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Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan said that guidelines on immunity only apply to healthcare workers. Leah Farrell/RollingNews.ie

Three-month immunity advice for healthcare staff not to be extended to general population

Healthcare staff have been told they can act as if they are immune from Covid-19 for three months after recovering.

PEOPLE WHO HAVE recovered from Covid-19 should not act as if they’re immune, health officials have said, despite healthcare staff being treated as immune for three months after contracting the virus. 

Earlier this week, TheJournal.ie reported that the HSE had informed healthcare staff that they would be treated as being immune from Covid-19 for three months after first contracting the virus. 

This advice, however, will not yet be extended to the general population, Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan said this evening. 

Responding to a question at the Department of Health briefing this evening, Holohan said: “We just have recommended that measure for its application in healthcare settings because of the desire to ensure that we minimise the impact on the healthcare workforce,” he said. 

The HSE has been particularly concerned in recent months about avoiding major staffing pressures and a significant number of Covid-19 cases have been among healthcare workers. 

During the crisis, staff deemed “essential” have been subject to a derogation that sees them return to work early despite being a close contact of a confirmed coronavirus case, if asymptomatic. 

Holohan said that it was not yet possible to make the same recommendation on immunity to the wider community. 

“We’ll keep the whole thing under review. That whole question, of the role of immunity and then participation by people in society in activity or work, is a question under ongoing international scrutiny and research,” he said. 

The extent of immunity a person has after recovering from Covid-19 is unclear.

A document published on 13 May, compiled by the Health Information and Quality Authority, sets out the limited results of research into post-infection immunity. The available evidence suggests that there could potentially be antibodies in individuals for one to two years after being infected. 

However, the HIQA document states that “it is unclear if reinfection can occur following recovery from” Covid-19. 

World Health Organization officials have also acknowledged the limited data available on immunity.

It remains unclear if a person with Covid-19 antibodies is protected from the virus into the future.

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    Mute Dara O'Brien
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    Jun 3rd 2020, 10:36 PM

    Ah here, ye’re just making stuff up now lads.

    You’re either immune or not – immunity is not job specific. If you need healthcare workers back regardless then just say it, there’s a danger that people will start picking things up wrong if you just keep making stuff up.

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    Mute daveyt
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    Jun 3rd 2020, 11:15 PM

    @Dara O’Brien: all they care about is the rosters in hospitals being filled, if a healthcare worker who has been infected and re-exposed via close contact (which is very likely) they don’t have to quarantine themselves for 2 weeks and the hospital can function as normal, no science behind it just ignorance

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    Mute Seán O'Sullivan
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    Jun 4th 2020, 12:57 AM

    @daveyt: not exact science no but calculated risk based on science

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    Mute Sean Gallagher
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    Jun 4th 2020, 3:00 AM

    @Seán O’Sullivan: telling people they are immune is NOT a calculated risk. Either you have a scientific basis for saying it or not. If they do, then it extends to everyone. If they don’t it’s utter nonsense and should be withdrawn. Health care workers are just as likely to catch it on close contact as everyone else. They also happen to be more likely to come into contact with it.

    It’s utterly disingenuous to make it one rule for one and not for others. I sincerely hope the unions get involved at this point and call b*llsh*t as they should.

    This advice could endanger health care workers, their families and anyone else the come into contact with, including their patients.

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    Mute William Bryan
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    Jun 4th 2020, 2:27 PM

    @daveyt: happened where I worked, positive result from one staff, the rest of ye keep working its a grey area

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    Mute a politicians promise is as good as a lie
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    Jun 3rd 2020, 10:46 PM

    What a load of bollox..just like the 2, 5 and soon 20 km limits all makey up… To hear simple Simon on the radio when asked about should the 20km limit be skipped and allowed people travel everywhere he said he felt it in his gut it was the wrong time…. No scientific evidence to back these travel restrictions

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    Mute Gavin Conran
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    Jun 3rd 2020, 11:02 PM

    @a politicians promise is as good as a lie: The 2, 5 and 20km limits are to contain clusters. If there is an outbreak during the 5km limit, then, if everyone is staying inside their areas, it should be contained and make the trace work a lot easier.

    This immunity thing though I cant make heads or tails of.

