No one will be left behind by vaccine changes - Niac chair
Professor Karina Butler acknowledged that there had been “several twists and turns and modifications” of the advice from Niac since last December with regard to the order of vaccination and age groups.
No one will be left behind under new vaccine rollout plans, the chair of the National Immunisation Advisory Committee (Niac) has said following yesterday's advice that the AstraZeneca vaccine should not be given to people under 60.
Professor Karina Butler said there could be a dividend in the decision.
People who will instead be vaccinated using Pfizer will receive their second dose in a shorter time frame which would mean they are fully vaccinated sooner.
This could shorten the vaccination roll out programme, Prof Butler said.
Niac is trying to steer a safe path through the pandemic, rates are coming down, she said.
"We are lucky we have alternatives. It’s not that anyone is being left behind," she said.
The decision to pause the use of AstraZeneca for the under-60s specifically for that age cohort because there was a higher risk from Covid for older people.
It was a question of finding a balance, she said. "This is an evolving situation."
Prof Butler said she recognised that the decision would cause logistical difficulties, but there had to be a delay until they had more information, they were scrutinising real world data from the UK, especially from Scotland where the AstraZeneca vaccine had been used predominantly on the over-70s.
“It takes time to gather information. Until we find out more there will be a pause.”
Prof Butler acknowledged that there had been “several twists and turns and modifications” of the advice from Niac since last December with regard to the order of vaccination and age groups.
She told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland: “We’ve never been in this situation before, as information comes off the boil we are trying to make the best decisions.
“This calls for incredible patience from the public.”
The Covid-19 adviser to the Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP), Dr Mary Favier, has called on the public to be patient and not to contact their GP about changes to the vaccine roll out using AstraZeneca.
Dr Favier said that there wasn’t a GP in the country not bracing themselves for the extra workload of making phone calls changing appointments because of the NIAC instruction that AstraZeneca not be used for people under the age of 60.
There was no wriggle room now for GPs about using AstraZeneca, she said. They had to stay within the guidelines.
“This is going to cause hesitancy and concern.”
Once GPs have been informed by the HSE about deliveries then GPs will call patients.
Dr Favier pointed out that the risk from Covid was much higher than from any vaccine.
She urged anyone who has received the first dose of AstraZeneca to keep the appointment for their second dose, as there did not appear to be any issue with clotting from the second dose.
“It’s important to continue to follow through. To do what’s recommended. It is a very effective vaccine.”
There was a higher risk of clotting to people on a long haul flight or from taking the contraceptive pill than from AstraZeneca.
“We need to keep the risk in perspective," Dr Favier told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland.
There were other vaccine choices for younger age groups, she added. It was now highly probable that the NIAC decision about using AstraZeneca could speed up the programme for those aged 60-69.
Meanwhile, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has moved to reassure people of the safety of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Mr Varadkar said he would have no hesitancy in taking the AstraZeneca vaccine himself.
Concerns about blood clotting were understandable, he said, but such incidents were rare and the risk from Covid was much higher.
Mr Varadkar said he thought NIAC had made the right call about pausing use of the AstraZeneca vaccine for the under 60s.
It had been a difficult decision to make and it was too easy for people to “second guess” them (Niac).
Vaccines are medicines and all medicines could have side effects, he said.
There were half a million people in the country over the age of 60 who were yet to be vaccinated so they will make “good use” of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Speaking on Newstalk Breakfast, Mr Varadkar said the HSE was doing a great job in “pivoting” on the advice from Niac and that while some rescheduling would be required “we could catch up.”
However, the Tánaiste said that he did worry about people being hesitant because of a loss of confidence in AstraZeneca.
As a healthcare professional, as well as a politician, he had no hesitancy in recommending AstraZeneca and would take it himself.
Professor of Immunovirology at UCC, Liam Fanning has called for increased orders of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to make up for the decision to limit the age groups that can be immunised with the AstraZeneca vaccine.
The “abundance of caution” approach adopted by NIAC has been taken too far, he told Newstalk Breakfast.
Given the ongoing problems with AstraZeneca deliveries and now the questioning of its use because of the possibility of clotting, it made sense to consider rolling out the other vaccines, he said.
There was a danger that such a decision by NIAC could do more harm than good, he acknowledged. Any vaccine offered protection and it appeared that the vaccine roll-out programme had become “risk-averse.”
Prof Fanning said he could understand concerns about clotting, but compared with other medicines the risk was relatively low.
He pointed out that statistically there was a one in 200 chance of dying from Covid-19 while there was a one in a million chance of dying from a blood clot from AstraZeneca.
“I’m not quite sure why they jumped to Defcon Level 10 at this stage.”
There was pressure to appear to be seen to be doing something, he said.
Fortunately, there were options with a new vaccine from France due to become available shortly which would be very effective.
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