Show! They’ve asked me to go on tonight.