Prof Luke O’Neill, a professor of biochemistry in Trinity, today suggested that Ireland examine the possibility of rolling out the Chinese and Russian vaccines in the fight against coronavirus.
In a wide-ranging livestream hosted by Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union President Eoin Hand today, O’Neill said: “If I was in charge, shall we say, I would look at the two Chinese vaccines and the Russian vaccine, and I would come to our own decision about them.”
O’Neill and Hand were joined by Professor of Experimental Immunology Kingston Mills and Trinity’s Director of Student Counseling Trish Murphy, as they reflected on one year to the day since college shut down.
While O’Neill believes the Irish vaccine rollout has been more of a success than people realise, he wonders “whether we can be a bit more clever.”
Addressing his concerns over the likelihood of further delays in vaccine shipments, O’Neill said: “We could go to the Russians. Hungary have done it, Poland are doing it. I wonder whether we should knock on [Russia’s door].”
He continued, joking, “I’m also suggesting that U2 should offer to play a free gig for the CEO of Pfizer’s daughter’s 21st birthday.”
While Kingston was similarly pleased with the progress of vaccinations, adding that the current “political point-scoring” from opposition parties is unhelpful, he also believes there is a legitimate route to making a deal for the Sputnik and possibly for the Chinese vaccines.
“There is actually legislation which permits it. So European countries can do emergency use authorization outside of the EMA regulations,” he said referring to the European Medicines Agency’s legal framework for drug approval. He also described the data around Sputnik as “extremely convincing”.
On a different note, Trish Murphy provided insights into what has been an incredibly challenging year for the counselling service.
“The shutdown meant people’s futures and lives were suddenly cut off. The plans were gone, what jobs or internships they were going to get just disappeared over night”, she said.
“It left a lot of people in a very vulnerable situation and we expected that to be quite short, but that vulnerability continued and continued and continued.”
Murphy described how this Christmas, for the first time, the counselling service was not left to deal with overwhelming numbers of mental health crises. She put it down to “the entire college, [TCDSU], and everyone who put loads of effort into preventative work.”
Murphy said that this “incredibly positive experience” has shown her the power of “recognising and addressing loneliness, isolation, and anxiety,” and hopes that the lessons learned this year are taken far into the future in addressing student mental health.
