The Irish Times view on the vaccine priority list: a striking anomaly

The Government still believes it is “likely” that everyone in the Republic will be vaccinated by September, but that is now an “aspiration” rather than a promise.

The rhetorical softening is understandable given reductions in supply from two of the drug companies on whose vaccines the State has placed a big bet. In the case of Pfizer/BioNTech, the cut to supply, which has affected deliveries in recent weeks, will be temporary and will allow for a ramping up of production in a few weeks' time. The reduction in deliveries to EU states from AstraZeneca, which has set off an acrimonious row with the European Commission, will have a longer-lasting impact. The latter, easy-to-store vaccine, which is expected to be approved by the European Medicines Agency on Friday, is the centrepiece of Ireland's vaccination plan.

Difficulties such as these were to be expected, given the speed and scale of the global Covid-19 vaccination effort. Further hiccups will occur; it would not be inconceivable for new strains to emerge that would render certain vaccines less effective, or for significant further production or distribution bottlenecks to arise.

But the extension of the vaccination timeline makes it all the more important to ensure that the State has its priority list right. In broad terms, it does. Frontline healthcare workers and care home residents are first in line, and the inoculation of those groups is continuing apace. They are to be followed by the over-70s, who will be offered vaccines in a staggered process starting with the over-85s.

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However, the Government should retain a certain flexibility in order to take special cases into account. One of the most obvious anomalies is that of under-70s who have cystic fibrosis (CF). People with the most severe forms of CF, including those waiting for a transplant or those who have had one, are designated by the HSE as being at “very high-risk” yet they are listed in 7th place on the 15-tier vaccination list. The numbers involved are relatively small. There is a strong case for moving them up the list.