Health unions have queried why frontline healthcare workers are being given what they describe as the "least efficacious" vaccine when they are the workers most exposed to Covid-19.
According to the Industrial Relations News journal published today, the unions have told the HSE that members are complaining that they are being offered the Astra Zeneca vaccine, which only has 60% efficacy, compared to 95% for the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine, and 94.5% for the Moderna vaccine.
The complaint was made in a letter sent yesterday on behalf of the HSE staff panel of health sector unions and associations to HSE management.
The chair of the staff panel Tony Fitzpatrick notes that more than 26,000 healthcare workers have been infected with Covid-19,