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People who have concerns about upcoming coronavirus vaccines should not be treated as anti-vaccine activists, said the state’s deputy chief medical officer, Dr. Ronan Glynn.
Dr. Glynn said that there will always be “a very small proportion of people who will be strongly against vaccines, who will never get vaccinated and spread misinformation.”
The small cohort would likely be “a very vocal group” in the debate over the new Covid-19 vaccines, which the government expects to start being administered to vulnerable groups in January.
“We must be careful not to confuse those people with a larger group of people who would have very understandable questions and want to know a lot about this vaccine before agreeing to take it,” Dr. Glynn said.
The National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) met Thursday and discussed the launch of the vaccine and which groups should be prioritized.
Dr. Tony Holohan, medical director, said that after approval, the vaccine would be released “as soon as possible.”
The initial distribution of a vaccine would not eliminate the need for people to follow public health guidelines for the next several weeks and months, he said.
“Even if we are in a position to be able to offer a vaccine to the population in January, it will start with a focus on particular groups. For the rest of the population we will have to maintain a high level of compliance with public health guidelines ”, he said.
Six additional coronavirus-related deaths and 183 new confirmed cases were reported Thursday, bringing the national total to 73,228.
There were 56 cases in Dublin; 26 in Donegal; 13 in Limerick; 11 in Kilkenny and 11 in Monaghan, with the remaining 66 spread over 15 other counties.
Dr. Glynn told Nphet’s evening briefing that due to an IT issue, the number of additional cases revealed Thursday likely did not report the true figure at about 100 cases.
Professor Philip Nolan, chairman of the Nphet modeling group, said the virus’s reproduction rate, known as the R number, was estimated to be between 0.8 and 1.
“The number of hospitalized people is decreasing, but it is decreasing very slowly and slowly decreasing compared to the first wave,” he said. The numbers in intensive care remained the same, while the number of deaths from Covid-19 remained high, he said.
There has been “significantly less” transmission of the disease in long-term residential care settings, such as nursing homes, compared to the first wave in April and May, he said.
Professor Nolan cautioned that some projections mapping the virus’s potential growth as restrictions are eased, estimated that the country could see up to 1,200 cases a day by mid-January.
“We really recommend extreme caution in terms of limiting our number of contacts per week and taking every precaution during those contacts, to avoid a significant increase in infection during the Christmas and New Years period,” said Professor Nolan.
When restaurants and gastronomic pubs reopened on Friday, Dr. Holohan warned people that “just because things are allowed and planned does not mean that we should rush to do them.”
He called on people to reduce the number of unnecessary or “discretionary” contacts they had during the next month, in order to avoid the need to renew the restrictions in January.
Later, in RTÉ’s prime time, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said daily cases were expected to continue to decline, albeit at a much slower rate, until next week.
The drop in the lockdown figures was “bottoming out a week faster than expected,” with the numbers probably lower next week, before starting to rise again.
“People are tired, and with the wonderful news about vaccines, the fear I have is that people think this will be fixed in the first week of January, so we are just going to relax, we are just going to breathe, we just go to live, ”he said.
“It is so important… that we do not lose our discipline, for the next few weeks we will live well, but we keep each other safe,” he said.
‘Mass meetings’
Earlier, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said that important events including concerts, parties and other “mass gatherings” may not take place next summer and warned ticket buyers that they may not get refunds if an event is not taken out as it can be reprogrammed.
He also said that the decision on who would be prioritized to receive the vaccine was not “rocket science.” He believed that everyone understood that priority would be given to those who needed it most: healthcare workers, residents of nursing homes, and those who are elderly and chronically ill.
People who worked in high-risk environments, such as meat plants, could also take priority, he said.
He responded in the Dáil to Labor leader Alan Kelly, who asked about the events for next year that were already being promoted, as he pointed to radio announcements “of a lot of events that are being planned.”
Kelly told the Tánaiste that events were being planned, including the Longitude music festival at Marlay Park in Dublin.
“I’m sure you and I would like to go to the concerts next year,” Kelly said.
He asked Mr Varadkar, as Minister of Enterprise, what advice he had for companies that were “spending a considerable amount of money planning events and whether they should expect them to go ahead.”
The Tánaiste thanked the ticket sales “for some important events that we all hope will take place next summer.”
“The advice I would say is that there is no guarantee that these events will go ahead. We may need some time before we can attend games, concerts, and mass gatherings. I hope it is possible in summer. It’s not at all safe at the moment. “
He added: “Under the law it is possible for companies that organize these events to cancel and reschedule them. They do not have to refund the cost of the tickets. They can reschedule them.
“I think people who buy a ticket should be aware that they are not guaranteed a refund. They may find it reprogrammed. “
Vaccinations
Kelly also raised concerns about the launch of the vaccine and asked who would be the first to receive it once it was approved.
Mr. Varadkar said that the priority of who would get the vaccine first was not, as far as he knew, a matter for the Covid-19 task force but for the National Immunization Advisory Committee (Niac).
“This is the body that makes these kinds of decisions about other vaccines and we expect a report from them very soon on what the order of prioritization will be.”
“I don’t think it’s going to be rocket science,” he said, with healthcare workers, nursing home residents and seniors with chronic conditions first. He suggested that priority could also be given to those working in high-risk environments, such as meat plants.
Mr. Varadkar also insisted that “the government is in control. The Cabinet is in control and makes decisions based on advice ”.
He said Health Minister Stephen Donnelly was the chief minister for the vaccine program, after Kelly said there appeared to be conflicting opinions on the matter.
He noticed Irish Times Report that the Health Minister would bring a memorandum to the government on Tuesday about who would be prioritized, but the Taoiseach had told him that they would have to wait for the task force report three days later.
Mr. Varadkar said the working group, which will report on December 11, is in charge of issues including purchasing, delivery, administration, IT system and communications.
Mr. Varadkar said that the government would have to examine the issue of companies that supply the vaccine privately. He did not believe that companies were doing this as they would not be compensated. And “we certainly do not want them to undermine our vaccination program in any way, which will be free and based on needs.”
He said that it may be the case that the vaccine company that produces it wants to vaccinate its own staff and “we would have to think a lot about preventing them from doing so if they are the ones who developed it.”
He said he did not know, but would examine whether legislation would be needed to establish a database for the vaccine. He will raise it with the Minister of Health, he said.
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