Tony O’Brien: Ireland should use its UN pulpit to push for vaccine equity

Such a move would be a worthy use of a privileged position, in a world where new variants of Covid-19 may well emerge before long

Until the global level of vaccination is very substantially increased, the risk of development of further new variants of concern is not going to go away any time soon

The letter from Dr Tony Holohan, the chief medical officer, on Thursday and the government’s subsequent decision to ease lockdown restrictions move us, in a small number of steps, to a new place.

The restrictions introduced in response to the emergence of Omicron were prudent and consistent with the precautionary principle. While Omicron has proven to be as highly transmissible as feared, it has thankfully not resulted in the surge of hospitalisations and acute illnesses ...