New hope as every Scottish adult promised vaccine by the spring
●Care home staff and residents, NHS workers and elderly first in line as immunisation roll-out to start within weeks
One million Scots will be given a Covid -19 vaccine by the end of January, Health Secretary Jeane Freeman has said.
She said that everyone in Scotland over the age of 18– around 4.4 million people–will be offered a vaccine b y Spring 2021.
And seeking to re assure people she insisted the safety of any potential vaccine is" paramount" and will not beat the expense of the" compressed" time frame for producing one during the corona virus pandemic.
In a statement to the Scottish Parliament, Ms Freeman outlined the expected process for vaccine delivery in Scotland.
The vaccination campaign will begin with a delivery of 320,000 doses in the first week of December.
In the first wave from December to February, the highest priority groups will be targeted.
This includes front line health and social care workers, care home staff, unpaid carers and personal assistants, those 80 and
over and those delivering the vaccine programme.
The programme will then move to those over 65 and those under 65 with an additional clinical risk, and then to the rest of the population.
Deliver y will be led by NHS health boards, who will identify suitable locations – both for mass vaccination and local clinics – recruit staff, and manage clinics.
Registered clinicians will carry out the vaccinations, and Ms Freeman said the Scottish Government has reached an agreement with the British Medical Association for GPS to be involved as well, as well as pharmacists, dentists and optometrists.
Everyone set to receive a vaccine will be given information in letters to be sent out in the coming weeks and months.
Those in the first wave will be contacted in December and January.
Ms Freeman said 2,000 support and delivery staff would be needed by the end of January, in order to vaccinate one million people by that time – subject to vaccine availability and delivery schedules.
“This is to be one of the biggest civilian logistical chal - lenges in our lifetime,” said Ms Freeman, adding that the military would be brought in to support vaccine delivery. “I'm grateful that the military has responded once again and stand ready to bolster our planning, bringing with them a wealth of logistical and operational expertise,” she said.
“We have rightly worked across the four nations to secure the vaccine sand to secure agreement on the population share of the duties purchased for each of the UK nations.”
Ms Freeman added: “We're ready for December but the first vaccine available has to be approved and supplies have to arrive.
“Thereafter, we need to see more vaccines become available and to understand the delivery schedules for each.”
Ms Freeman underlined the “rigorous” testing process each vaccine goes through before being approved for safety, and stressed that she does not yet know exactly when vaccine doses will be available. “We've seen unprecedented investment worldwide and research develop - ment and manufacture people across the world – including here in Scotland – volunteering to take part in clinical trials, and driven and dedicated research teams,” she said.
“That is why we' re seeing these front-running vaccines delivered in months, rather than the many years that vaccine development can sometimes take.
“It is impressive but it is not at the expense of safety. We know that the first vaccines will require two doses three to four weeks apart,” she said.
“It’ s possible that further booster dose sand even an annual programme might be required, given we do not know how long protection will last.
“The important thing is that when we deliver these vaccines, it will be on the basis that they offer some form of protection, even if we don't know exactly how much protection that is. And it will be safe, so when we get in touch with you please go for the vaccine. It offers you a level of protection we don’t have through any other means.”
The UK has bought supplies of seven Covid-19 vaccine candidates, including 40 million doses from Pfizer/biontech and five million from Mo derna, both of which vaccines have recently shown above 90 per cent efficacy levels in phase three trials.
The UK government Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, has said the NHS in the rest of the UK is ready to begin delivering the Pfizer vaccine from the star t of next month but warned what was “more likely is that we may be able to start rolling it out before Christmas ”.
Ms Freeman suggested the vaccination programme could be achieved by the spring of next year.
A senior Scottish Government health source later said the aim was to vaccinate all over-18s “as fast as possible” but stressed there was “no firm delivery timetable".
Scottish Labour health spokeswoman Monica Lennon said lessons needed to be learned from the “chaotic” flu vaccination programme.
She added: “The ambition to deliver one million vaccinations by the end of Janu - ary needs to be matched by resources and investment in staff, and a clear plan on logistics.”
Scottish Liberal Democrat health spokesman Alex ColeHamilton MSP said distributing the vaccine would be “one of the biggest public health exercises in history”.
He said :“The national booking service will be critical to an orderly rollou t of a Covid-19 vaccination, so we need more details of how this will be established urgently.”
The First Minister also said that a “concrete” four-nation plan for gatherings to take place at Christmas could She told MSPS hat the chief medical officers of all four UK nations have been asked to compile a proposal for how the easing of some restrictions would work.
It comes after discussions were held b et ween Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove and the devolved administrations on Wednesday,
She said: “We discussed the Christmas period and how we could come to a sensible - and I stress sensible - and safe plan that would allow people, not 100 per cent normality, but a greater degree of normality - in particular the ability to spend some time with loved ones.
“We charged our officials to put together a concrete pro - posal that we will then consider and hopefully announce the detail of in the coming days.”