Professor Karina Butler:

Certainly. I might address the Deputy's second question first if that is okay. I, too, saw that two healthcare workers had tested positive. That will happen because none of these vaccines is 100% effective for 100% of the population. If we look at different healthcare workers, the SIREN study in the UK found that they were 85%, and possibly up to 90%, effective at preventing infection. I do not know about these individual cases so I will not comment on them but the important point in that study is that the healthcare workers who did become infected were picked up through serial testing. They were not necessarily symptomatic and therefore they had mild infections. The corollary of that is that they will be less likely to pass on the infection. I noticed on a Twitter feed that these cases were picked up in serial testing as opposed to the workers presenting as ill. That is one of the reasons we say that, notwithstanding vaccination, we still need to employ public health measures such as masking and social distancing until we get the levels of virus down in the community. That goes to address some of the earlier questions, including how we manage people coming into the country, particularly if they have been vaccinated with vaccines that have not been authorised in the EU and where we do not have all that detail. However, even in the case of those who have been vaccinated, no vaccine is 100% effective for 100% of the population. The Deputy may have directed that question elsewhere but I thought I might fill her in on that.

In terms of NIAC, when we have been asked questions we have turned around advice and answers as rapidly as possible but we want to make sure we have the evidence needed to give the best answers. We know there are a couple of important pieces coming out. The first part is whether, when there is more detail on age-related risk, we will still need such broad brush strokes in the recommendations for the age cut-off. The second part is looking to get more granular detail. If we go with a one-dose strategy that stretches out vaccination for longer, is there a compromise that will be a problem in the future? We have to take those two issues into consideration. As soon as we have as much evidence as we can get to make a recommendation, that will be transmitted as fast as possible.