Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

With regard to the gap between doses, there are different gaps. The clinical advice for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines is 28 days. With Pfizer, there was a range of between 21 and 28 days and the HSE has chosen 28. The gap between the first and second doses for all age groups is 28 days for that vaccine. AstraZeneca is different. For those above the age of 65, the advice is to leave a gap of four to six weeks and that is what the HSE is going with. For those under 65, the advice is four to 12 weeks and the HSE is going with 12 weeks. That is what the UK went with and the preliminary evidence from the UK suggests that the greatest immune response occurs with a 12-week gap.

As regards the efficacy of the different vaccines on the variants, that work is still under way and our expert group is waiting for some results. The scientific community has not yet produced the results on transmissibility. That is one of the big questions, which has strategic implications for the vaccination programme.

I fully agree with the Deputy's point on serious underlying conditions and we are looking at that issue right now.

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