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TANÁISTE LEO VARADKAR is reasonably confident that a Covid-19 vaccine will start to be rolled out in Ireland next month with wider population immunity possible by next September.
Varadkar was speaking at a Fine Gael parliamentary party meeting this evening where he said the National Immunisation Advisory Committee will decide on the future rollout and they will make a decision in the coming weeks.
Varadkar said vaccines are safe and effective and could have a “real and meaningful impact for the country” next year before wider population immunity would be achieved next September or October.
The meeting heard that the Government currently has purchase orders on five or six vaccines. Varadkar said that a communications campaign would be “vital” to overcome vaccine hesitancy.
The Tánaiste also told the meeting tonight that indemnities had been given to pharmaceutical companies previously during swine flu and said the safety profile of the current vaccines being considered by the EU look positive.
However, it remains unclear how long a vaccine will be effective for and there were a number of “unknowns” around potential vaccines.
Meanwhile Micheál Martin tells his PP that some sectors that closed in L5 like retail won’t be closing again. Says vaccine priority is the elderly, healthcare workers and nursing homes.
— Christina Finn (@christinafinn8) December 2, 2020
It comes after nine ultra-low temperature Covid-19 vaccine trucks arrived into the country to aid with the roll out of a Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.
The vaccine needs to be kept at -70 degrees, and specialised freezers are needed to store the vaccine.
Speaking at the Oireachtas Committee on Health this afternoon, Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly said that his “unambiguous view” is that the State should cover all costs associated with a vaccine, but that no government decision on specific details has yet been made.
“We can’t have any situation where there would be any question of access being a problem because of affordability,” Donnelly said.
Earlier today, speaking during Leaders’ Questions, the Taoiseach said the work of the government’s vaccine task force is “proceeding at pace”.
Planning is underway as how to roll out the vaccine, with the infrastructure for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine “already coming into play”, said Micheál Martin.
Martin said the HSE will be a key driver in the implementation of the plan, while the Department of Health and the Minister for Health will oversee operations.
The European Medicines Agency will assess “at the latest” the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine by 29 December, “maybe before that”, said the Taoiseach.
He said the responsibility on the agency is “huge”, telling the Dail that its job is recommending that a vaccine is safe and effective.
With reporting by Christina Finn
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Isreal have become brazen and a law onto themselves. Its not anti semetic to condemn their murderous tactics on unarmed palistinians. Time for the world to face up to them and enact santions.
@M: it’s not today or yesterday that they have become brazen. They have flouted every UN resolution that has been passed. Time has long since passed for them to be made adhere to some kind of law & be held account for their actions. Palestinian people don’t have a life, they don’t even have an existence and before anyone has a go at me. I don’t condone violence on any side and that includes Hamas. I keep thinking of the lovely children I met while visiting Palestine in 1991 and hope they got to reach adulthood. Something we all take for granted.
@Victor Feldman: A terrorist apartheid state
@M: they are savages!
I just watched the footage of the Isr4eli forces kicking punching and beating the pallbearers carry Shireen’s coffin with batons. My blood is boiling.
Gaza , the biggest concentration camp ever seen
Ironic , isn’t it ?
I would like to ask the person who wrote the article what exactly they think is a scuffle?? I would call that an outright batton charge. Animals attacking a funeral cortège.
@Brendan We Are One Ireland.: I just watch it. Shocking stuff by the Israeli scu.m. But I’m not surprised by the journal at all.
@Brendan We Are One Ireland.: Why do riot police turn up at a funeral procession. They did it to incite a reaction. They are utter sc.um.
It’s a disgraceful headline
@Brendan We Are One Ireland.: That is George Floyd levels of upsetting.
@Brendan We Are One Ireland.: well said
A US citizen, protected press correspondent murdered on foreign soul by a foreign army and no independent US investigation called for. Very strange and also noticeable that most statements coming out of politicians in the US don’t mention Israel. Unconditional love it seems.
My experiences with the IDF while in Israel were very unnerving, came across as very heavy handed always. I was only a tourist. Can you imagine living with that every day
Disgusting indignity perpetrated by the Israeli security forces. If that was a Jewish Israeli funeral and the remains of the person had been desecrated like that, there would have been a massacre in response.
Eh, a little more than ‘scuffles’, tragically.
This is not the first time the Israeli forces have murdered news reporters,sadly it will not the last. The Palestinian people have been downtrodden continuously by the Aparthied state of Israel for over 74 years now, with the help of financial and military assistance by the United States of America.
There is no analogy in the whole of the 20th and 21st century on what the people of Palestine have had to endure from the Aparthied state of Israel’s occupation forces on an ongoing basis.
Some examples of the illegal occupation of Palestine /ethnic cleansing / land theft / the building of illegal settlements / house demolitions / imprisonments without charge / the shooting of unarmed protesters / the constant intimidation and violence by IDF on civilians /
Neither the Palestinians or the Israelis can be trusted to investigate this killing!!!! It should be done investigated by the UN or any other independent organisation.
@Martin O Connell: 100%. But the Israelis would never allow that on their territory. Justice is almost impossible there.
@Eoin Roche: almost??
@Eoin Roche: the Israelis have no access to the body the bullet or the evidence the Palestinians have all that. It should be handed over independent investigators.
@Martin O Connell: What investigation is needed she was murdered by an Israeli sniper. You can pretend otherwise if you want.
@Martin O Connell: The Israelis were first out of the traps the other day to say they will not accept an international independent investigation. The US have backed them. US Department of State spokesman Ned Price said: “Israel has the wherewithal to conduct a thorough investigation”.
Israel doesn’t even recognise the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
@Martin O Connell: which the Palestinian Authority have said they will do.
@Fr. Fintan Stack: how can they stop the investigation if they do not have any of the evidence.
@Ray Finn: Hindering or even completely stopping investigators access to the site. Not allowing access to Israeli soldiers for interview. Even if the ICC found individuL soldiers guilty they wouldn’t be handed over. Any investigation needs cooperation from all sides.
@FiannaFáilness FineGaelness: how do you know the nationality of the shooter????? Neither you or I were there.
@M Bowe: and as I said neither the Palestinians or the Israelis are trustworthy enough to give an honest version of events.
Disgraceful, no dignity for the poor girl’s funeral
Apalling, not alone did they murder her but now they attack her funeral cortege. https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/israel-palestinian-mourners-al-jazeera-journalist-1.6452439?cmp=rss
I am not buying any Isreali fruit, veg or other products for the forseeable fututre
The headline of this article is disgraceful. At what point did journalists get so lazy or cowardly perhaps?
You’d drop whatever your carrying if you where having the legs batterd of you.
What do you expect from a Racist Apartheid State
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