Irish Examiner view: It’s time to reinforce the messaging

Covid vaccines

In the spring of 2020, the prospect of a viable vaccine against Covid-19 seemed distant at best. Picture: Larry Cummins

If one were to travel back to the time when the pandemic was really beginning to bite, in the spring of 2020, the sense of fear about Covid-19 was all-pervasive, and the prospect of a viable vaccine seemed distant at best.

Flash forward to the current day and it seems as if the reaction to these two linked issues has been reversed. Is it now the case that people see the prospect of contracting Covid-19 as distant or unlikely? Has the disinformation propagated about vaccination made people more fearful of that option?

The figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) data suggest that whatever their motivation, people are not being vaccinated, or receiving booster vaccinations, in the numbers one might expect.

The CSO states that the numbers availing of Covid-19 vaccine boosters varied from just 8% to 33% across certain electoral areas in the country last year. 

That seems to be an extraordinarily small number of people willing to get a booster vaccination in certain parts of the country: Fewer than one in ten in some cases.

Taken in conjunction with a very real spike in flu cases, as reported by this newspaper earlier this week, and it is easy to see why the health services are under such pressure, with record numbers on trolleys. 

The increased number of flu cases has resulted in 700 children being hospitalised this winter and has prompted the HSE to open walk-in vaccination clinics for children.

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This action on flu in children, and the HSE’s strong messaging directed at parents to get their children vaccinated against the disease, is in sharp contrast with the Government’s messaging on Covid-19, which appears vague and unfocused. 

The level of awareness of eligibility among those in line for boosters seems low and may be more responsible for the slow take-up mentioned above than any resistance to vaccination in principle.

With Dr Mike Ryan of the World Health Organization warning of the need to continue with vaccinations, antigen testing, and ventilation measures in the fight against Covid-19, the Government would do well to add stronger messaging to its armoury.