Winning Covid race needs national effort

With every day that passes, it becomes clearer that the rollout of the Covid-19 vaccines will be an unprecedented challenge for governments across the UK.

The logistical difficulties of vaccinating older people in wintry weather conditions can only be exacerbated by the bureaucratic hoops that must be jumped through to get vaccines, vaccinators and those who need them where they are meant to be.

First, we will have to decide the timetable for inoculation and here we encounter a major fault line between government and medics. the original plan was to provide the first and second Pfizer jabs within three weeks of each other, but now the Scottish Government, in line with the rest of the UK, plans to lengthen the gap to 12 weeks.

Some doctors fear this is too long and could undermine the efficacy of the vaccine. Dr Lewis Morrison, chairman of the British Medical Association Scotland, warned there could be no guarantees about supply of the vaccine if the second shot is delayed.

Health Secretary Jeane Freeman had previously claimed Scotland’s entire adult population would have received both Pfizer doses by early spring, then revised that to priority groups such as the over-50s and those with underlying conditions.

For the Scottish Government to revise this again borders on the shambolic. if Miss Freeman does not know what she is talking about, she ought to stop pronouncing from Government podiums.

Then there is confusion about the administrative details. As the Mail reports today, GPs are still waiting to receive the vaccine and are in the dark about how many doses they will be allocated.

Charities that specialise in assisting older people say their hotlines are taking calls from those anxious about when they will be given the vaccines.

This is a situation that must be remedied swiftly. the sight of competing authority groups disagreeing in public over the proper way to deliver the vaccines will do nothing for public confidence. the impression of ministers shifting goalposts will leave a cynical taste in the mouth.

Now more than ever, the public expects clarity and leadership – but those nominally in charge seem to be a mass of indecision.

This is the most important task anyone working in government or public health will ever face. it is essential that officials and medical professionals get it right.

While strong leadership and clear communication would be welcome, they are not enough. herculean efforts will be needed to get half the country vaccinated by early May, the First Minister’s selfimposed deadline.

Plainly, this cannot be a business-as-usual, five- day week operation. Civil servants, health managers, GP surgeries and frontline staff will have to draw up shift patterns, work weekends and function on extended hours during the week. Just as the public has been required to make sacrifices, the same must be true of the health bureaucracy responsible for delivering the vaccine.

True, there has been a ray of good news with the announcement that UK regulators will significantly speed up the vaccine quality testing process, but if the NHS is indeed the envy of the world, now is its time to shine.

If countries such as israel and the United Arab Emirates, with millions more citizens than Scotland, can get vaccines into arms at record-breaking speed, there is no reason we cannot do the same.

The difference is that, in those nations, the usual way of doing business has been torn up. Form-filling has been cut, technology deployed to great effect and all the resources of the state marshalled into an urgent national effort.

Scotland could still outstrip the world in vaccinating its people against Covid-19 but it needs the foresight and determination to get the job done – and done quickly.