Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronan Glynn has this evening said that masks, social distancing and jabs for Covid-19 will all be "really important" for the next few months.
In a video posted to Twitter on Sunday, he urged that we continue the vaccination programme, wearing masks and social distancing and explained what the vaccine really does to our bodies.
“We need to continue using all of the tools that are available to us,” he said.
“All of these measures will continue to be really important over the coming months.”
Dr Glynn said that the “job” of a jab is to “train the immune system to recognise and defend itself against disease.”
He explained that vaccines allow the body to fight off a virus, without the disease making us seriously ill.
“When a person receives a vaccine, it triggers an immune response and the person builds a supply of defensive white blood cells,” he said.
He added that the process takes “about two weeks” to work, making you able to fight off the virus after two weeks post-jab.
If you are exposed to the virus after these two weeks, “these white cells recognise the virus and go into action quickly and protect the person from the virus.”
Dr Glynn said that vaccines are made with “weak or dead germs.”
“They won’t make you sick,” he added, and said that the immune response that produces symptoms such as a fever after a jab are “normal”.
“They’re a sign that your body is building immunity," he stated.
He added that, after clean water, vaccines have saved more lives than any public health intervention.
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