The vaccine rollout may be significantly accelerated because of new research about covid immunity.
People who’ve had the virus are now immune to re-infection for nine months as opposed to six.
This report by the Health Information and Quality Authority looked at over 600 thousand people who had been re-infected with covid.
It found that the duration of presumptive immunity could be stretched from six to nine months post infection.
This means people under the age of 50 here who’ve had the virus in the past nine months should only need one dose of a vaccine.
Meanwhile, the gap between doses of the AstraZeneca jab may be reduced from 12 to 8 weeks following new advice from the National Immunisation Advisory Committee.
One immunologist Professor Luke O’Neill thinks people who got AstraZeneca should be offered Pfizer on their second dose to give them the best protection against Covid 19.
