Covid-19 Ireland Good News: Christmas Hope And Vaccine Schedule Emerge

Ireland continues to fight the coronavirus pandemic and it doesn’t look like it’s going to end anytime soon.

The number of cases is increasing rapidly once again and, sadly, the number of hospitalizations and deaths will soon follow.

However, it is important to remember that it is not all doom and gloom, and there are reasons to be optimistic.

Here are some of them:

Christmas hope

Stringent new measures could be on the way, particularly after NPHET recommended on Thursday that the government establish a six-week Level 5 lockdown.

However, while this may seem very bleak, health experts insist that this form of closure would allow us to “save” Christmas.

Yesterday, former Health Minister Simon Harris said the new nationwide bans on home visiting could be the “game changer” that could help in the effort to save the holiday season.

He said: “In an effort to be able to spend Christmas together, now we have to stop going for the cup of tea and that is difficult.

“What we are trying to do here is make sure people can have a Christmas.

“And make sure we can try to reunite somehow, somehow, with friends and family over Christmas.

“We really believe that if people take the advice now that we ask them, particularly in relation to home visiting and working from home, we think there is a chance that that will change the rules of the game.

“The prize here is great, it is actually being able to see family and friends again.”

Vaccine schedule emerges

Several vaccines are currently in the final Phase Three trials, with the widespread hope that we may even discover their efficacy by the end of the year.

Pfizer, one of the companies leading the race to produce a vaccine, said today that they are targeting emergency approval by the end of November, depending on the outcome of further testing.

And Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top US doctor in the battle against Covid-19, believes that some form of vaccine could be widely available in April.

Dr. Fauci, a physician and immunologist whom you may have seen on the Late Late Show recently, believes that an effective vaccine is not far off.

He told CBS News on Wednesday that even if all vaccines in the final stages are considered effective, the deadline for widespread administration of the vaccine would be towards the end of the first quarter of 2021.

There are now more than 170 teams around the world working on vaccines.

There are currently 11 vaccines in phase three clinical trials and one step away from approval.

There are 19 vaccines in phase two and in expanded safety trials.

Another 35 candidates are in phase one, which are small-scale trials and are far from ready.

While 142 are in the preclinical stage and not yet ready for human trials.