PICNIC WOULD BE SAFE, SAYS EXPERT
ELECTRIC Picnic should go ahead this year, according to Professor Luke O’Neill.
The festival had been scheduled to take place in Stradbally, Co. Laois, from September 2426, with a planned attendance of 70,000, but hopes were dashed last week after Laois County Council refused to grant a licence for the event.
However, the professor of biochemistry and immunology at Trinity College said we must start living with Covid. He added that the age demographic of the festival, along with widespread vaccination and antigen tests, would make it safe.
‘The evidence would suggest it would be possible to run it – under certain circumstances, of course, not blithely by any means,’ said Prof. O’Neill, who has previously taken part in a talk at the festival. He told RTÉ’s Today With Claire Byrne that when assessing whether these events should go ahead, it is important to consider their potential effect on hospitals.
He said: ‘The main criteria all through Covid is, “Will something overwhelm the healthcare system?” If running Electric Picnic did that, you shouldn’t run it... [But] because it’s outdoors, because it’s young people, and full vaccination is mandatory for this event, that should suggest it wouldn’t overwhelm the healthcare system.
‘Electric Picnic is mainly under25s. They have a great immune system, they’ve been vaccinated as well.’ He added that such an event would be a boost to many as we are facing ‘the worst mental health crisis this country has ever seen’.