Dr. Ronan Glynn:

A key part of the strategy over the past year on Covid generally has been communications. Specifically on immunisation, it is worth reflecting that significant work was done in the area more generally in regard to the HPV vaccine and the establishment of the Vaccine Alliance back in September 2019. Hopefully all that will come to fruition - and the alliance has met in recent days - so that we can move this forward. Significant information is up online both on the HSE website, immunisation.ie, and gov.ie/covid, which has specific information on Covid vaccines.

As a general point, while obviously we are concerned about misinformation and the extent to which that might influence people's intention to get vaccinated. It is important we do not give a perception that is a majority view. We know that 70% to 80% of people in Ireland either definitely or probably will get the vaccine when they are offered. Perhaps rather than focusing on vaccine hesitancy per se, we should promote and build even better levels of vaccine confidence.

What we need to do is continue to build on the basic information materials that were sent out over the past year and, hopefully, over the coming weeks as we get more information from the European Medicines Agency but also in consultation with NIAC, the HPRA and the HSE national immunisation office. Between those different organisations, hopefully, people will get the information they need.

On top of that, we know that when it comes to making decisions on vaccination, the most important source of information for people is what their local GP or pharmacist tells them when they have questions. To echo Dr. Henry's comments, a key part of what we will be doing around this over the coming weeks is ensuring healthcare professionals on the ground around the country have the information they need to answer those questions when they are asked.