FEW WOULD BEGRUDGE DR RONAN GLYNN FOR MAKING A BREAK FOR IT

÷TO lose a chief medical officer seems like a misfortune, but to also lose his obvious successor looks like carelessness. That’s the problem faced by Health Minister Stephen Donnelly who, like the rest of us, learned this week that Dr Ronan Glynn, a shoo-in for the top job following the resignation of Dr Tony Holohan, is instead taking a position in the private sector with consultancy firm EY. With the earlier departure of my namesake, Professor Philip Nolan, who became director general of Science Foundation Ireland in January, this means that the three public faces of the pandemic have departed. Dr Glynn, left, is a young man, and many at his age who welcome a career challenge realise it’s now or never – they either leap, or they remain institutionalised and often fossilised until it’s time to collect the pension.

We should, however, bear in mind, that they served Ireland well. The number of excess deaths here – that is, the number above what would be expected in a normal year – was the second-lowest in Europe, trailing only Norway, and among the lowest in the world. It was also half the number registered in Sweden, often celebrated by anti-lockdown and anti-vaccination activists as the model we should have followed.

We should be thankful that, under the stewardship of the CMO, his deputy, and other members of NPHET, we did not.