Vaccine Questions

Royal Irish Academy•www.ria.ie

A podcast series on vaccines and vaccination, where we ask experts the questions you want answered. Do you have questions about the coronavirus vaccines? Maybe you want to understand how they work? Maybe you wonder if they are safe for you to take? Or perhaps you are just anxious to know when and how you will be vaccinated? In this podcast series, science journalist Dick Ahlstrom chats with experts in public health, immunology, virology, bioethics, statistics and behavioural science. He will ask them questions sent in by you and help make sense of the answers.

Last refreshed: July 7th, 2025 at 12:09 AM ⓘ

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Episodes

Looking to the future with Professor Christine Loscher

In the final episode of this series, Professor of Immunology Christine Loscher discusses the vaccine rollout and answers questions on vaccines for teens, booster shots and more. As we reach 70 percent of the population of Ireland vaccinated against COVID-19, host Dick Ahlstrom chats to immunologist Professor Christine Loscher about how Ireland has performed in terms of its vaccination programme, what we have learned about the virus and about vaccines over the last year and what’s new in terms of...

Jul 30, 2021•38 min•Season 1Ep. 8

Understanding human behaviour with Professor Pete Lunn

Behavioural economist, Professor Pete Lunn shares expert insights on how our behaviour impacts the spread of the COVI19 and what drives this behaviour. Pete is head of the Economic and Social Research Institute's Behavioural Research Unit and a member of a subgroup that advises NPHET on public response to the pandemic. He tells Dick what questions this group has asked about public behaviour in the pandemic, and shares some of the surprising answers this research has revealed about how we balance...

Jul 05, 2021•38 min•Season 1Ep. 7

Vaccine solidarity with Dr Siobhán O'Sullivan

Chief Bioethics Officer at the Department of Health, Dr Siobhán O’Sullivan talks about the difficult decisions officials and individuals must grapple with in this pandemic and the values and principles which underpin them. While science plays a vital role in informing decisions such as prioritisation for vaccination, these decisions are not made in a vacuum. They impact on all our lives and require assessment of legal, socio-economic factors, and judgements about what is right and wrong and what...

Jun 14, 2021•33 min•Season 1Ep. 6

Inoculation against misinformation with Professor Jane Suiter

In episode five Dick chats to Professor Jane Suiter, Director of the Institute for Future Media, Democracy and Society at DCU about what drives the spread of disinformation and how it can undermine vaccination programmes. What is the difference between misinformation and disinformation and are they the same thing as fake news? Dick asks Jane to explain what these terms mean and they discuss the evolution of disinformation, what drives it, and what makes people susceptible to it. Jane also outlin...

May 24, 2021•34 min•Season 1Ep. 5

Trust and reliability with Emer Cooke

Emer Cooke, Head of the European Medicines Agency explains its role in assessing and authorising COVID19 vaccines, and Dick asks why should we trust the EMA to ensure that all the vaccines we receive are safe and reliable? COVID19 vaccines can only become available to us here in Ireland once they are authorised by the European Commission following evaluation by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). In this episode, host Dick Ahlstrom talks to Emer Cooke, an Irish pharmacist who took on the role o...

Apr 22, 2021•28 min•Season 1Ep. 4

Getting the jab with Dr Lucy Jessop

Dr Lucy Jessop is Director of Public Health at the National Immunisation Office. In this episode she explains when, where and how people will get their vaccination shots, and answers lots of your questions around what side effects to expect. Here's the link to a factsheet on vaccination for pregnant and breastfeeding women: https://www.hse.ie/eng/health/immunisation/hcpinfo/covid19vaccineinfo4hps/qaiogniac.pdf This series is organised by the Royal Irish Academy Life and Medical Sciences Committe...

Mar 31, 2021•19 min•Season 1Ep. 3

Crunching the numbers with Professor Philip Nolan

Professor Philip Nolan explains the numbers we hear on the news and virologist Dr Gerald Barry answers your questions on vaccines. News coverage of the pandemic is full of numbers and statistics. Daily figures of new COVID19 cases, hospitalisations and deaths are provided alongside other numbers like 7-day average case number, incidence of disease per hundred thousand, positivity rate and growth rate. Where do these figures come from and what can they tell us? In this episode Dick talks to Profe...

Feb 03, 2021•42 min•Season 1Ep. 2

COVID-19 vaccine safety with Luke O’Neill, MRIA

Luke O'Neil, MRIA speaks to Dick Ahlstrom, in the first episode of our new Vaccine podcast series, about the first COVID-19 vaccine given on the Island of Ireland, why this is such exciting news and why it is such an amazing achievement for science. The first COVID-19 vaccine on the island of Ireland was given to a nurse in Belfast on 8 December 2020, and with the European Medicines Agency due to make a decision on the Pfizer vaccine on Monday, the Government of Ireland has also said its Covid-1...

Dec 18, 2020•24 min•Season 1Ep. 1

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