Cathal Crowe
Question:6. Deputy Cathal Crowe asked the Minister for Health if he intends to introduce an adult immunisation programme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48824/23]
View answerThursday, 9 November 2023
Questions (6)
Oral answers (6 contributions)
This question is to ask the Minister for Health if he intends to introduce an adult immunisation programme and if he will make a statement to the House on the matter.
Covid-19, influenza and pneumonia vaccines are currently available to certain groups of adults most vulnerable to a severe outcome from these diseases. This is available as part of the adult immunisation programme. The immunisation programme is based on the advice of the national immunisation advisory committee, NIAC. NIAC considers the prevalence of the relevant disease, as well as international best practice for immunisation when developing its advice. NIAC continues to revise recommendations to allow for the introduction of new vaccines and to keep abreast of changes in the patterns of diseases. Once a recommendation from NIAC is received and considered by the Chief Medical Officer, CMO, of my Department, a request can be made to NIAC to carry out a health technology assessment, HTA. This assessment looks at the evidence of the effectiveness and safety of the vaccine. The assessment also looks at value for money, cost and the organisational, social and ethical issues of providing a new vaccine. At present, HIQA is carrying out two HTAs in this area. The first is on a shingles vaccine and the second on an enhanced flu vaccine for those 65 and older. The outcomes of these HTAs will inform a decision on whether or not these vaccines will be included in the future in the national immunisation programme. Additional information on the current adult vaccine programme is available from the HSE website.
With the success of the vaccine and the pandemic thankfully behind us, have the Minister, Department and HSE considered a widespread publicity or information campaign on the benefits of immunisation from a public health point of view, the issues facing society and how we can bring information into the public domain? There is a lot of negative information and negativity regarding immunisation, vaccines and so forth. Has the Department or the HSE considered bringing forward a clear message that immunisation works and is important for society?
I fully agree. The shining example in Ireland is the late Laura Brennan and her advocacy on the human papillomavirus, HPV, vaccine. We know Ireland was doing well on the HPV vaccine and then, as the Deputy referenced, a lot of misinformation came into Ireland from abroad through social media. That scared young women and we saw the level of vaccine drop very considerably. Laura Brennan's advocacy was quite extraordinary. We saw the level of uptake of the HPV vaccine go right back up again and we now have a very high level of uptake. Through her work, an awful lot of lives have saved.
Furthermore, the work of her family with the Laura Brennan catch-up programme for girls and young women who might have missed the original HPV vaccine campaign due to misinformation will also save a lot of lives. We need to learn from extraordinary people like Laura and her family in respect of what the Deputy has said about everyone taking the vaccines that are clinically appropriate for them.
I accept the campaign by Laura and the excellent work that has been done, which has hugely benefited society. Has the Department developed an understanding of the challenges that exist? We are getting a lot of misinformation regarding vaccines. A lot of people are reading information on them. It is important that the State, aided by science, the Chief Medical Officer and advice of medical professionals, puts the information in a robust way in order that any attempt to undermine public health or vaccination or immunisation programmes is countered. At this point, we are perhaps taking things slightly for granted. We need a robust rebuttal of some of the information that is being put out there.
I thank the Deputy. We must always be open to being able to do more. I agree with the Deputy. The misinformation and disinformation, largely coming from abroad and through social media, can be very damaging and highly persuasive. I imagine, with the advent of AI-enabled communications we might see more and more of it. While the HSE and Department of Health do a lot, we must always be open to doing more not just in terms of traditional information from the CMO, doctors and scientists, but how we counter at quite a sophisticated level some of the disinformation.
Social media platforms worked well with us during Covid. As we know, Ireland did very well in terms of Covid vaccines. That is probably something we can explore further to make sure that everything that can be done is done to identify and stop what we know to be false information which, ultimately, is a danger to public health.