When Matthew McNeive went for a check-up in the dialysis unit in Beaumont Hospital last November, a brief conversation with the receptionist made his blood run cold.
He asked her if she was busy, and she replied: “No. We have lost seven patients to Covid.”
“It really shocked me,” says Matthew (21), from Knock, Co Mayo, who since birth has endured 25 operations, including a kidney transplant in 2010.
Like thousands of renal and transplant patients, Matthew can't understand why his community has been placed seventh in the HSE vaccine priority list. The Covid-19 mortality rate for renal and transplant patients in Ireland is estimated to be as high as 25pc.