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    Mute Martin Woods
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    Jun 4th 2020, 5:31 AM

    @Gavin Conran: but you can travel any amount of kilometres to work so that throws your thinking out the window

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    Mute John Doyle
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    Jun 4th 2020, 8:08 AM

    @a politicians promise is as good as a lie: “no scientific evidence” did you not read that he feels it in his gut?

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    Mute ValerieSP
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    Jun 4th 2020, 6:34 PM

    @a politicians promise is as good as a lie: really? How do you know the Scientific evidence or perhaps you are in fact a Scientist in which case your comment just might be viable

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    Mute ValerieSP
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    Jun 4th 2020, 6:38 PM

    @a politicians promise is as good as a lie: what’s with the Simple Simon?? Not nice and unhelpful

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    Mute Anthony Whelan
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    Jun 3rd 2020, 10:56 PM

    Just now on the tonight show Prof Paul Moynagh (maynooth) says tests should have cost €15 each . Our boys (who some think are playing a blinder) are paying €200 per test.

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    Mute Daniel Dunne
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    Jun 3rd 2020, 11:01 PM

    @Anthony Whelan: It’s easy to spend other people’s money when you’re the government.

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    Mute Cormac Laffan
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    Jun 4th 2020, 7:11 AM

    @Anthony Whelan: It’s the same crowd we booted out of office, doing the same thing we booted them out for.
    #OurLivesMatter

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    Mute Daniel Dunne
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    Jun 3rd 2020, 10:59 PM

    Clever coronavirus knows if you’re a healthcare worker or not. It also knows if you were protesting on Monday or not. Magic.

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    Mute Lydia McLoughlin
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    Jun 3rd 2020, 11:08 PM

    And this is why the general population will start to do their own thing.. making it up as they go along!

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    Mute Adam Conroy
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    Jun 4th 2020, 12:12 AM

    This makes no sense. Are they just making this stuff up as they go along?

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    Mute EvieXVI
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    Jun 3rd 2020, 10:44 PM

    Enough already!!! The immune system of healthcare workers is the same as that of non-healthcare workers. Please stop treating people like idiots.

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    Mute Isabel Oliveira
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    Jun 4th 2020, 12:35 AM

    Yeah .. if only healthcare staff lived 24/7 in hospitals and couldn’t infect the community and patients if only they had magical powers not to fall ill and suffer themselves . What in the name of Christ is wrong with the CMO, the HSE and the government ? Criminal !

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    Mute Martin Harte
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    Jun 3rd 2020, 10:44 PM

    Acting the fu€k now so they are

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    Mute Joe
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    Jun 3rd 2020, 10:56 PM

    WTF

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    Mute Oracle Steve
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    Jun 3rd 2020, 11:13 PM

    Pure clowns

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    Mute Kartz
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    Jun 4th 2020, 9:50 AM

    So in Ireland, the CMO has discretionary powers to decide who can become immune and who cannot!

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    Mute Davy MacIomhair
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    Jun 4th 2020, 8:16 AM

    Absolute horse sh!t. I’m a nurse, I know of more than one staff member who tested positive, recovered, then tested positive a second time and was considerably sicker second time round.

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    Mute Gill James
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    Jun 4th 2020, 3:33 PM

    @Davy MacIomhair: I wonder if Covid 19 perhaps behaves in the same way that Borrelia aka Lyme disease sometimes does. Goes to ground in the body’s organs and is then no longer detectable in the blood – regularly shapeshifting and creating a biofilm to evade the immune system , so that even after extended oral antibiotic treatment and a subsequent blood test which proves negative – waves of various symptoms recur and sometimes to a serious degree for years.

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    Mute joan kelly
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    Jun 4th 2020, 1:23 AM

    The world and his mother has gone nuts

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    Mute Agenda21
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    Jun 4th 2020, 2:59 AM

    @joan kelly: gone to hell in a hand basket

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    Mute 8-Bit-Relic
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    Jun 3rd 2020, 10:45 PM

    *hust*bullshit*hust*

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    Mute William Bryan
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    Jun 4th 2020, 2:25 PM

    Heard it all now as a Health care worker, this alarms me but now the grey area is explained, Health care workers are now deemed as collateral damage, they are really clueless, BTW only have sex with one close contact, Tony says

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    Mute Noel Healy
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    Jun 3rd 2020, 10:43 PM

    Christ!!!! The cracks are showing with poor old Dr Tony. So healthcare staff aren’t part of the general population now? The old power has his brain fried.

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