A county Galway Leaving Cert student living with chronic kidney failure is calling for clarity now on when people with her condition will be vaccinated and what format this year’s leaving cert exam will take.
19 year old Lauren Melia from Oughterard is pleading for clarity on both issues from both the Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly and the Minister for Education Norma Foley.
She wants herself and other renal patients pushed up the Covid vaccine priority list in light of the very real danger that renal patients may contract the virus while undergoing their weekly dialysis.
That fear is compounded by the Irish Kidney Association’s revelation that transplant patients have a 25% mortality risk if they catch the virus.
Lauren has to attend hospital three times a week for dialysis.
A renal patient under the age of 18 is at present 15th on the priority list for vaccination –and that’s the bottom of the list, while over 18 renal patients are seventh on the same list.
Lauren has been telling Midwest News Editor Teresa O’Malley about her condition and the stress of the uncertainty about the format of this year’s Leaving Cert Exam and the anxiety waiting to be vaccinated against the virus.
