JABS GIVEN BY AGE...NOT BY JOB
Police and teachers must wait their turn as ministers follow advice on vaccination rollout
SCOTS will be vaccinated against Covid-19 by their age and not by their job, it was confirmed yesterday.
People aged 40 to 49 will be next to have the inoculation, despite pleas for police officers and teachers to be prioritised.
The Scottish Government will follow Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advice on the upcoming stage of the vaccination programme.
This means that those aged 40 to 49 will be first to get the jab in the second phase, followed by those aged 30 to 39 and then those aged 18 to 29.
It also means that, except for frontline health and social care workers, occupation is not being taken into account, in a move police branded ‘hugely disappointing’.
Alongside teaching unions, police had campaigned for their members to be prioritised, but the JCVI said age was the most important risk factor for complications from the virus.
The under-50s will be vaccinated between April and July, once all those in the first phase – the over-50s and most vulnerable – have received a jab. The Scottish Government decided to follow JCVI advice although it is not legally required to do so.
Health Secretary Jeane Freeman said: ‘We welcome the interim advice of the independent JCVI for phase 2 of the vaccine deployment programme to continue prioritising people for vaccinations by age, as this is assessed to be the best way to address the risk of severe illness and mortality.
‘All four UK nations will follow the recommended approach for phase 2 of the vaccine rollout, subject to the final advice given by the independent expert committee.
‘Each government remains focused on the target to offer a first vaccination to all those in the phase 1 priority groups by the middle of April and the remainder of the adult population by the end of July subject to the availability of supplies.
‘The vaccination programme is one of three key ways we are working to beat this virus, along with our expanded testing programme to identify cases and break chains of transmission and the important lockdown restrictions everyone in Scotland must follow.
‘All these measures work to greatest effect when they work together.’
David Hamilton, chairman of the Scottish Police Federation, said: ‘The JCVI guidance to not vaccinate police as a sector is hugely disappointing to Scottish officers.
‘Police officers are dealing with increasing non-compliance and increasing community risk and that is likely to get worse as those who are vaccinated are tempted to not follow regulations.
‘We have spoken with the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and have highlighted that those frontline officers on which this burden falls is the youngest part of our workforce and also that we are attending calls on behalf of partner agencies whose staff are both vaccinated and homeworking.
‘There has been no practical recognition of the risks that police officers face.’
Educational Institute for Scotland (EIS) general secretary Larry Flanagan said the announcement ‘will greatly heighten the concerns of school staff over the safety of working in crowded classrooms without adequate safety mitigations in place’.
He added: ‘The Scottish Government has used its devolved authority in the past to prioritise the vaccination of other groups of vital workers, such as care home staff, and must act now to ensure that all staff in our schools are also properly protected from Covid risk.’
The EIS has launched a ‘Protect Education’ campaign, calling for vaccines, ventilation and medicalgrade masks for teachers. Mr Flanagan said: ‘Clearly, we want schools to
be open and to offer a quality learning environment for our young people – but this must be done safely, with appropriate safety mitigations in place to protect school staff, pupils and their families.’
The 27 deaths from coronavirus recorded in Scotland in the past 24 hours bring the death toll under this measure – of people who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days – to 7,111.
The Health Secretary said 200,987 people have now tested positive in Scotland, up from 200,406 the previous day. The daily test positivity rate is 3.3 per cent, down from 3.7 per cent the previous day.
Miss Freeman added that she understood unions would be unhappy at the vaccination decision.
Speaking at yesterday’s coronavirus briefing in Edinburgh, she added: ‘I understand why some of our professions may be disappointed at JCVI’s advice but they are crystal clear about where the greatest risk factor lies, and it lies on age... as well as if you have underlying health conditions or are clinically extremely vulnerable.’
She added it was also much quicker to vaccinate by age than occupation, using the NHS medical records system.
‘The system could do it, but by the time it has done it, we could have vaccinated those 40 to 49-year-olds,’ she said.
NHS Scotland national clinical director Professor Jason Leitch said: ‘The JCVI was very, very clear. The boffins have decided, and we have decided to accept their advice.’
‘Clear about where greatest risk lies’