Medically vulnerable people who expected to receive their Covid-19 vaccines in the coming weeks as part of 'Cohort 4' have called for greater clarity following the temporary suspension of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Jack O'Brien, 18, was ready to leave his house in Navan, Co Meath for Dublin on Sunday morning, when he received a text to cancel his appointment just an hour and a half before it was meant to happen.
The Leaving Cert student received a kidney transplant in 2005 and said he has a poor immune system as a result of his medication.
Jack has been cocooning for the last year and has not been in school for 12 months, despite re-openings in September and again in March this year.
"It is not just me, it's my family as well. They have been able to do less because of my condition," he said.
Both he and his family were "delighted" when the alert came about a vaccine for him and news of the postponement was "demoralising and frustrating".
Jack said: "It was right in front of me and it's just been snatched away."
He had seen the vaccine as a "new beginning" on a path to seeing his grandparents and friends again and maybe even getting back to school before the exams in the near future.
Jack said that he can understand why the authorities have suspended the use of AstraZeneca but he believes it is premature.
The Meath teenager said the vaccine could give him his life back.
"It's been a year now and even the most resilient of us would struggle. I've struggled with the school part and I'm not afraid to say my mental health has struggled in the last few months."
His mother Cassandra said that they need clarity on when her son will receive his vaccine and if he will be offered an alternative one.
While Jack was one of 20,000 people in 'Cohort 4' due to get the vaccine this week - that group includes medically vulnerable people at a high risk from Covid-19 - there are many others who have not yet received an appointment.
One of them is Aisling O'Rourke, who has Type 1 diabetes, asthma and a number of other autoimmune conditions.
Aisling has also been cocooning for the past year, having been told that her chances of survival "were not great" if she contracted Covid-19.
She told RTÉ that she knows she is in Cohort 4 after calling her doctors. "I know I'm somewhere on that list, where I am is anybody's guess."
Aisling said the current "pause" on the use of AstraZeneca could have a knock-on effect for others in this group who, like her, have not got an appointment yet.
"My assumption is that wherever I was originally on the list, I'll now be further a week or two out. I know that for most people that seems like nothing, "why can't people be patient?", and I totally respect that", she says, but adds that the longer this goes on, the harder it gets.
Aisling, who is a lecturer in a Dublin third level college, says that she understands why the drug has been suspended but says that now is the time to communicate with patients.
"Its the level of uncertainty, if you had some ball park, something to aim for"
"We're just in a holding pattern now. I know this process has to happen and has to happen properly. I think a simple text message to people to say 'you're on the list', that it will happen in the next 8 weeks even, it would a lot of reassurance to people, or at least to me", she said.
