"There's no evidence that we have yet, even though we hope that we might get it in time, to show that this vaccine will impact beneficially on preventing transmission."
Speaking at a press conference yesterday, Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan, commented that getting the
vaccine doesn't mean that people don't need to continue following the strict public health measures currently in place.
"The fact of being vaccinated does not obviate or remove the need to keep up very high levels of compliance with the public health measures.
"There's a view abroad, perhaps, that when you get your vaccine that you don't then afterwards need to continue to practice all of the measures but that simply isn't the case.
"There's no evidence that we have yet, even though we hope we might get it in time, to show that this vaccine will impact beneficially on preventing transmission. We know the impact it will have on preventing progression of the disease for people who are vaccinated but we haven't yet gotten the evidence in terms of transmission."
https://twitter.com/rtenews/status/1348712361809620992
Acknowledging that "it will take time for people to be vaccinated", Holohan went on to say that public health officials are working their way through "in a prioritised way".
"The vaccination is not really going to help us in dealing with the problem we have right now in front of us, it's really not going to help us, but it is coming - as a measure that would help to protect individuals and increasing the population from further surges of this infection."
