Ireland’s coronavirus reproduction rate will begin to fall as soon as the first vaccinations are rolled out, according to Professor Luke O’Neill.

He was speaking after the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said two COVID-19 vaccines could be approved by next month.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) and US Federal Drug Administration (FDA) are currently examining vaccines developed by Pfizer and Moderna after the companies said they were both safe and highly effective.

    

On The Pat Kenny Show this morning, Trinity Professor Luke O’Neill said the Pfizer candidate could be approved within a week.

He said the first batch of vaccines delivered to Ireland will be reserved for healthcare workers and the vulnerable, with a wider roll-out due in late spring.

“Remember though, as soon as we vaccinate even 20% of the population, the dreaded R number starts to go down anyway,” he said.

“We will see benefits as soon as the vaccination programmes begin. Once the R number goes to 0.6 or 0.5, that's great isn’t it?”

Safety

Professor O'Neill said the regulatory approval process will be as strict as ever, despite the accelerated pace of the vaccine’s development.

“You can imagine the focus on this,” he said. “They are putting the best and brightest people in the EMA on to this and the FDA – all the scientists, all the medics are examining this really closely to make sure they can trust the companies.

“Regulation is very important but I wouldn’t have any worries. If they press go on this, in their opinion, it is safe and efficacious and we can get on with vaccinating people in Europe."

Vaccine rollout

Professor O’Neill said there is a danger Ireland will lose its allocation of vaccines if it fails to put in place a robust system for distributing it around the country.

“There will be a somewhat stringent examination of each country,” he said.

“Because obviously it is precious, I mean they won’t be able to give very country everything they want.

“So there will be a certain divvy for each country, but if you can’t roll it out, they won’t give it to you until you can prove that you can – so that's something we've got to keep an eye on.”

Supply

The EU currently has purchase agreements in place with Pfizer, AstraZeneca (Oxford) and Sanofi, with negotiations ongoing with Moderna and NovaVax.

“AstraZeneca announced a good result yesterday as well,” he said.

“They said it is working in the older people. So their vaccine gave a good response in older people and secondly, there were even less side effects if you like.

“The older people did well on the vaccine with less injection site reaction so that vaccine looks really good as well. Their data will come out before Christmas for definite.”

He said there could be as many as five companies supplying vaccines to Ireland by the first quarter of next year.

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