The Taoiseach has stated that caution is necessary to prevent anti-vaccine sentiment from spreading in Ireland, reports Breaking News.
In order to make sure the State is better equipped to handle pandemics in the future, Micheál Martin said that he hoped the government’s examination of the reaction to COVID-19 will be accelerated.
Instead of conducting a legislative inquiry, the State has established a Covid-19 Evaluation to look into the pandemic response.
Asked for an update on its work, the Taoiseach said: “The inquiry, my understanding, is on the way, and I hope it can be expedited with a view to re-evaluating what do we take from it to enable us to be better prepared into the future. I think what’s interesting is very often… when actually the pandemic happens, not everything goes in accordance with the plans that might have been written in respect of it,” reports Breaking News.
“And I think those are structural issues we need to look at in terms of how one would respond, in terms of the collective approach of government and so forth. There are certainly things we can pick up on,” reports Breaking News.
“Very many people lost their lives… many families found it very hard to mourn the loss of their loved ones,” he said, reports Breaking News.
“That said, I think the Irish Health Service responded well overall. I think the country responded well. I think the big lesson for me is that vaccination was the key, and we should never lose sight of that, because without vaccination, societies would not have come back as quickly as they did. Now the importance there then is, how do we ensure continued international collaboration on the vaccine front and collaboration with industry? I think the European Union did a stellar job in respect of combining industry with research to enable us to get the vaccines brought to the market and approved, and then get them manufactured at a pace and volume that enables societies to come back,” reports Breaking News.
We asked the Taoiseach if he was worried about the rise in anti-vaccine attitude in Ireland.
He said that prior to the pandemic, there was concern that the people might be resistant to vaccinations, but this had not happened.
Mr Martin said: “There was no issue in Ireland in terms of take-up, the take-up levels were extraordinary. So much so the European Union colleagues were saying to me repeatedly, what’s going on, how come you’re getting to 90 per cent participation rates?” reports Breaking News.
The Taoiseach brought up a measles epidemic that killed three children in Dublin in the early 2000s while he served as health minister.
Although Mr. Martin acknowledged that immunisations had altered the path of medical history, he insisted that public health conversations must be transparent.
He added: “So we must not lose sight of that, vaccines work and vaccines do give immunity. And there can be every now and again, a fad or a phase where people kind of start jumping on to a particular thought process or thread in respect of specific vaccines. But in my view, we keep an eye on it, but I take heart from what happened in the pandemic,” reports Breaking News.
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