A Russian Covid-19 vaccine will be examined for use in Ireland, the chair of National Immunisation Advisory Committee (NIAC) has said.
Professor Karina Butler said the Sputnik V vaccine will be looked at in detail.
The vaccine has been found to be safe and highly effective with an efficacy of 91.6 per cent, according to peer-reviewed findings published on Tuesday in the Lancet medical journal.
“Sometimes we feel if it’s developed in a country we’re not familiar with there must be something wrong,” Prof Butler said.
“But this might be very good and in fact, anything that is helpful will be welcomed and I think they are going to be submitting it to the regulatory agencies as well.”
Community immunity
Prof Butler also said that a mixed response in Ireland’s vaccination programme could provide the best level of immunity for the whole community.
Speaking on Newstalk Breakfast about the decision to prioritise use of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines for those over 70, Prof Butler said different vaccines could work best for different age groups.
“From the beginning we said if we had a vaccine that was proven to be good at preventing transmission then ideally you want to give that to the younger cohort who are out and about the most and may be involved in the transmission of it more than older people who are shielding themselves safely,” she said.
“So you may have two different things going on - you want maximum protection and rapid protection as fast as you can for those who are most vulnerable, and you want to break the spread as much as you can in those who may be more at risk an acquiring infection because they're out and about, but have much lower risk of transmitting it and passing it on.
Every one of these vaccines is going to find its place
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“The combination together might give us the mix where we get to a level of immunity in the population as a whole that can actually get us out of the situation that we're in at the moment.
“Every one of these vaccines is going to find its place. If it's safe and it's effective we're there with this range of vaccines — so this is a good news story.”
However, Prof Butler pointed out that the rollout of the vaccine was not the remit of NIAC and that many considerations had to be taken into account.
“Our goal is to get everyone vaccinated as efficiently as possible.”
All of the vaccines gave protection against hospitalisation, she added.
