Leitch jab fears for 18 to 29-year-olds
FEARS have been raised about the number of young people refusing to get the coronavirus vaccine.
National clinical director Professor Jason Leitch yesterday said he was ‘worried’ by the low take-up among those aged 18 to 29.
He warned them they are not ‘superhuman’ and could become seriously ill, and said the Scottish Government had ‘tried everything’ to get younger people to come forward.
He also said there must be a ‘reverse gear’ on the level of restrictions if cases keep rising.
Asked on BBC Good Morning Scotland about the under-29 age group, Professor Leitch said: ‘I am worried a little bit about that group.
‘I am very impressed with the 12 to 15-year-olds and the 16 and 17year-olds: half of the 12 to 15year-olds in four weeks, 75 per cent of the 16 and 17-year-olds.
‘That is fantastic and I’m grateful to them for coming forward.
‘That 18 to 29-year-old age group has stalled. It has stalled at quite high numbers, well over 75 per cent, but it has stalled and we have tried everything.
‘We have seen mobile vaccination units in colleges, in workplaces; we have tried to make that as easy as we possibly can; we’ve used Young Scot, the National Union of Students.
‘My plea to that age group is you are not somehow superhuman: this disease can affect you and you can give it to others.’
Professor Leitch added that vaccine passports were ‘part of the solution’.
He said: ‘They are an incentive to young people and behavioural science suggests that works.
‘It doesn’t get the hardcore anti-vax community. But those who are a little hesitant, it makes them think, “If I want to go to JLS at the Hydro, or the nightclub...”.’
The latest Public Health Scotland figures show 77.9 per cent of people aged 18 to 29 have had the first dose, while 67 per cent have had the second dose.
Of people in their thirties, 76.5 per cent have received both doses, rising to 87.2 per cent for those in their forties, 93.9 per cent for the 50 to 54 age group, 97.1 per cent for those aged 55 to 59, and almost 100 per cent for those aged above 60.
Professor Leitch said latest data indicates that every individual is giving the virus to one other person, and said vaccine, testing and hygiene rules are key to bringing numbers down.
On further action, he said: ‘There is no sensible public health adviser who wouldn’t say to politicians we have to have a reverse gear: we have to be able to go backwards as well as forwards.’
He is not sure what restrictions will be required during winter, but he did not think we would be in lockdown at Christmas.
His comments came as public health expert Professor Linda Bauld said the spread of Covid at Cop26 in Glasgow is a ‘concern’.
She said: ‘The main worry is there’s going to be potentially 100,000 people attending protests or activists and they’re integrated into the city. That’s an unknown.
‘They’re staying in people’s homes. If I were to point to one element of the conference which causes me concern from a purely public health perspective it would be that.’