A single mum looking after her teenager daughter living with cystic fibrosis has demanded to know why carers haven't been included in the vaccine priority list.
Clondalkin woman Siobhan Brophy said she feels like "the light has been taken away" from her and her daughter Saoirse as neither of them are eligible to get the COVID-19 vaccine during the first round of rollouts.
Siobhan, 40, told Dublin Live: "I’m a single mother and if something happens, if I catch Covid, what do we do? Where does my child go?
"We’re not even mentioned [in the priority list]. Even after the priority list, we’re not even mentioned then either.
"We’re the only ones who can go out and get food and medication."
She said that her daughter has been put in a catch 22 situation where she can't get the vaccine despite having a chronic respiratory illness.
Siobhan said: "She’s not on the list because she’s under 16. But the medical professionals have told me that she has to cocoon. She couldn’t go to school. So where does she fit into all this?
"She’s too sick to go to school, and she’s too young to get the vaccine that makes her able to go to school."
She added that carers are being forced to cocoon even though they aren't sick.
"We’re petrified to go to the shops just in case we pick it up. And it’s not that we pass it on, if we pick it up and then we get sick, what do we do then? Who’s going to take over my role?
"There’s nobody that can do it really because I’m the one who’s been doing it. It’s demoralising that the government doesn’t seem to recognise that we do this job."
Siobhan said her daughter would need a 24-hour nurse because of the way her meds are spread out all throughout the day.
"It’s not that we’re looking to go to the top of the list. We understand there are people who are dealing with Covid.
"But we’re the ones keeping hospitals clear at the moment because we're keeping whoever we’re caring for cocooning.
"I wouldn’t mind being able to relax and know I’m not going to catch Covid and be out of action for 14 days. And that's the best case scenario.
"The worst case scenario would be ending up in ICU. Going to hospital is not even an option for me. There’s no way I could go to hospital and leave my daughter behind."
Siobhan said that the news of the vaccine brought hope her at first.
"I was like, ‘Oh, great, the vaccine’s coming. That’s a bit of a relief.’ and then when I looked, we weren’t even on it and even Saoirse’s not even on it.
"I don’t mind cocooning because there was light [at the end of the tunnel] but now the light has been taken away from us and we didn’t even make the cut as a priority."
She said there are hundreds of carers out there who are in the same position.
She added: "Hundreds of people trapped in their homes, worried, anxious, and stressed who need a little bit of hope.
"But to be told, ‘No, you’re not even on the list. You’re not even worth it'."
The current provisional vaccine allocation list is as follows:
| 1 | People aged 65 years and older who are residents of long-term care facilities (likely to include all staff and residents on-site) |
| 2 | Frontline healthcare workers |
| 3 | People aged 70 and older |
| 4 | Other healthcare workers not in direct patient contact |
| 5 | People aged 65-69 |
| 6 | Key workers |
| 7 | People aged 18-64 with certain medical conditions |
| 8 | Residents of long-term care facilities aged 18-64 |
| 9 | People aged 18-64 living or working in crowded settings |
| 10 | Key workers in essential jobs who cannot avoid a high risk of exposure |
| 11 | People working in the education sector |
| 12 | People aged 55-64 |
| 13 | Other workers in occupations important to the functioning of society |
| 14 | Other people aged 18-54 |
| 15 | People aged under 18 and pregnant women |
