However, there remains some apprehension over the vaccine. One local doctor has assured his patients and the wider community that the benefits of the vaccine massively outweigh any risks, though, which he said were negligible. 

Indeed, while the vaccine may have been produced unusually quickly, this was due to scientists and agencies working together with haste to prioritise it, not by cutting corners. 

“I think people have the right to ask questions and to challenge. That is entirely reasonable and I wouldn’t dispute their right to do that,” said Ederney GP Dr Brendan O’Hare, who feels it is “a no brainer.” 

“The vaccines have been fast-tracked, but the testing to date has been very rigorous. I certainly will be taken the vaccine.”

Dr O’Hare continued: “The groups that are being targeted at the start, the benefit versus the risk is so far skewed in terms of benefit, it’s a no brainer. 

“If you are 80, even in good health, and you get Covid, your chances are at least five percent, one in 20. At least that, possibly 10 percent. 

Your chances of a serious side effect from the vaccine are without question less than one in 50,000, because it was tested on 50,000 and there were no serious ones.”

Dr O’Hare said the benefits outweighed any small risk for the under 50s too, and added he hoped once the vaccine was rolled out with the older groups younger people would have a clear picture as to how safe it was. 

“I would stress, it’s essential that if we are going to put Covid behind us, that those young people come forward and get vaccinated,” he said. “Not so much to protect themselves, but they are the super spreaders and those are the people we really have to get to for herd immunity. 

“Then by the summer we can put this pandemic behind us and get on with our lives.”