AstraZeneca one-dose delay
Deputy Higgins raised frustration among people in their 60s who had received only one AstraZeneca dose and were still waiting to be fully vaccinated. The Tánaiste said he understood the concern and that the second-dose interval issue was being addressed.
Huge progress has been made with the vaccine roll-out. Some 3.75 million vaccines have now been administered, almost 60% of adults have at least one vaccine and Ireland has the highest vaccine uptake rate in Europe. However, in the past week I have been flooded with queries from people in their 60s who received just one dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine, people who are concerned, people who are frustrated, people who are feeling left behind. They got their first vaccine early in the roll-out plan because we deemed them to be at higher risk than people in their 40s and 50s, but it is people in their 40s and 50s who are currently getting their second jab. How can we better protect our 60-somethings against Covid and the Delta variant?
Comment on this
I thank the Deputy. She is absolutely right that the take-up by Irish people of the vaccine is very encouraging. There is very little vaccine hesitancy in Ireland. It is going to stand to us in a few months' time, I think, that Irish people have been so willing to get vaccinated. In some countries, refusal and hesitancy rates are as high as 30% or 40%. That is going to be a problem for all of us, not just for them, in a few months' time.
To answer the Deputy’s question, I understand the issue and I am getting the same calls from my constituents, people who had their first shot of the AstraZeneca vaccine and are keen to be fully inoculated as soon as possible. These vaccines are subject to licences and rules by the manufacturer and the EMA. In that context, it is possible to give the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine and the Moderna vaccine after four weeks but it is actually not possible or allowed under the licence to give the AstraZeneca vaccine until 56 days after the first dose, which is approximately eight weeks. We are now going to bring that back to eight weeks. Although people were told they would have to wait 12 or 16 weeks, that is not going to be the case and we are going to try to bring it back as quickly as we can to eight weeks. There are logistical and supply issues but we will get there.