Dr. Tony Holohan:

Certainly until we get an effective vaccine we, as societies, are likely to have to take measures to control the disease that go beyond the focus on identification of cases and controls. I will come back to what I mean by that. A vaccine would change the situation entirely if we had one that was effective.

We do not plan, nor are in a position to plan, on the basis of that certainty. We have to plan for two scenarios right now. The first is where we have an effective vaccine. Work is happening in that regard. The second is where we do not have a vaccine. We simply cannot fall into the trap of planning based on the certainty of a vaccine. Therefore, all our work must be to ensure, inasmuch as possible, that we identify cases as early as possible when they occur, put arrangements in place to try to control the spread from any individual, through his or her contracts, into the wider community, and verify as much as we can the establishment of that control. That is the rationale for the policy.