Could this not have been planned a few months back. We had plenty of notice.
Starting the rollout to nursing homes in January seems to a little late to me.
Could this not have been planned a few months back. We had plenty of notice.How do you suggest that the vaccine be rolled out to almost 600 care homes scattered throughout the country and do it in a safe and controlled way?
I know what I said "now" seems to be tripping you up.This is what you said.
I think what you said is very clear.
How do you plan for something you don't have or may never have. The vaccine, well Pfizers and Biontech they didn't even know a few months ago.Could this not have been planned a few months back. We had plenty of notice.
Starting the rollout to nursing homes in January seems to a little late to me.
| Age group | Number of residents in thousands |
|---|---|
| 0 - 14 years | 1,008.9 |
| 15 - 24 years | 618.1 |
| 25 - 44 years | 1,397 |
| 45 - 64 years | 1,201.2 |
| 65 years and over | 696.3 |
No, to vaccinate 3.8m people, they'd actually need to be doing over 200k per week, to hit September to account for the 2nd shot.If we vax. approx 100k per week we won't have population vax. before September...
How do you plan for something you don't have or may never have. The vaccine, well Pfizers and Biontech they didn't even know a few months ago.
And they did.Exactly. They had several months in which to plan for the presumptive approval of the vaccines that were going through regulatory approval i.e. contingency planning.
It always leads back to the comparison between Ireland and other EU countries. They knew and didn't know the same things at the same time, faced the same uncertainties and received (and will receive) equal amounts of the same vaccine(s) on a per capita basis at exactly the same time. The only difference seems to be that those other EU countries have governments and health services that prioritize the lives of their citizens over work-life balance concerns of their public servants and employees whereas the Irish government and health service seem to have other priorities - despite all the spin, ministerial photo ops, and self-aggrandizing HSE radio ads. And until the Irish electorate demands the same quality of public services enjoyed by citizens in other European democracies this is not going to change.And they did.
Vaccine allocation in the EU is not done on a simple per capita basis. For example age profile is taken into account. Based on 2016 population analysis Ireland has the smallest percentage of it's population in the 65 and over age group (13.2%) and so we'll get less vaccines per capita than the other countries.equal amounts of the same vaccine(s) on a per capita basis at exactly the same time.
Point taken.Vaccine allocation in the EU is not done on a simple per capita basis. For example age profile is taken into account. Based on 2016 population analysis Ireland has the smallest percentage of it's population in the 65 and over age group (13.2%) and so we'll get less vaccines per capita than the other countries.
And if the vaccines failed or they were found to be toxic or a multitude of other issues with the vaccine this expenditure would be excusable how?Exactly. They had several months in which to plan for the presumptive approval of the vaccines that were going through regulatory approval i.e. contingency planning.
And if the vaccines failed or they were found to be toxic or a multitude of other issues with the vaccine this expenditure would be excusable how?
There was no guarantee that a vaccine was going to be made in that time period none its the first time in history the technology has been used.
How can anyone contingency plan when they nobody knew globally any of the risks, or how many vaccinewere going to be allocated/ produced or who indeed created a vaccine first and if that vaccine would be available .
To contingency plan properly you need facts or at least some basis to base your plan on, a few months ago that was literally a blank page , the second page was covered was full if "what ifs" and probabilities etc, meanwhile the virus was continuing to trot around the world, what do you think the priorities were, certainly weren't on "what ifs" or "maybes "
They knew nothing until Pfizer announced on the 10th of November, any other releases were at the end of stage 1 and 2 which merely gave the information that they were able to program the genetic sequence into the RNA and it appeared safe......Pfizer then embarked on a huge phase 3 trial and the results were made public on the 10th of November, with details of storage, manufacturing etc that week.I'm not sure what point you are arguing for or against.
Just pointing out that's exactly what contingency planning is for.
They knew for months there were candidate vaccines in development requiring cold storage at advanced stages of the regulatory process.
That rollout to a network of care homes would be needed.
That consent issues would need to be addressed.
Expenditure?
We can spend hundreds of millions each months keeping businesses closed during the pandemic...
We could spend millions on dodgy PPE orders and ventilator deals in spring but nothing to prepare for presumptive approval of cold storage vaccines in development?
Nope.
Doesn't stand up to a scrutiny or comparison with our peers in the EU.
I'd like to know what actual facts you know to back up your implication that these issues were not taken into account?They knew for months there were candidate vaccines in development requiring cold storage at advanced stages of the regulatory process.
That rollout to a network of care homes would be needed.
That consent issues would need to be addressed.
That the vaccines in development were multiple dose and would require data systems to track distribution per person.
Should we not have done this?We can spend hundreds of millions each months keeping businesses closed during the pandemic...
Every country I'm aware of had problems sourcing PPE due to unprecedented global demand. The UK was far worse in this regard and I think I heard recently that the UK have passed 80,000 excess deaths. We spent "nothing to prepare for presumptive approval of cold storage vaccines in development?" How do you know this?We could spend millions on dodgy PPE orders and ventilator deals in spring but nothing to prepare for presumptive approval of cold storage vaccines in development?
Can you back up this accusation?Doesn't stand up to a scrutiny or comparison with our peers in the EU.
The UK approved the Pfizer vaccine ahead of everyone. They were and still are in a dreadful state in comparison. The UK is getting over 40,000 new covid cases per day now and growing. With Covid out of control they were desperate to approve the vaccine and so the regulating agency in the UK gave a "temporary use authorisation" in order to start vaccinating people asap.33,683 vaccinations have been administered to care home residents and frontline Health & Social Care staff in Northern Ireland.
Every vaccine "will".