Alison O’Connor: All involved in vaccine rollout deserve a massive pat on the back

We should also give one to the Government for having equal measures of common sense and sticking with the EU procurement process
Alison O’Connor: All involved in vaccine rollout deserve a massive pat on the back

Parents and their children queue in the rain outside the Citywest vaccination centre in Dublin. Picture: Damien Storan/PA

There isn’t too much around to give you a warm fuzzy feeling at the moment. But the exceptional uptake of Covid vaccinations among people in Ireland is a bit of an uplift banker.

The numbers are breathtaking. According to the most recent HSE statistics 82% of adults have been fully vaccinated and 90% partially. Statistics from the European Centre for Disease Control this week show that our uptake in vaccines among adults over 18 is second only to Malta.

What are the reasons, you’d have to wonder, why we have reached such stratospheric heights with our rates, especially when you consider the lengths that some other countries have had to go to increase theirs. Serbia was early out of the jab incentive traps offering €25 along with your sore arm. 

Needless to say, the financial stakes are higher in the US where President Joe Biden recently called on states to offer $100 in order to tempt more people to get the shot. There have been plenty of other incentives including a stick blender offered in one city in India.

Taking it from the oldest, 99% of those over 80 in Ireland are vaccinated, and the numbers hold up down through the age groups, 81% for the 18 to 29-year-olds, only dipping below 80% for 16 and 17-year-olds who are at 66%, but still coming forward. In the under 16 age groups nearly 100,000 have registered in the past week.

Even the controversial Astra Zeneca vaccine held its own in the end, as evidenced by the huge uptake in the age groups which received it from 60 to 69 and those in their fifties.

Five bottles of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine. Picture: AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying
Five bottles of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine. Picture: AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying

There are a myriad of reasons to explain this level of uptake; self protection surely being the foremost among them, as well as risk aversion. A determination never to have to face into another lengthy lockdown. Being able to get the vaccine – once those supplies were available – with relative ease and at no cost were big drivers. But those harder to measure dynamics are also significantly at play such as community, and solidarity and the fact we are a small, island nation.

We should give ourselves a pat on the back for our common sense. We should also give one to the Government for having equal measures of common sense and sticking with the EU procurement process when the calls were strong to go it alone – calls which never made sense given what weaklings we were in terms of bargaining power on a global stage. 

Kudos also to the High Level Task Force on Covid-19 Vaccination chaired by Professor Brian MacCraith; those who sorted out all the logistics, those who actually gave the jabs and all the volunteers at the vaccine centres. There has also been the very careful stewardship of Niac by Professor Karina Butler. The body was often criticised behind the scenes from the political and HSE side for taking too long to decide on certain issues, but the public may well have interpreted this as due care and attention being paid to all of the relevant concerns.

Communication, as well as trust in expert advice, has been a key component of the success we’ve seen in jab uptake. The long-running, and public, Nphet briefings, which kept the advice of Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Tony Holohan and deputy CMO Dr Ronan Glynn to the forefront, not least on advocating vaccination, played a role.

I was curious to know what outside agency the HSE had engaged to advise on how to pitch the message to the public in such a key campaign. None was the answer. This is the arm of the HSE with plenty of experience in vaccination campaigns – not least having to rescue them, such as what happened with the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine a few years ago. 

Such was the clamour for that when it was introduced in 2010 no campaign was needed to encourage people to get their daughters vaccinated. The rates hit a high of almost 87% in 2015. However that dipped alarmingly to well under 50% in the space of just a year and a half, owing to the concerns of parents which had been whipped up by anti-vax groups.

It was an uphill battle for the HSE to regain the trust of parents but it was done, and quickly. By the beginning of the pandemic vaccination rates were approaching 80%, and as high as 90% in Co Clare the home county of the amazing HPV campaigner Laura Brennan who died in 2019.

So Covid was not the first vaccine rodeo for Fidelma Browne, HSE Head of Programmes and Campaigns. 

We are fairly overwhelmed by the response which has been phenomenal. It truly is amazing what has been done,” she said.

She believes Irish people are in general really well informed on the Covid vaccines and took a common-sense approach in their decision to get it. The HSE conducted focus groups and research towards the end of last year and the beginning of 2021. It was clear from those that people had certain questions they wanted answered. 

Around 80% wanted the jab, but at least half of those had serious questions on things like efficacy, side effects, how long the vaccine would last. It was a significant call to action for the HSE who responded to, rather than dismissed those concerns. The lessons learned during the HPV controversy were also taken on board. 

“If you have questions about the Covid vaccine find answers you can trust at HSE.ie”, ran their tagline. There was also an acknowledgement that some questions simply could not be answered given the newness of the vaccines.

99% of those over 80 in Ireland are vaccinated, and the numbers hold up down through the age groups, 81% for the 18 to 29-year-olds, only dipping below 80% for 16 and 17-year-olds who are at 66%, but still coming forward. Picture: Leah Farrell/RollingNews.ie
99% of those over 80 in Ireland are vaccinated, and the numbers hold up down through the age groups, 81% for the 18 to 29-year-olds, only dipping below 80% for 16 and 17-year-olds who are at 66%, but still coming forward. Picture: Leah Farrell/RollingNews.ie

There was valuable buy in from advocacy groups such as the Irish Cancer Society, the Irish Kidney Associations and Age Action Ireland who attended meetings and sent out regular updates to their members on the vaccination programme.

Trust was built up. If a new side effect is found in any of the vaccines all information leaflets are immediately withdrawn and republished in 24 languages, including, for instance Irish sign language versions. “The approach is that whatever we know you will know,” explained Fidelma Browne.

Since December 2020 the HSE website has had 17 million visits, with the most popular content since the end of last year being the vaccine rollout page with people wanting to know when they would be vaccinated. One of the most difficult parts of the communications angle was the uncertainty about when exactly that would happen given the supply issues. Since April the top pages searched for switched to actually getting the vaccine and where it was available.

There was no big razzmatazz with this campaign – just straightforward information - which was also active on Youtube, TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. The HSE has more than one million followers on various platforms. Throughout there has also been the storytelling – particularly successful at the beginning were the photos of people in nursing homes, and health staff on the frontline, getting their jabs. Remember the feelings of joy and hope those brought?

Earlier this week, addressing the approval by Niac on the mixing of vaccines, Labour leader Alan Kelly said the number of vaccines given is incredible. The HSE, he said, “has done Trojan work throughout the vaccine rollout”. It’s true. 

The health body really has done a fine job in delivering to people what they needed in terms of information and availability and after that the public turned up in their millions.

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