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Covid-19 vaccines have not been rushed and the science needed to develop them had already existed since the time of Sars and Mers, a spokeswoman for the World Health Organization (WHO) said.
“The corners have not been cut,” said Dr. Margaret Harris.
Regulatory authorities were kept up-to-date during the development process so they could move quickly when viewing the final data, he said.
Surveillance systems will be critical to the vaccination process, Dr. Harris told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland. It will be important to monitor that second doses are administered and that any side effects are controlled.
The issue of counterfeit drugs should also be monitored, he warned. There will need to be secure monitoring systems at all levels.
Giving accurate information about the vaccine to the public will be vital, and public health measures will be more important than ever, as the fewer viruses there are in the community, the better the vaccine will work, he said.
the The government will decide next week on priority groups for the Covid-19 vaccine, which is likely to be available in early January.
Health Minister Stephen Donnelly will bring a memorandum on the matter to Cabinet, but the first recipients are likely to include the elderly and high-risk groups, healthcare personnel, residents and nursing home staff, other front-line workers and those who work in meat plants.
Although the UK government announced yesterday that it will start administering the first doses of one of the vaccines next week, the government here, along with other EU countries, is following a more cautious approach and will be later this month earlier. the first vaccine is given. approved for use.
Northern Ireland Health Minister Robin Swann on Wednesday hailed Britain’s approval of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine for use as “the beginning of the end” and said vaccination of health workers in the North could begin. by the end of next week.
Temporary vaccination centers
However, government sources in Dublin were skeptical about the acceleration of approval of the vaccine in the UK, suggesting it was motivated by the political needs of the UK government.
Donnelly told the Oireachtas health committee that obtaining the vaccines will cost the state 117.6 million euros. The government has agreements to buy 15.6 million doses of vaccines from several different pharmaceutical companies, he said.
Donnelly said that while there was no decision yet, his “unequivocal opinion” was that the vaccine should be provided free of charge.
Communicating the vaccine
WHO’s special envoy for Covid-19, Dr. David Nabarro, told Newstalk Breakfast that the anti-vaccination movement should be considered. “We don’t want to pressure people to do something they don’t want to do. We have to encourage them and make them come to us. Everyone has to be convinced. “
Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP) Covid Director Dr Mary Favier told Morning Ireland that communications about the vaccine will be really important. There was great anxiety and excitement about the vaccine and people needed to know all the details, he said. Achieving a 60 percent absorption level, which is necessary for herd immunity, was going to be a significant logistical challenge “but we will.”
Dr Favier said that while it had not yet been decided what role GPs will play in the vaccination program, she believed GPs had a role as they already had experience implementing vaccines, they knew their patients and they had IT systems. to track. “We will be agile and we will be able to respond,” he said.
GPs would also be vital to help determine patients with comorbidities and to ensure that patients are followed up with their second dose of the vaccine.
Dr Favier cautioned that dealing with Covid-19 was like running a marathon and, although a vaccine had been developed, “there is still four to five miles to go.” He also warned that people could not be forced to get vaccinated. “We have never carried out mandatory vaccination in this country. As a society, we have always aimed to be cooperative. “
There will have to be ways to get people to respond and do it correctly, he said.
A plus five deaths and 270 new cases of coronavirus were reported yesterday in the state.
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