'A kick in the teeth': Woman with rare lung disease hits out at Beacon vaccine decision

Kellie Tallant said she could easily have travelled to the Beacon hospital for the vaccine, which is 15 minutes away.

A young woman with a rare lung disease has described the private Beacon Hospital's decision to give Covid-19 vaccines to private school teachers as a "kick in the teeth". 

Dubliner Kellie Tallant, 28, was reacting to news that 20 doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine were given to teachers and staff at St Gerard’s Catholic School in Bray – a fee-paying school attended by children of the hospital CEO Michael Cullen.

Ms Tallant is one of the thousands of people in the medically vulnerable priority group.

The Covid-19 vaccine rollout is a “mess” and she has no confidence in the programme.

Cocooning at home for the past year in between five two-week hospital admissions, she said it was incredibly “frustrating” to see healthy people being vaccinated before other priority groups.

Despite being identified in the category 4 priority group, the young mother-of-one said she had no date for vaccination and there was no information or anyone to contact.

“It’s a mess. There is no clear timeline. They are missing targets and it feels like a kick in the teeth for anyone with a rare disease,” Ms Tallant said.

Despite being identified in the category 4 priority group,  Kellie Tallant has no date for vaccination.

Ms Tallant said she could easily have travelled to the Beacon hospital for the vaccine, which is 15 minutes away, and that more leadership is needed to restore confidence in the process.

Recovering cancer patient James McGill was equally vexed, saying the situation smacked of nepotism. 

The 34-year-old, who has just finished treatment for a rare lymphoma of the brain, said it was not credible that a back-up list of patients was not available, especially when tens of thousands of appointments had been cancelled last week when issues arose around AstraZeneca.

Mr McGill, who falls into the category 4 priority group as a medically vulnerable person at high risk from Covid-19, had a date for vaccination two weeks ago but it was cancelled in light of the AstraZeneca pause.

Meanwhile, Labour TD Aodhán Ó Ríordáin has said the chief executive of the private Beacon Hospital, Michael Cullen, should step down.

Mr Cullen acknowledged the decision to vaccinate the teachers was “not in line with the sequencing guidelines in place from the HSE”, but anger about the move has been widespread, with Government sources saying that it “looked terrible”. 

Mr Ó Ríordáin said the news would impact the buy-in to the wider vaccine rollout.

“This is a classic case of the two-tier health and education system. On that basis, the CEO’s position is untenable.

“It touches a nerve with what people think is wrong with this country, but that’s the nature of privilege – it bends your head.”