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Professor Brian MacCraith. Sam boal

'People trusted the science': Chair of vaccine taskforce explains Ireland's high vaccine uptake rate

The latest figures show that 91.7% have at least one vaccine dose, while 87.8% are fully vaccinated.

THE CHAIR OF Ireland’s taskforce on Covid-19 vaccinations has said that a well-educated population, trust in the public-health advice, and good quality information is behind Ireland’s high vaccination uptake rate.

The latest figures show that 91.7% have at least one vaccine dose, while 87.8% are fully vaccinated. A total of 6.77 million doses have been administered.

It means that four out of five people over the age of 12 are fully vaccinated, he said. This pits Ireland as the EU country with the second highest Covid-19 vaccine uptake rate, behind only Malta. 

Speaking on RTÉ Radio’s Brendan O’Connor show, Professor Brian MacCraith, chair of the high-level taskforce on Covid-19 vaccination, said he had been asked a lot what was the reason behind Ireland’s high rate of vaccination.

“I think it’s an educated population, I think people trusted the science, and they trusted the public health advice.

“I think the abundance of caution that National Immunisation Advisory Committee  (NIAC) showed meant that Irish people trusted the advice so we mightn’t have like the outcome many times, but everyone knew that it was for the right purpose, so they trusted what was been said to them.”

He said that “high-quality information” that was available to people also made a difference.

He said that experts like Professor Luke O’Neill, Dr Ronan Glynn (Deputy Chief Medical Officer) and Dr Tony Holohan (Chief Medical Officer) inspired confidence in the science, while Dr Karina Butler of NIAC “influenced a lot of people with her very clear thinking”.

“Look again at 16 to 17-year-olds in recent weeks, so that’s one of the iconic images of the vaccination programme: queues and queues at 6am.”

Ireland currently has 600,000 vaccine doses in storage at the moment, Mac Craith said, with Ireland still due to get around 180,000 doses a week.

Surveys carried out indicate that around 7% of Ireland’s population will not accept a vaccine, which Mac Craith said was “very low in European terms”.

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    Mute Michael Kavanagh
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    Jul 3rd 2016, 10:25 AM

    Are they sure it’s a horse? ……. Seems more of a mule to me!

    55
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    Mute Odhran MacMurchadha
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    Jul 3rd 2016, 10:04 AM

    There’ll be horse’s head in someone’s bed this morning.

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    Mute rowan hill
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    Jul 3rd 2016, 9:51 AM

    Giddy up!!

    53
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    Mute The Girl
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    Jul 3rd 2016, 11:32 AM

    Trojan horse…

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    Mute Mondoburley
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    Jul 3rd 2016, 10:33 AM

    “Nothing that stands out lads ye”
    “How about a diamanté diamond encrusted horse head?”
    Perfick!

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    Mute Drew TheChinaman :)
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    Jul 3rd 2016, 10:06 AM

    Didn’t anyone tell them the Trojans already tried that…

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    Mute david dickson
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    Jul 3rd 2016, 12:44 PM

    It worked for them…

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    Mute Denise Mc Shannon
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    Jul 3rd 2016, 9:56 AM

    neigh, thats a load of horses~~t.

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    Mute Max Power
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    Jul 3rd 2016, 10:30 AM

    This reminds me of Dougal hiding rabbits from the bishop. What idiot thought it smart to hide 15mil of cocaine in a highly noticeable diamond encrusted horse head.

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    Mute Funfair
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    Jul 3rd 2016, 12:16 PM

    I’m reading 9 million father Ted must have taking the other 6 for the parish funds

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    Mute Marg murphy
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    Jul 3rd 2016, 10:04 AM

    There a movie in that!

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    Mute pat seery
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    Jul 3rd 2016, 10:51 AM

    Marg At last they have found SHERGARS HEAD

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    Mute Funfair
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    Jul 3rd 2016, 9:54 AM

    Why don’t they give the manufacturering price of the drug instead of the street prices so we can gauge how hard a blow the find is to the cartels

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    Mute Random_paddy
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    Jul 3rd 2016, 11:39 AM

    ‘pparantly it was Cian O’ Connors infamous showjumping horse

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    Mute Declan Gibney
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    Jul 3rd 2016, 9:58 AM

    Surprised the Irish cartel weren’t found to be involved in this one….too far from Spain maybe.

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    Mute John Dillon
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    Jul 3rd 2016, 10:20 AM

    Horse horse horse from the euros wana watch out

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    Mute Pat Gorman
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    Jul 3rd 2016, 11:01 AM

    Trojan Horses with hidden malign “treasures” are usually found in software nowadays.
    Nice to see a real one.

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    Mute seamus mcdermott
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    Jul 3rd 2016, 11:24 PM

    Various currencies listed in different stories–but 10,000,000 USD is common enough, so divide that by the number of ounces of the stuff and you get $8,100/oz at the values the police are using.

    That’s just nuts.

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