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Family carers are frontline healthcare workers and need to be treated as such in the rollout of the coronavirus vaccine, the Sinn F\u00e9in leader has said.<\/p>\nFamily carers are frontline healthcare workers and need to be treated as such in the rollout of the coronavirus vaccine, the Sinn F\u00e9in leader has said.<\/p>\n
Mary Lou McDonald said it was \u201cabsolutely essential\u201d that the country\u2019s 500,000 family carers are given priority on the list when it is reconfigured by the Department of Health.<\/p>\n
Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin told the D\u00e1il that Health Minister Stephen Donnelly had written to the National Immunization Advisory Committee (NIAC) about the matter and that the Government expected to receive updated advice on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Ms McDonald said: \u201cFamily carers are frontline health workers and they deserve to be recognized as such.<\/p>\n
\u201cCarers employed by the HSE are included in the rollout and it only makes sense that family carers are given their place too.<\/p>\n
\u201cFamily carers have been prioritized for vaccination in the North and it is high time we follow suit.\u201d<\/p>\n
She added that family carers had walked a \u201cparticularly hard road\u201d during the pandemic.<\/p>\n
\u201cI held a meeting with hundreds of them last week and they told me that the prospect of the vaccine is the light at the end of a very, very dark tunnel,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey said it was like a punch in the stomach to be told that they would have to wait to be vaccinated along with the general population.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey feel their lives and the clear risks that they face don\u2019t matter.\u201d<\/p>\n
In response Mr Martin said he recognized that carers had to be \u201cextremely careful\u201d in their lives so that they do not inadvertently spread the disease to their loved ones.<\/p>\n
Mr Martin also told the D\u00e1il that approval of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine \u201cmay be sooner than was originally envisaged\u201d and that it would give everyone \u201cconsiderable hope\u201d.<\/p>\n
Ms McDonald said the risk carers face is \u201cenormous\u201d and it was unacceptable that they had been \u201cforgotten\u201d and left with the general population for vaccination.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe NIAC is wrong to have left family carers in that position,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The Taoiseach dismissed Ms McDonald\u2019s claims that carers had been forgotten.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody in here wants to forget anyone in terms of vaccination,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Government\u2019s plan is to vaccinate as many people as quickly as we possibly can dependent on getting the requisite volume of vaccine into the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s our objective like everybody else\u2019s.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not forgetting anyone when it comes to vaccination.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think that charge should be made.\u201d<\/p>\n