Expert calls for vaccinated to be allowed to meet in pods 'without restrictions'

Professor Liam Fanning, an immunologist at UCC, has said he supports calls for ‘vax pods’ where people who have been fully vaccinated could meet.

A University College Cork professor says it is time for a "vaccine bonus" to allow people who have received both doses of the Covid-19 vaccination to be allowed to meet "more or less without restrictions."

Professor Liam Fanning, an immunologist at UCC, has said he supports calls for vax pods where people who have been fully vaccinated could meet.

He said the vaccine "can achieve what we want it to achieve".

"We realise that this vaccine is a wonderful tool in our armoury at 97% effectiveness at preventing symptomatic disease.

"I think let the vaccinated meet."

People who had been vaccinated should be allowed to meet in ‘vax pods’ or bubbles, he said, but they needed to make sure that someone who was awaiting a test result was not in contact with them.

Prof Fanning also said that there should also be county by county restrictions as the virus was not everywhere.

Cork county had a level of fewer than 5 cases per 100,000 which effectively meant that the virus was being suppressed, he said.

“People have done the right thing.” 

Prof Fanning also said that there should also be county by county restrictions as the virus was not everywhere. Picture: Gerard McCarthy

He called for people to be allowed to move about within their own county and if the number of cases increased then restrictions could be reimposed.

“It’s time for autonomy to be returned to individuals. Let them make evidence-based assessments.” 

He said gardaí could be redeployed to manage travel and county boundaries much like the current roadblocks where people would provide identification and their reason for travelling into the county.

This would address concerns about people flocking to a county where restrictions had been eased, he said.

"Let them move within their county, and people know, that if the numbers go up, they'll be locked down again."

Prof Fanning said that the virus can "explode very quickly" in certain areas but he believes it is then time for some "out of the box thinking".

"Then public health can come in, and perhaps even 'flying vaccination squads' come in and vaccinate that area.

He added: "We've done the lockdown, we've done the restrictions. Let the vaccinated meet. I think the population have done the right thing."

Visionary leadership

Meanwhile, infectious diseases expert, Professor Sam McConkey has said that Ireland needs visionary leadership to show a credible way forward in the Covid crisis.

It was harder to open up society than to close it down and the failure of the second lockdown had shown that opening up based on dates rather than data had been a mistake, he said.

Speaking on Newstalk Breakfast, Prof McConkey pointed out that Israel was already having street parties such had been the success of their vaccination programme.

However, he said there was still a lot of uncertainty and he had reservations about the Danish plan to open up society once all the over-50s had been vaccinated.

An Israeli soldier stands guard as Palestinians who work in Israel line up to receive their first dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at a coronavirus vaccination center set up in a factory in the joint Israeli-Palestinian industrial zone of Barkan, Tuesday, March 9, 2021. Picture: AP Photo/Ariel Schalit

Prof McConkey warned that there was still a one in a thousand chance of death for people aged 45 from Covid.

He added that the issue was very complex and Ireland could learn from the successes and failures of other countries.

On the same programme, Senator Michael McDowell said that society had to make a judgement call on whether it was worth taking the risk of opening up society once older and vulnerable cohorts had been vaccinated.

Mr McDowell said targets should be data related, he added and the test and tracing system should be used to track down any cases that arise as a society could not be closed down permanently.

Was a risk of one in a thousand worth it, he asked, if an entire generation was going to miss going to university and businesses were closing down.

"If these were the consequences at what point would society say this was a risk that would have to be taken."

The country needed a plan that included mileposts, he said. At present people were getting “a jumble of figures thrown at us every day” with no target by which to measure, said the former attorney general.

“Where is the light at the end of the tunnel?”