Professor Karina Butler:

I am happy to talk about that. In terms of the booster programme, the reason that we have recommended the booster shot for those living in nursing homes and for those over 80 years of age is because we know they have particular vulnerability. First, their initial response is not as good overall. Some people within the cohort will have very good responses. If we take those groups as a whole, however, they will not respond as well as younger age groups so their primary response is not as good. The second point has been supported by data, initially from Israel but now also by data that has come out this week from Public Health England, which shows that their immunity wanes more quickly over time. That was the reason for recommending booster shots.

One of the points I would like to emphasise and to which Dr. Holohan referred is that although we see a creep up in the amount of infections, the impact has been very different in the vaccinated population versus the unvaccinated. For the elderly who are fully vaccinated - most of them are - when they get infection, most of them have a milder disease than they would have had last January. In terms of the actual plans for the implementation of those recommendations, that falls into the remit of the HSE. I think those plans are being made at the moment but I cannot speak to that.