The current Covid-19 booster vaccine campaign should be suspended until a delta-specific vaccine is developed and rolled out.
That's according to Professor Sam McConkey, who said that said that the current booster program would likely not reduce case numbers as people continue to congregate in crowded settings.
He told Newstalk: "This particular vaccine, it doesn't provide immunity in your nose to stop you catching it.
"And unfortunately [it doesn't] stop you passing it on to the people around you as well as it does to prevent disease and death,.
"It's unlikely that the vaccine - even if we boosted everyone tomorrow - would just sort of fix the problem.
"It might improve it for a month or two, but it's not really a definitive fix."
The infectious disease expert also gave his opinion on the use of antigen tests, saying they should be priced at €1 to €2 to encourage as many people as possible to use them.
Prof McConkey - an Associate Professor and Head of the Department of International Health and Tropical Medicine at the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland - believes that people should use antigen tests two to three times per week due to the current infection rate across the country.
He said: "You have to use them two or three times a week a least - so you're then at 100 or 200 tests a year.
"A reasonable cost for that service in a calendar year could be "€400- €500... that works out at €2 to €3 each."
If the current high case numbers continue, Prof McConkey said that this level of antigen testing could carry on for the next six months to a year.
He also said he is is fully supportive of working from home where possible, and that 2020 had shown that the technology is there to make it functional for businesses.
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