Dr. Ronan Glynn:

Clearly, as supply arrives there will be greater flexibility in rolling out the vaccine but in the first instance the prioritisation list has to be guided by our experience of the pandemic to date. It has to be premised on protecting those who are most vulnerable and who have suffered the severest effects of this. Obviously, that is older people and people living in residential care facilities. It also has to be premised on protecting our healthcare staff, both for their protection, and the protection of the health service, but also for the protection of the patients they care for on a daily basis. Beyond that, if there are any changes to the prioritisation list, even with volume the reality is that if we raised a group up a prioritisation list, there is no getting away from the fact that in doing so we are deprioritising another group. There are significant moral and ethical questions to be asked and decisions to be made in all of that. That is a process that needs to take place over time as more evidence becomes available and as we learn more about the volume of vaccines we are going to get and when we are going to get them and, crucially also, as we learn more about the impact of these vaccines on transmission.