‘Reservations’ about jab passport plan
DOUGLAS Ross has admitted he has ‘significant reservations’ about vaccine passports.
The Scottish Conservative leader – who will get a vote on Boris Johnson’s plans to introduce ‘Covid status certification’ – fears the move could lead to an unfair ‘two-tier’ system.
Nicola Sturgeon said yesterday that issues still needed to be resolved before vaccine passports are introduced in Scotland, including the impact on under-16s who cannot yet get the jab.
Ministers across the UK are considering a scheme in which people can store their vaccination status on a smartphone app and show this to gain access to sports events or theatres.
But Mr Ross said: ‘There are still many questions that remain unanswered. There will be those in society, particularly younger [people], who haven’t had the opportunity to get a vaccine yet, and are well down the [priority] list.
‘There will be a small minority of people, for legitimate reasons, who don’t take up the vaccine. I worry we get into a two-tier system that does not allow fairness for everyone.’
Mr Ross said he had not yet been told if there will be a vote on vaccine passports in the Commons. On how he would vote, he said: ‘It would obviously be determined on what we’re being asked to vote for. If it’s a vote for a trial, is it a vote for international vaccine passports, or is it one for domestic passports?
‘I am willing to consider all the points put forward. But I do have significant reservations.’
Yesterday, Miss Sturgeon said we could ‘not close our minds to’ vaccine passports if they can play a part in getting back to normal but we cannot ‘just gloss over the practical and ethical issues that we have to think through properly’.
She added: ‘Let’s have a grown-up debate and trial where that is appropriate [and] learn lessons as we go.’