Stephen Donnelly, the health minister, is considering reducing the five-month gap between the second Covid jab and the booster shot to try to increase immunity before the Omicron variant becomes widespread.
“It’s something I am discussing with the department,” Donnelly said yesterday. “We are closely monitoring emerging evidence at the European Medicines Agency.”
Paul Reid, the HSE chief executive, said the target was to have 1.5 million boosters delivered by the end of this month. However, hundreds of people queued for jabs at the UCD campus again yesterday with many left disappointed when it shut to walk-ins at 10am.
The HSE has not yet set a date for people in their forties to receive the third vaccine shot. A senior source there said that plans were being developed for a big push to deliver boosters in the week between Christmas and the new year, when most fortysomethings will be on leave and have time to attend vaccination centres.
The source said the same time slot would be important to vaccinate children aged five to 11 who have underlying medical conditions or who live with someone who is immunocompromised. This group has been “strongly recommended” for primary vaccination by the National Immunisation Advisory Committee (NIAC).
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“That is a cohort that is going to be difficult to identify because there aren’t any records of who lives with immunocompromised people,” the source said. “We will probably have to operate some kind of honour system where we take people on trust.”
NIAC said children aged five to 11 without underlying health conditions should be given the same priority as people under 40 who needed booster doses, since they would be receiving their first vaccination. There are no plans, however, to inoculate this age cohort in schools because organising that would take too long.
Meanwhile the government is preparing to move ahead of advice from the National Public Health Emergency Team and fund the purchase of Hepa air filters for primary schools by expanding the “minor works” grant.
Sources have confirmed that talks are taking place between Norma Foley, the minister for education, Michael McGrath, the public expenditure minister, and Paschal Donohoe, the finance minister, over increasing the fund, which rose from €15 million in 2019 to €30 million last year. It could be increased to at least €40 million for 2022 to let school principals both pay for maintenance work and buy Hepa filters.
One government source said last week: “Discussions are still ongoing within government, but the intention is there will be sufficient funding for filters and for essential maintenance.”
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This represents a further change in government policy, as the idea of having a Hepa filter in every school classroom was previously dismissed as unnecessary.
Two immunologists have recommended that the five-month gap between the second Covid jab and the booster should now be reduced, because of the spread of Omicron.
“Most people think that, by January, Omicron will be the dominant variant in Ireland. The best chance we have is to boost everyone,” said Kingston Mills, a professor of experimental immunology at Trinity College Dublin.
“The five-month rule is being strictly enforced, with people being turned away from vaccination centres. We need to get coverage fast but, with the five months [rule], there will be people waiting until March or April to get the booster and by then we’ll have come through the full rigours of winter. We need to strike while the iron is hot.”
Mills said early evidence that people infected with the Omicron variant were exhibiting milder symptoms was probably because so many people have already been either infected or vaccinated rather than the new variant being more benign.
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Luke O’Neill, a professor at Trinity College’s School of Biochemistry and Immunology, agrees that the spread of Omicron justifies closing the gap between injections.
“UK data shows Omicron is here and we need to get the booster as quickly as possible,” he said. “We need a new directive to say three months is acceptable. Anybody over 50 should definitely be done as quickly as possible.”
O’Neill pointed out that a recent paper in The Lancet stated that a three-month wait sufficed for all vaccines. Studies have shown that the effectiveness of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which was administered to more than 400,000 people in their sixties, wanes faster than other vaccines.
Some people aged 60 to 69 have still not received booster shots.
NIAC has advised the government that those who got the one-shot Janssen Pharmaceuticals vaccine should receive an mRNA booster after three months as it is less effective than a two-shot vaccine.
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The government said NIAC was constantly monitoring new evidence as well as its advice to Donnelly on the administration of vaccines.
The EMA website says that current data “support safe and effective administration of a booster dose as early as three months from completion of the primary vaccination, should such a short interval be desirable from a public health perspective”.
