By Claire Scott, Michael O’Farrell
THERE will be ‘more than enough’ Covid vaccines for everyone in Ireland, with 20 million vaccine doses available for use here, the Irish Mail on Sunday understands.
‘The European Commision signed advanced purchase agreements for just under 1.4 billion vaccines across six candidate vaccines with an option on another half a billion, that’s bringing you very close to 2 billion,’ according to a source familiar with the development of the country’s plans for rolling out the vaccine in 2021.
‘Ireland gets a population-proportionate share of that, about 1.11%. Close to 20 million vaccines.’
Asked if healthcare workers and the elderly would take priority when vaccines are rolled out, the source said this had yet to be decided and that many countries had taken different approaches.
‘There’s a lot of similarities with us and countries across the world, some have made their decisions and some haven’t,’ the source said.
‘In the UK, they’re making their decision primarily on age. France is taking a different view, they’re looking at frontline workers, teachers – frontline in terms of exposure.
‘There are different approaches here but there are various groups examining the issue, looking at all considerations. That decision has not been taken. It’s under discussion at NPHET and other places. No recommendations have come forward yet. ‘Everyone will be considered – priortisation is the wrong word, sequencing is the word.
‘There are fewer than five million people in Ireland, we’ll have more than enough vaccines. In the first half or two thirds of 2021, we can’t do everyone at the same time, but everyone will have the option to get a vaccine, no doubt about that.’ Ensuring that clear and fact-based communication is made available to the public will also be a focal point of the safe rollout of the vaccine and fighting misinformation and ‘active disinformation’ will be crucial.
The source said: ‘Getting strong and clear fact-based messages to the public will be critical with regard to the uptake of the vaccine and we’ll be relying a lot on experts. Dr Luke O’Neill saying during the week he would be first in the queue to get the vaccine – people who understand vaccines and the technology behind both the existing and the new ones; these are the people we should be listening to.
‘By listening to the head of the European Medicines Agency, Emer Cooke, you would be very confident listening to all the checks and balances that are involved here. Misinformation and active disinformation is out there and, of course, we can get all the other parts of the strategy right, but if we don’t get the communication right, that will hinder our progress.’ The first full meeting of the High-Level Task Force on Covid-19 Vaccination took place on November 23 and was chaired by Professor Brian MacCraith.
The task force is made up of senior representatives from the Department of Health, the Health Service Executive, the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer, the Office of Government Procurement, IDA Ireland, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and the Department of the Taoiseach, together with experts in the area of logistics. At the meeting, the members set out their goal for the taskforce to develop a safe and efficient strategy for the rolling out of the vaccine. The task force is due to have its second meeting on Monday.
Meanwhile, a member of the European Public Health Alliance has called for transparency in how the vaccine is rolled out. Yannis Natsis told the Irish Mail on Suday: ‘Transparency is the only way forward.’ Mr Natsis, who also sits on the management board of the European Medicines Agency, said the secret vaccine deals concluded by the EU Commission must be published.
‘Meaningful transparency is the only way to counter the anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists. That’s fundamental,’ he said.
On November 12, Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides informed the EU Parliament the Commission was ‘ready to explore making information from the contracts available to nominated members of the Parliament, with specific arrangements, once the sensitive ongoing negotiations are concluded’.
But recently a spokesman for the Commissioner told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘We have to bear in mind that the Commission is bound by strict confidentiality clauses and that it is important to abide by them.’ That, according to Yannis Natsis, is simply not good enough if public confidence in the system is to be maintained. ‘I think the contracts must be published,’ he said. ‘Even if publication is retroactive.
‘We need to create a positive precedent for any future round of negotiations because right now the Commission is doing this confidentially.’
