Professor Liam Fanning predicts that by mid-September, we will be living in a society that's 'mixing more freely'
A leading Irish immunovirology expert is predicting how the Irish public can "live a lot freer" when 80% of adults are vaccinated against Covid-19. Liam Fanning, who is a Professor in Immunovirology at University College Cork, expects that this target will be reached in September, with the discussion then turning to vaccinating kids under 16.
More than 5.3 million vaccine doses have been administered here to date, with 66% of adults now fully vaccinated and 80% partially inoculated. Professor Fanning believes the reality is that we need to have quite a large proportion of the entire population vaccinated or immune from the virus "to fully appreciate the dividends that immunity can give". He told the Irish Mirror: "Certainly by around the second week of September, those that got [the vaccine] in August will be on to their second shot so September sometime should see 80% of the population fully vaccinated. "We are talking probably fully immune individuals, roughly about 80% of the population will be some lead in into September. "Then the one million individuals or so between the ages of 12 and 15 will probably be in line for vaccination with Pfizer sometime in September/October." Professor Fanning explained that by mid-September, "we could be a lot freer and still safe and still in keeping with European guidelines on the use of antigen tests as a public health measure". He added: "When we have 80% of the adult population done, going back to schools, the schools will still have to have those public health protection measures in place because we will not have the secondary school children and young adults vaccinated to a point where we can reduce some of the restrictions. "I think that the mask-wearing at some point, probably in or around October time, I'm hoping, will become optional when we have 80% of the [total] population vaccinated. "I think mask-wearing then should become optional, my own opinion is that lots of people will continue to wear them in certain situations. "We will be able to go to matches, we will be able to mix far more freely, but we do need the adjunct of the capacity to have antigen testing on a QR code basis that we can get if people want to go indoor dining."We will be in a society that's mixing more freely, we won't have this sense of ecclesiastical judgement on individuals who socialise." Some difficult national discussions will also have to be had in the coming months, particularly around the return of people to workplaces. "We will be a society that allows people back to work, but we will also have the cold shoulder of GDPR and health and safety at work and whether we should know if our work colleagues are vaccinated or not," Professor Fanning said."The likelihood is that GDPR will trump health and safety and that employers will not have the capacity to find out if individuals are vaccinated or not and my concern would be that we would end up having a work environment that is predicated on intervention measures that will work ff the presumption that there may be an unvaccinated individual who is at risk of bringing infection into the workplace." Additionally, the full impact of the pandemic on society will also be felt, he said, while the winter flu season will also bring its own challenges. Professor Fanning stated: "I think we will see the full scope of domestic violence coming through and what it was and the misuse of alcohol and what went on in Ireland behind closed doors as a result of the effects of the lockdown that went on from January until May. "We could see the full extent of the delayed health diagnoses, I think we're going to see a nervousness around the coming flu or respiratory viral season and the mixed symptoms that will cross over between influenza and Covid-19. "I do see there being a real need to have antigen tests readily available to assess whether individuals are infectious for Covid-19."He said the priority will be giving vulnerable people a booster vaccination during the winter, as well as inoculating the 12 to 16 age cohort. "The under 12s is also a very different discussion, the risk balance between getting the vaccination as a population and the risk to the individual because they're unlikely to get serious side effects from the infection," the immunology expert said. "That will be a more nuanced discussion as to the risk-benefit from a population to the individual whereas at the moment we're clearly on an individual to the rest of the population vaccination strategy." The UCC professor is also hopeful that Christmas can be salvaged as "the language around last year was all wrong"."I think we would have survived the level five [restrictions] and I think the commercial imperative was given priority over the public health message, much as is happening at the moment with indoor dining.However, he expects that people who are not vaccinated by then will have some restrictions placed on their capacity to socialise in Ireland.
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