Niamh Griffin: It's a race of vaccines vs variant once again

An updated booster plan is now expected within days to ensure 1.5m people are boosted by Christmas.

All eyes are on the Covid-19 booster campaign this week, as over-50s join the queues, with over-40s expected to be added as early as next week.

The Health Minister Stephen Donnelly has confirmed the gap between the second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine and the booster dose will now be just three months as the country tries to respond to the Omicron variant. 

For anyone wondering why there is so much focus on boosters, with a new plan now expected for Ireland, British prime minister Boris Johnson’s warning of a potential “tidal wave” of Omicron certainly focused thoughts this weekend.

It appears these concerns were at least partly driven by a UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) study indicating people who had the AstraZeneca vaccine 25 weeks or more ago have 40% protection against the Delta variant before boosting but protection against catching Omicron could be less than 10%.

The AstraZeneca vaccine is widely used across the UK.

Head of immunisation at the UKHSA Dr Mary Ramsay has urged people to take up the boosters. 

"These early estimates should be treated with caution but they indicate that a few months after the second jab, there is a greater risk of catching the Omicron variant compared to Delta strain," Dr Ramsay said. "The data suggest this risk is significantly reduced following a booster vaccine.” 

The same study found people who had two shots of the Pfizer vaccine have 60% protection against Delta after 25 weeks, but this appears to be about 40% against catching Omicron.

This could be good news for many Irish people with Pfizer doses dominating the vaccine tables here and just 1.1m AstraZeneca doses given out of 7.4m in total here. 

Anyone who received AstraZeneca here is offered an mRNA booster from Pfizer or Moderna. 

Both are widely used as boosters internationally – more than 23m Moderna boosters were given in the US, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention to this week.

Up to Monday, there were 4,713 Omicron cases in the UK, including 10 in Northern Ireland. One person has died.

Updated booster plan

In Ireland, 18 cases have been confirmed so far but health authorities have warned more are expected. An updated booster plan is now expected within days to ensure 1.5m people are boosted by Christmas.

On Sunday, 25,200 boosters were given, however, Government Chief Whip Jack Chambers said on Monday the weekly total is expected to hit 300,000 later this month. 

This would mean giving almost 43,000 boosters daily, which is quite a step-up. This is, however, still below the busiest days of the campaign so far when the week of July 4 saw more than 390,000 doses given.

Anecdotally, many problems with the booster campaign have centred around being unable to cancel appointments, having taken up a booster at a pharmacy or through a GP. Some centres, especially in Dublin, have seen large queues at walk-in clinics.

HSE vaccinations lead Damien McCallion has said capacity at the centres is increasing week on week, and pharmacies are increasing their offering. GPs are working with older people and those vulnerable to the virus for now.

This all seems to leave Ireland once again facing a 'vaccines vs variant race' heading into late December.