Too much focus on vaccines – Covid ‘fire’ must be extinguished, expert warns

'The vaccine is important and will get us out of this hole but at the moment the focus needs to be on getting the transmission of the disease down in the community,' Prof Ivan Perry said. Picture: Domnick Walsh

The Covid fire “raging” across the country needs to be "put out", according to UCC professor Ivan Perry, who said too much focus on vaccines risked losing sight of the current crisis.

The professor of epidemiology said a “proper” lockdown, similar to that in the first wave of the pandemic, was needed to bring current infection rates under control.

The vaccination programme, while important, will take months to roll out, he said.

“The vaccine is important and will get us out of this hole but at the moment the focus needs to be on getting the transmission of the disease down in the community,” Prof Perry said.

It will be summer at the very best, or autumn, before the vaccine will make a difference in terms of herd immunity and transmission of the disease in the community.

“There’s a danger that the media, general public, and the Government are losing sight of the crisis that we’re currently in, with a reproductive number for the virus that is certainly above two and thousands of cases per day.

“We need to put out this fire that is raging,” he added.

Other experts are seeking greater clarity and transparency on the rollout of the national Covid vaccination programme.

DCU professor Anthony Staines said it was a “big worry” that a computer system to record vaccinations was not ready and that most other countries had been testing their vaccination computer systems for months.

“We need reassurance that it won’t delay the rollout,” the professor of public health systems said.

“It was obvious from July that we would need a vaccination system. So I think it’s fair to ask why wasn’t it ready. It doesn’t appear to be ready,” he said, adding that work and testing on the system should have been done in August.

If the Government reaches its target, to vaccinate four million people by the end of September, a return to normality may potentially come within two to three weeks of that.

“The problem doesn’t go away once we start vaccination. There are still many months to go,” he said.

Prof Staines added it was “unclear” whether the Department of Health or HSE was accountable for the vaccine rollout and that greater clarity was needed on where the buck stops.

He cautioned, however, that there is a “definite possibility” of vaccine supply disruption: 

The unknown bit is supply. The is a schedule of supply up until the end of February which is all anyone has; there is hope after that.”

His comments come as infectious disease consultant at the Mater hospital in Dublin, Professor Jack Lambert, called on the Government to appoint one person to oversee the Covid-19 vaccination programme.

Prof Lambert criticised the vaccination rollout to date as "very confusing" and said more information was needed.