The Government has added new members to the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) to shake up the group responsible for issuing Covid-19 guidance
The new members of Nphet are the president of the Royal College of Physicians Ireland Mary Horgan, the chair of the National Immunisation Advisory Committee Karina Butler and director general of Science Foundation Ireland Mark Ferguson.
A senior Government source said chief medical officer Tony Holohan’s group needs to be “refreshed and strengthened” to deal with the ongoing challenges posed by the pandemic. “We want fewer civil servants and more medical specialists who are knowledgeable and have strong personalities,” the source said.
It was a Saturday night, February 29, when Dr Tony Holohan called me to break the news: we had our first confirmed case of Covid-19 in Ireland. It was inevitable, but it was also clear that we were embarking on a life-changing course. What we didn t know was where it would lead us.