Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for the question. My understanding is that this came from research out of the UK where they were looking at the reinfection rates of healthcare workers who had it. It was suggesting that a large amount of protection was afforded if one had had it and the suggestion was being made in the UK that that might be something that can be examined. I have discussed it with the Chief Medical Officer, CMO. He is looking into it in detail. The current position, however, is that it is not one of the factors. I am straying way outside my own expertise but if it is helpful, one of the reasons I was given was that people get infected with different viral loads and therefore the antibody response can be at a different level depending on that. One of the issues we would need to look into very closely is whether an equal protection, for example, is afforded to people. Given all of that the position right now is very clearly that whether one has already had Covid-19 is not taken into account in terms of vaccination.

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