Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for his kind words on the programme and his questions.

There are several cohorts which are either fully or partly using AstraZeneca, including cohort 2 which is healthcare workers of all ages. They will be getting their second dose. NIAC has put a 16-week interval in place for people under 60 with no underlying conditions. Quite a number of people in cohort 4 have had AstraZeneca as well and NIAC has said that regardless of their age, their second dose should be administered after 12 weeks. The same applies to any in cohort 7 which is high-risk, although it is a much smaller number. To answer Deputy Howlin's question, AstraZeneca will also be given to cohorts 5 and 6, which is essentially persons aged between 60 and 69 years. There are a few things to say here. First, I will take his question directly back to NIAC and to NPHET as well. It is a very fair question because I think, based on the intervals, younger people could be fully vaccinated beforehand and there could be significant bonuses to being fully vaccinated, including, for example, exemption from hotel quarantine, potentially the EU green certificate and so on. I will therefore take those questions back today and ask NIAC to add them to its deliberations. It is considering a variety of issues right now.

There are a few points it is important to stress. One is that the protection from the first dose is very significant for all the vaccines and is quite a bit ahead of what the clinical trials suggested. That is why we are looking at extending the intervals for the mRNA vaccines. Another point is that we may well have a recommendation from NIAC around Johnson & Johnson. My hope is that Johnson & Johnson will be for all cohorts. Indeed if that was applied to some of the cohorts we are talking about, then very shortly after the first dose - it is a one-dose vaccine - those people would be fully vaccinated. Let us wait to see what NIAC says on that.

Finally, I am aware people have been asking questions about AstraZeneca because of the restrictions being put on its use. We want to listen very carefully and respectfully to people who are raising those and come back to them with the best scientific evidence available.

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