Vaccine Questions Ep4: Trust and reliability with Emer Cooke

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 of Executive Director of the EMA in November 2020. She explains the role of the EMA and the steps they take in evaluating vaccines to ensure they are safe and effective and that the information they base that assessment on is robust and reliable. She also describes what the EMA does to be transparent and engage with the public, and she shares her perspective on the benefits of vaccines.

About the series

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.

This series is organised by the Life and Medical Sciences Committee  in partnership with the Health Research Board