Dr Mike Ryan: Vaccines must be accompanied by continued Covid-19 precautions

Lockdowns are essentially a failure of control, while vaccines are a massive tool for control, Mr Ryan said.

Vaccines by themselves "do not equal zero Covid-19", but will rather go hand in hand with social distancing and other measures before "life as we know it" returns.

That is according to the executive director of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Irish native, Dr Mike Ryan, who said vaccines are a major addition to our existing toolkit, rather than a panacea — but that they could see the end to lockdowns in weary societies.