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Politicians have seized on the nerves of the vaccine this week as nerves falter for the launch.
Supporting and opposition deputies have been airing complaints from GPs and local voters as frustration over the pace of vaccines grows.
For two weeks in a row, the HSE has not reached its own goal of 100,000 inoculations per week, although it said this is entirely due to shortfalls in AstraZeneca deliveries.
This ground has been promised to rebound by the end of the month, but next week it also appears to fall short.
Given that the Government’s entire exit strategy from the pandemic is based on vaccinating a critical mass of the population, the missteps have caused alarm.
However, ministers insist that Ireland is performing above average in the EU when making comparisons.
The government’s mantra on vaccines is that supply should be the only limitation.
However, a month before the program is radically expanded, there are fears that the system will not have the agility and resources to meet the challenge.
In the Dáil, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly faced an avalanche of criticism from TDs venting on behalf of voters.
Pádraig Mac Lochlainn from Sinn Féin highlighted the distress caused by the lack of deliveries to GPs in Carndonagh, on the Inishowen Peninsula.
“I got a phone call today from an 89-year-old woman. Her vaccination was recorded and then canceled. She doesn’t know when it will happen. GPs are talking all over the state. As we speak, there is a real problem with logistics regardless of supply problems “.
This gets to the heart of the problem. Supply is outside of Ireland’s control, but logistics and communication are entirely within the purview of the Government and the HSE.
It is on these parameters that the overall program will be judged.
Several GPs have complained about delays in being informed about deliveries.
This has led to patients who show up for their appointments to be greatly disappointed, as the long-awaited jab has to be rescheduled.
Other doctors have received doses but not syringes.
HSE CEO Paul Reid has admitted that the third week of vaccinations for those over 85 has been difficult and said he would have to strengthen his own communications.
For its part, the government sticks to the line that supply remains the only problem, venting its annoyance at the unreliability of AstraZeneca deliveries.
However, the opposition is not convinced.
Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald said this week that the problems went well beyond supply and centered on distribution.
He also said that he would not trust many in the government to deliver a pint of milk to his door.
And although the supply problems somehow explain the lack of vaccination, they do not excuse the problems encountered by GPs, since those over 85 years of age do not receive the AstraZeneca vaccine on the advice of the National Advisory Committee on Immunization.
Another problem is the lack of transparency around vaccines.
TDs from all parties have pressed for more detailed information.
So far, the daily updated figures available on the Covid-19 Data Hub only show the number of first and second dose vaccinations along with the breakdown by vaccine type and the cohort that received the vaccine.
Labor leader Alan Kelly asked the Dáil for weekly updates on vaccine deliveries by type.
Kieran O’Donnell and Alan Dillon of Fine Gael asked for a breakdown of the cohorts by county.
Time and again, the Health Minister was reluctant to provide further details, saying the deliveries are too volatile.
He said they were trying to strike the right balance in terms of information that would change regularly and they didn’t want to cause undue anxiety.
He was also defensive about his previous goal of vaccinating all adults by September.
“I gave the September figure and when the AstraZeneca figure changed people were saying that we couldn’t meet the September figure. I was accused in the House of overpromising. I was accused out of the House of making false promises, which is basically being accused”. to lie. In fact, all I was doing was providing exactly what everyone is reasonably asking for, but in the context of the fact that these numbers will change. ”
The co-leader of the Social Democrats, Róisín Shortall, said that everyone understood the volatility of the offer, but that the more open the better, since it would allow people to evaluate the performance of the vaccination program.
And among some members of the Opposition, there is a suspicion that the Government is delaying in revealing more details to make it difficult to assess the implementation of the deployment.
Starting in April, the goal is to vaccinate 250,000 people per week, which is triple the current weekly rate and clearly presents significant logistical difficulties.
But the reopening of society and the economy depends on the ability of the system to scale up to handle a million hits per month and it is clear that the entire political focus will remain on vaccines as issue number one.
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