A GP is advising people not to engage in "mental gymnastics" or undertake a "vaccine tourism" approach to getting the COVID-19 inoculation.
Dr Denis McCauley, chair of the Irish Medical Organisation's GP Committee, said that people should take the first vaccine they're offered and not try to pick and choose which company supplies the jab.
It comes as Ireland's vaccine advisory group is meeting this weekend to recommend how the AstraZeneca immunisation should be used.
The vaccine has been approved by the European Medicines Agency and the first doses will start arriving here in the second week of February.
The regulator said information for the vaccine's effectiveness in over-55s was limited, but it does expect a level of protection.
Meanwhile, a public information campaign will be rolled out this weekend ahead of the vaccination of over-70s, who will also begin receiving the jab from the second week of February.
Speaking on Newstalk Breakfast with Susan Keogh, Dr McCauley explained that anyone in that category will be called for an appointment by their GP.
He said: "These at-risk groups will be called in by their GPs, there is a very clear message that when we get this vaccine it will not be delayed a day.
"We will alert you as to when you're going to get your vaccine, as it is that ' don't call us, we'll call you'."
With regard to the new awareness campaign, Dr McCauley added that it is important that the facts are provided as soon as public health officials get them.
"I suppose at the present minute the need for information is huge but I think it's important to give information only when you can follow through with it," he said.
"Until we know that the vaccines are here, I think it's important not to get hopes built up and then hopes dashed."
'One of the pillars' of decreasing cases
The recent controversy over the supply of AstraZeneca vaccines has "caused a lot of anxiety" within the medical sector and among the public, he added.
People have been calling his practice and even approaching him outside of work querying whether supplies of the vaccine are available.
However, he warned: "It doesn't mean that once you get your vaccine you can throw off your mask and you can go wherever you want.
"It is one of the pillars in ensuring that the incidence of this disease goes down in the community and hopefully it will go down further and further and we'll feel much more comfortable about returning to a normal life."
Dr McCauley also urged people not to engage in "vaccine tourism" and to accept whatever dose is offered to them.
"My advice is to take the first vaccine that you're offered, these are all safe, effective vaccines and they are there not to make you immediately make you impermeable to the [virus], it is there to cut down the incidence in the general community," he said.
"Even if you are given a vaccine that is 100% effective, that doesn't matter, you have to wait until the rest of the population have been vaccinated with an effective vaccine to bring the levels down.
"Take the first vaccine that you're offered, that's the best vaccine. "
