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Covid-19 vaccines could begin in Northern Ireland next week, days before the originally planned release date of December 14.
Health Minister Robin Swann said: “We hope to have a supply of vaccines next week, which could actually bring that date forward by a few days.”
It follows this morning’s announcement that Britain’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has approved the use of Pfizer / BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine.
Swann said Northern Ireland would receive 25,000 doses of vaccines in the initial batch.
Speaking on BBC Radio Ulster, he said: “We will work on the exact logistics of shipping the vaccine from Belgium to the UK and how we can distribute it through their system.”
But he urged caution and emphasized that compliance with Covid-19 regulations remains vital.
“It is the beginning of the end, it is not the end,” he said.
“It will be weeks and it will be well into next year before we are looking towards that larger mass vaccination program across the entire population of Northern Ireland.
“So, like I say, this is the beginning of them. We haven’t got there yet. So we ask the people of Northern Ireland to continue to maintain and follow the regulations that exist.”
He added: “This is light at the end of the tunnel, but that tunnel for me is still well into next year.”
Addressing safety concerns raised by some members of the public, Swann insisted that vaccine regulators had not taken shortcuts.
Northern Ireland Prime Minister Arlene Foster said approval of the vaccine is an anticipated “Christmas present”.
“This gives us the way back to normalcy and I think everyone has been waiting for that,” he said.
“I am incredibly proud today that the UK was able to do this and that we will all benefit from the arrival of this vaccine.”
Ms. Foster said launching the vaccine would be a “great challenge” and that the Stormont Executive also has to plan for the economic recovery.
“So we have to find a way out of this that brings recovery back to the UK and Northern Ireland, of course, in particular, and that’s what we’ll be working on in the next few weeks and what we’ll be working on of course. all the logistical challenges in launching the vaccine and mass testing, “he said.
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Deputy Prime Minister Michelle O’Neill said approval of the vaccine marks a “turning point.”
“I think this is the news that people have been waiting for now for the best of ten months when we have all been challenged to the limit, so I think this is a very positive story,” he told Radio Ulster.
“This is a turning point in our Covid battle, and I think people should feel that, and they are right to feel it because it has been such a challenging time.”
Ms. O’Neill acknowledged that the Pfizer vaccine is the most “problematic” in terms of logistical challenges around storage and batch sizes.
She said she would have no problem taking the vaccine herself, but added that it is up to medical experts to convince people that they have “natural and understandable” concerns.
Ms. O’Neill rejected any suggestion of a mandatory vaccination schedule.
“I think it’s about freedom of choice,” he said.
“I think I would be more in the field of encouraging people to get vaccinated, I think it’s important that people do.
“But I don’t think it should be mandatory, I don’t believe it in any kind of setting.
“I think it’s up to us to convince people of the merits and why it’s important, and I think it’s so that the medical and scientific evidence supports all of that and then people make their decisions.”
Meanwhile, on RTÉ’s Today show with Claire Byrne, Derry GP Dr Nicola Heron said that a Republic patient who is already registered with a GP in Northern Ireland will receive the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine in the same way as someone who lives in the north.
Dr. Heron said that people won’t be able to register with a GP in the north now, if they don’t live or work there, to take advantage of the vaccine.
She said that for healthcare workers, the vaccine is the first of all their Christmas gift lists, as “there really is no other way out of this pandemic than a vaccine.”
Dr Heron said she expects the vaccine to begin distribution to healthcare workers in Northern Ireland on December 14 as it will arrive from Belgium next week and then it will take a few days to distribute it from London to all four regions of the country. . UNITED KINGDOM.
It comes when the Executive Director of the Health Emergencies Program of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Mike Ryan, said that he is not in favor of forced vaccination of people.
“I think when you put something on your body, it should be your choice to do that,” he said today at an Irish conference, Virtual Festival BioMedica 2020.
Dr. Ryan said countries should boost vaccine demand, focusing on the positive commercialization of immunization and telling people why they should get vaccinated.
He said it’s okay for people to have reasonable doubts about vaccination.
“Being vacillating with vaccinations doesn’t make you a bad person. It makes you a person with questions,” he told the conference.
He said the challenge for the system is answering those questions and providing the information to people in advance.
“The idea of forcing people to get vaccinated to carry out their daily lives is a bridge that I would rather we didn’t have to cross,” he said.
However, Dr. Ryan pointed out that there are occupational reasons to get vaccinated and certain areas where vaccination may be necessary – for example, a healthcare worker who cares for immunosuppressed people or who works in a laboratory with dangerous pathogens.
Dr. Ryan said there are particular circumstances in which governments may decide on vaccine requirements – for example, if a country gets 95% coverage with a vaccine and the virus is effectively gone, a government may feel like it wants to. require that people entering the country be vaccinated.
This was a policy and a political decision to be made between the member states.
He said there were several factors involved in vaccination.
There is ethics from an individual perspective and ethics from a community perspective, he said.
It raised issues about personal choice versus community rights, Dr. Ryan added.
Additional information: Fergal Bowers
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