Preparations must be made for those that have an allergic reaction to Covid vaccines, a Dail committee has heard.
“Vaccine safety is an overriding concern,” said a senior member of the National Vaccine Taskforce, Professor Karina Butler.
But the top professor also said she hoped the new vaccines could be “conquering” ones.
Vaccine taskforce experts are before the Dail this afternoon where they are calling for a “national injury redress programme”.
Professor Butler said it will be a challenge for the Government to develop this fail-safe, but it is important to keep watch for the small number of our citizens who will have adverse reactions.
Professor Butler is a member of the Government’s special vaccine taskforce and she is also chair of the National Immunisation Advisory Committee (NIAC).
She is appearing at the Oireachtas Health Committee along with the taskforce chairman, Professor Briain MacCraith, and the Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Dr Ronan Glynn.
Professor Butler said that part of the job of NIAC will be the “continued surveillance” of the vaccine after rollout.
She said this is so important because the vaccines are going to be received by, not tens of thousands, as is normal, but millions this time around.
The professor said this high vigilance is needed to make sure the unknown vaccines don’t cause more serious side effects, in more people, than other vaccines.
But the vaccines expert also said that there is great hope for the vaccination programme.
She said: “There are very many challenges ahead including providing clear accurate up to date information to potential vaccine recipients such that they can feel fully informed of the potential benefits; the direct benefit in preventing COVID‐19 for themselves, the benefit of reducing the case numbers for our communities and to accurately balance that against any small but as yet unknown risks that might be associated with vaccinations.
“A further challenge is to finalise the development of a national injury redress program to provide support and care in the event that any vaccine recipient develops a serious vaccine reaction as recommended by the The World Health Organisation (WHO).”
Professor Butler added: “Vaccination is the key that will help open that pathway back to normality.
“It is very much our hope that in time, this virus will be listed along with diphtheria and polio as organisms that vaccination has controlled if not conquered.”
