Dr. Ronan Glynn:

There are a few elements to that. It is an ongoing conversation. For example, NPHET last week considered the approach to healthcare workers who have decided not to get vaccinated. Speaking from a personal perspective, we need to focus over the next few months on one-to-one conversations and ensuring people have the information so that their concerns are addressed. Generally speaking, across vaccination programmes and countries, 5% at most of an adult population is resolutely anti-vaccine. Those people will not change their minds. No matter what measures we introduce or do not introduce, they have already decided that they will not take one of these vaccines. What we need to do is address the concerns of the proportion of people who have legitimate questions.

At this point, I would be hesitant personally to suggest that we go down the route of differentiating at a societal level between people who have been vaccinated and those who have not. I hope the majority of people will see that the vaccine offers protection for themselves and their families and will choose to accept it when it is offered to them. Obviously, this situation is something that we will have to continue monitoring. For the time being, however, our focus needs to be on ensuring we can maintain the very high level of vaccine confidence that is in the country at present.