Leading immunologist Professor Luke O’Neill has said Ireland should be aiming to vaccinate every citizen by the end of June.
The Trinity College Dublin boffin said we should be following Denmark’s example.
Prof O’Neill was speaking after the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine could be approved by mid-March.
Ireland has an Advance Purchase Agreement for 2.2 million doses of the drug.
He said that if the supply chain holds, Ireland needs to be more ambitious: “Denmark - who are like us remember, they’re depending on the EU, they say they’ll have all their people done by June 27 - which is well ahead of us.
“Why can’t we be like Denmark, is the question?
“They have said ‘look that’s our ambition, we need the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to make sure we get to that point and then we need to make sure the supply of the others keeps coming up’.
“So they’ve said it could be delayed, but the only thing that should stop us now is supply.
“Nothing else should be a variable here of any kind. In other words as soon as we get the vaccines in, get them into people’s arms.”
Speaking to Newstalk’s Pat Kenny, he added: “And we should be like Denmark. I’d love it if our Minister for Health said ‘our goal is June 27th just like Denmark to have our whole population vaccinated’.
“In fact the Danes said this just before the summer holidays as a way to cheer people up, I suppose.
“But it does depend on Johnson & Johnson, there’s no doubt.”
Johnson & Johnson is the parent company of Janssen, both of which have Irish operations.
It is the fourth drug to be put forward for approval - following BioNTech/Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca.
The Janssen vaccine only requires a single dose to be effective, unlike all others approved so far, and can be stored in a standard fridge.
