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A SMALL NUMBER of employees at the child and family agency Tusla may have been vaccinated out of sequence after receiving an ‘unapproved email’ from a manager last month telling them to register.
The agency has said these members of staff are normally based in frontline healthcare facilities but are now primarily working remotely and should not have been categorised as frontline healthcare workers.
Tusla said it has conducted other checks in regions across the country and believes this is an isolated incident.
The potential out-of-sequence vaccination of some of the agency’s staff was first reported by The Ditch.
Tusla has now confirmed to The Journal that it has investigated the reports and identified 10 members of staff who received this email from a manager. It is not clear whether all of these staff have received a vaccine.
In February this year, the HSE issued guidelines referencing Tusla child protection and other Tusla frontline public-facing staff as essential frontline healthcare workers, included in the prioritisation under ‘categories 2a-2g’.
Tusla said a significant number of them remained based in HSE facilities across the country during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The February guidelines were communicated to all Tusla service directors, area managers and Section 56 funded agencies, with details on the process for prioritisation and registration of these staff on the HSE vaccination portal.
“It clearly articulated that any staff members attending for vaccination would be required by the HSE to present with photo ID and acceptable credentials,” Tusla said in a statement.
“Separately, local HSE Community Healthcare Organisations requested details from Tusla area managers of staff to be prioritised for vaccination in their regions. This information was provided to the local Community Healthcare Organisations in line with categorisation referenced in the National HSE Guidance.
“The HSE then offered vaccination appointments to Tusla staff. Tusla had no direct role in the scheduling of vaccinations for staff.”
Tusla said the issue was brought to its attention in a media query and it has today established that “one unapproved email was sent to approximately ten staff members advising them to register in category 2g, as that was understood to be the appropriate category.
On review, whilst these staff would in normal circumstances be located in frontline healthcare facilities and are therefore encompassed by category 2g as defined by the HSE ‘working in a healthcare facility with the potential to meet patients/service users, who are not captured in 2a – 2f’, these staff are primarily working remotely at this time and should not have been categorised as 2g.
“We have conducted other checks in regions across the country and at this time this appears to be an isolated incident.”
The agency said it does not have a system in place to track the vaccination status of staff and as it has no direct role in scheduling vaccinations, “cannot be fully assured that all Tusla or Section 56 employees were vaccinated in accordance with the guidance provided.”
It said it had made “every effort” to clearly communicate the prioritisation of vaccines at the time was in line with the HSE sequencing and for frontline staff only.
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The producers are bluffing the EU, Ireland is doing it right. Aldi and Lidl do this here too – you can see exactly where the fish was caught, how it was caught and even the scientific name of the kind of fish. It obviously doesn’t cost Aldi and Lidl huge amounts to respect customers enough to supply information.
New law! How about enforcing the old laws that would be a start.
Closing the stable door after the horse has bolted.
This is why intelligent humans choose vegetarianism.
@Tommy_Bannon: Closing the stable door after the horse was eaten , to be more precise
Don’t forget there are plenty of intelligent people who eat meat too.
If you want to be healthy try cutting animal products from your diet. Processed meat that comes in a packet can’t be good for you. Either can milk from another animal that full of hormones and puss..
European milk does not contain hormones or ‘puss’. Every delivery from every farm is checked for temperature, antibiotics, bacteria etc. So stop spreading downright lies about the food we produce.
@Mick: of course there’s hormones in milk. You do realise dairy cows are constantly impregnated to produce milk. Cows like women are full of hormones while pregnant and those naturally produced hormones go into their milk to help bulk up calves. Its not intended for human consumption.. If you’re happy drinking and eating another animals milk go ahead.. Each to their own i suppose
I’m a dairy farmer myself. I understand completely the process works. What you are implying is false though. Natural, grass fed milk contains nothing untoward, we’ve been drinking milk for thousands of years. It’s when people start adding sugar and salt, E numbers and artificial chemical additives is when the trouble starts.
@Mick: Mick im not implying anything false. Cows milk is full of hormones, hormones that nature intends to help calves bulk up hundreds of pounds. It is not intended for children or adults to consume.
The natural hormones in milk are not in unusual quantities to cause any harm in humans. The levels of protein, butterfat etc in the 6L+ of milk that a calf consumes are responsible for growth. Generations of Irish people have eaten beef, dairy, eggs etc without issue. Obesity has only become an issue in this country since the 70′s, due to the advent of cheap, highly processed foods, the likes of coca cola with 30g+ of sugar per serving.
@Cosmo Kramer: backtrack much?
What about products labelled as Irish but brought down from the Uk?
No mention of take always etc imposing their religious beliefs on you, if you buy a ham pizza at many hundred placed you may be served dyed turkey NOT ham because these people don’t have any respect for you, nor your freedom to eat what you choose. It is often written on menu boards but often it won’t; it is dishonest but not illegal make sure your ham is not turkey meat dyed pink a common practice these days but The EU respect our rights on these issues.
Any particular reason a Lidl own-brand product was chosen to illustrate the story? Is there something we should be told?
Anybody .anywhere.here or abroad held accountable for putting shit into our food in the form of un regulated horse meat?anyone..
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