Tag Archives: Dr Colm Henry

HSE’s Chief Clinical Officer Dr Colm Henry said there is ‘much more to fear’ from the virus than from the AstraZeneca vaccine

This morning.

On Newstalk Breakfast.

HSE’s Chief Clinical Officer Dr Colm Henry said:

“AstraZeneca vaccine is a really good vaccine. I know there was bad publicity, and talk and concern over what have been a very small number of cases.

“I’d say to anybody aged 60-69 who has been offered the AstraZeneca vaccine: take it. You have much more to fear from the virus than you do from the vaccine.”

He said the blood clotting cases are ‘extraordinarily rare’, and has ‘rarely ever’ been reported in older people – hence why its use has been restricted in younger cohorts.

Meanwhile…

Oh.

This morning

Meanwhile..

Dr Henry said officials are also looking at whether the gap between Pfizer vaccine doses can be spread out so more adults can get their first dose quicker.

He explained: “For the Pfizer vaccine, if you look at the strict licensing of the drug, you’re allowed to give the second dose up to 42 days… but the current advice we have is up to 28 days.

“The real-world evidence… is [there’s] substantial protection after the first dose. That is not an excuse not to give the second dose, but it may well give some leeway.”

Over 60s ‘have much more to fear’ from virus than from AstraZeneca vaccine – Henry (Newstalk)

RollingNews

HSE Chief Clinical Officer Dr Colm Henry

This morning.

The HSE has suspended distribution of the flu vaccine to GPs and pharmacies after it emerged that claims for 600,000 doses are missing.

In a letter sent to doctors and pharmacists on Monday, the HSE said that approximately 1.3 million vaccines have been distributed to date, but only 700,000 of those have been recorded as administered vaccines on the claims system used by healthcare professionals to reimburse costs.

As a result, it is not clear whether or not the remaining 600,000 vaccines have been administered.

However.

Via RTÉ News:

The Health Service Executive has rejected newspaper reports that hundreds of thousands of doses of the flu vaccine have gone missing.

The executive’s Chief Clinical Officer said 50,000 doses were held back to ensure they are delivered to those areas most in need.

Dr Colm Henry said there have been unprecedented levels of demand for the vaccine this year and 1.3 million doses have been distributed already – an increase of 20% from the same period last year and the most the HSE has ever distributed.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, he said the HSE normally holds back a certain amount of the vaccine to ascertain where the gaps and priority areas around the country are and where the vaccine needs to be delivered to.

HSE won’t release any new flu vaccine jabs as 600,000 ‘go missing’ (Independent.ie)

HSE rejects claims over missing flu vaccine (RTÉ)

RollingNews

Last night.

On RTÉ’s Claire Byrne Live.

Ms Byrne put it to Dr Colm Henry, Chief Clinical Officer at the HSE, that the official figures may not reveal the “whole story” about the prevalence of Covid-19 in Ireland.

Ms  Byrne suggested that because of the delays and changes in testing criteria, and because Ireland isn’t testing people who are asymptomatic, there must be a lot of unknown cases in Ireland.

Dr Henry admitted that Ireland could “never, ever” pick up every single case of Covid-19. He said the purpose of testing is to trigger public health actions which are designed to stem or halt the transmission of the virus.

During their discussion, they had this exchange.

Claire Byrne: “I suppose my question is how do we know we’re bending the curve, when we don’t know how much of this virus there is out there?”

Dr Colm Henry: “Because our modelling takes so much more into account. It takes in, as I said, data coming into acute hospitals. I takes into account trends in intensive care units, we know, looking at the trends in admission to intensive care, it is not as steep as we feared a week or two ago. It is too early to say it Claire, how sustained that will be.

“And again that message is there, that each and every one of us have the power to save lives, to prevent people getting critically ill and to avoid healthcare workers getting sick when we need them.”

Watch back in full here

Meanwhile…

Anyone?