THE HSE IS launching an online survey to help inform its information campaign about the Covid-19 vaccine ahead of the Government’s rollout plan.
Healthcare workers and members of the public are being asked to complete the survey by next Friday, 18 December.
The HSE said that it hopes responses to the survey will inform them about how people currently feel about the Covid vaccine, their questions about the vaccination programme, what information they need, and how and by whom they’d like to be kept informed.
The HSE is encouraging people to share the survey with their friends and family, to encourage the widest cohort of people possible to fill it out.
This week, the government announced its priority list for the Covid-19 vaccine, if and when the European Medicines Agency approves one. First in line will be care home residents over the age of 65; frontline healthcare workers in direct patient contact roles; and then those aged 70 and older.
Some information on vaccines in Ireland
In Ireland, vaccines are offered to protect us against 13 infectious diseases.
Almost 200 years of vaccination campaigns delivered to millions of people have greatly reduced the burden of infectious diseases that caused widespread deaths and disability to children and adults in Ireland.
In the case of polio, an acute illness which invades the gastro-intestinal tract, a vaccine against polio was introduced in Ireland in 1957 – which eliminated the disease by 1984.
The MMR vaccine – which protects children again mumps, measles and rubella – has an uptake rate of over 90%.
The HPV vaccination rate is now back at over 80%, after falling to 51% following misinformation shared online about the HPV vaccine.
A huge part of the success in increasing the update rake was due to the involvement of Laura Brennan, a HPV vaccine campaigner who died of cervical cancer last year.
By February of this year, uptake rates of the HPV vaccine in Laura’s home county of Clare were up as high as 90%.
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