Councillor’s concerns about vaccine passports
A Perth and Kinross councillor has raised concerns about the introduction of vaccine passports.
Last week Scotland’s national clinical director Jason Leitch confirmed all four UK nations were in discussion about a joint digital system of vaccine certification.
But Cllr Alasdair Bailey is worried about vaccine passports which could potentially be used for travel or in the likes of hospitality and retail.
The Carse of Gowrie councillor said there are people who have good reason not to be vaccinated.
The Labour councillor said: “Those with allergies to components of the vaccines are one such group that we cannot afford to forget or whose lives don’t deserve to be made complicated by any requirement to prove negative test status before every communal event they attend.”
Cllr Bailey is also one of thousands who signed up for vaccine trials and has no idea whether or not he was given a
COVID vaccine or a placebo late last year.
He said: “We should also keep in mind that thousands of people up and down the country have participated in vaccine trials.
“I am one of those who stepped forward ahead of the main roll-out to offer myself for research in order that the coming of the vaccination programme would be hastened.
“Myself and many others are participants in‘blind’trials, meaning that we don’t know whether we’ve had the vaccine or a placebo.
“When offered the regular jag, I have the option to exit the trial that I’m part of but I worry that to do so will reduce the amount of information that scientists will have that will help them ensure a supply of safe and cost-effective vaccines that will be gamechangers in the developing world.
“Any vaccine passporting programme must have appropriate exclusions so that those with genuine reasons for not taking the vaccine are not discriminated against in any way.”
Any vaccine passporting programme must have appropriate exclusions