MINISTER DECLARES WAR ON UNVAXXED
Donnelly says those still not jabbed are having a disproportionate effect on the health service...
THE unvaccinated are having a ‘disproportionate impact on the health service’, Stephen Donnelly warned yesterday.
Speaking directly to the estimated 360,000 adults and youngsters still not fully jabbed, the Health Minister asked them to get the vaccine, ‘if not to get themselves safe, then to get everyone else safe’.
Concern is growing over the impact the 7% of unvaccinated adults are having on intensive care units and general hospital services.
As waiting lists head towards the one million mark, Mr Donnelly warned that 360,000 unvaccinated is ‘a lot of people in a country that has 300 ICU beds’. He said: ‘My ask is that the 250,000 adults
aged over 18 and the 110,000 between 12 and 18 [years old] realise their decisions are affecting the people.’
The scale of the impact of the unvaccinated has led some ministers to favour an increasingly hardline approach, with one source noting: ‘We have to create a scenario where failing to vaccinate becomes as socially unacceptable as smoking in bars or drink driving.
‘The principle with vaccination is the same. Drink driving is unacceptable because you hurt other people. Not taking a vaccine is the same.’
Another minister warned: ‘The big question is how you persuade the unvaccinated to vaccinate.
‘We have reached a very high threshold at 93% of the people. It is almost impossible to get 100% of the people to do what the State wants.’
The minister warned: ‘There has to be consequences. Not vaccinating is not a human rights issue. It’s more like smoking, which is not illegal, but we don’t allow it inside pubs. The unvaccinated should face similar restrictions.’
One minister added: ‘We don’t want compulsory vaccination: it can’t be done but we need to create scenarios where the nonvaccinated realise their choice has consequences for others and themselves.’
Mr Donnelly took a more moderate approach, noting: ‘Our message to them must be that we have made an honest judgment to the best of our ability. People put themselves at risk all the time. They smoke, they drink, but the decision not to be vaccinated puts other people at risk.’
He said that, when it comes to vaccination, ‘whilst we should not be demonising people, they need to be reminded that freedom does come with responsibility’.
Yesterday, HSE chief Paul Reid said it has been encouraging to see more and more people come through for vaccination.
He wrote on Twitter: ‘10,750 [first and second dose] vaccinations done in vaccination centres alone over the past four days. 5,000 of these through walk-ins and significantly from younger ages. Also seeing over 2,000 people per day registering.’
But Labour Party leader Alan Kelly called for a renewed public awareness campaign, warning: ‘We need to encourage as many people as possible to get vaccinated, and address the concerns of anyone worried about it, and that is best done by persuasion rather than forcing people to do something they don’t want to.’
Sinn Féin health spokesman David Cullinane warned: ‘There is a very small percentage that have not been persuaded. We don’t have mandatory vaccines.’
Meanwhile, nurses and midwives have called for Covid-19 booster vaccines to be given to frontline healthcare workers, after it emerged that 1,800 medical staff are out of work due to issues related to the virus.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has written to the Chief Medical Officer and the chair of the National Immunisation Advisory Committee (NIAC) calling for the availability of boosters to be extended.
Details of a booster campaign for healthcare workers are yet to be confirmed, as NIAC continues to examine the evidence around the follow-up jab.
Figures from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre show that the number of Covid infections has increased among healthcare workers, with over 371 nurses and midwives were infected in the last month.
INMO general secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said: ‘The infection rate of healthcare workers is going in the wrong direction, and it is especially concerning given the time of year. Many in the over-60 cohort that have been recommended to receive a booster in the coming weeks would have received the AstraZeneca vaccine.
‘Many healthcare workers received this vaccine in late January and February.
‘Nurses and midwives are now exhausted from working since February 2020... We know exhaustion adds to their vulnerability and coupled with exposure to very high levels of this virus in their workplace, it is now imperative that they are afforded the maximum protections available, including booster vaccines.’
Concern is accelerating across Government and Opposition over what is seen as an excessively cautious approach by NIAC to rolling out the booster vaccine to health care workers.
Labour leader Mr Kelly called for health workers to be protected through the long winter, noting that: ‘These workers got the Covid vaccine early in 2021, and a booster now will protect them through the winter.’
The views of Mr Kelly were privately echoed by a number of Government ministers who were
‘We need to encourage people’
‘Caution is the enemy of good’
anxious not to become embroiled in a public spat with the respected agency. Fine Gael senator Tim Lombard bluntly warned: ‘NIAC need to get the finger out. We have the infrastructure, and we have the manpower. Caution is the enemy of the good.’
One senior Government figure said: ‘Healthcare workers have also been vaccinated for some months now, they will be moving past the six-month mark.’
There is, they said ‘a sensitivity there: remember the virus spread into nursing homes via healthcare workers’.
This comes as a further 1,725 confirmed cases of Covid-19 were confirmed in Ireland yesterday.
As of yesterday morning, there were 473 patients in hospitals with the disease, with 97 of those in intensive care units.
Elsewhere, infectious disease consultant, Dr Jack Lambert, yesterday called for antigen tests to be used in schools. He told RTÉ Radio 1’s Brendan O’Connor show: ‘Some schools have done antigen testing piloting to decrease the number of cases of kids out of school [who are] positive for Covid, that’s been done successfully in some places. Obviously if you’re symptomatic, you shouldn’t be going to school.’