Joanna Rossiter Joanna Rossiter

What’s holding up Scotland’s vaccine rollout?

(Getty images)

If I had a penny for every time I heard someone say that Nicola Sturgeon has had a ‘good pandemic’, I’d be living in my very own Scottish castle by now. Imposing restrictions one step ahead of Boris Johnson seems to have become Sturgeon’s go-to formula. But if the First Minister has been praised for her initial response to Covid-19, Sturgeon is running out of excuses to explain why Scotland’s vaccine programme lags behind that of England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Having just managed to catch up on the over 80s briefly at the weekend, Scotland has now fallen significantly behind in its vaccination of the over 70s. And with England soon to call over 65s for appointments, Sturgeon is finding herself in increasingly hot water. Only 14 per cent of people between 75 and 79 in Scotland have received their first dose compared to more than three-quarters of that group in England.

Sturgeon has been quick to blame the delays on everything from supply issues to the logistical difficulties of vaccinating care homes first. But since both of these challenges have been surmounted by the other three nations this is hard to accept.

So why the lag in Scotland? Contrary to Sturgeon’s early claims, it’s certainly not one of supply

Indeed, in an embarrassing development for Sturgeon, the Secretary of State of Scotland Alister Jack has written to the Scottish government ‘to offer any support or assistance to accelerate’ the rollout programme so that it keeps pace with the rest of the UK. Sturgeon has responded angrily. ‘They are our Armed Forces, too, which the people of Scotland pay for through taxes. So let us forget the suggestion that the UK Government is somehow doing Scotland a favour,’ she said yesterday.

So why the lag in Scotland? Contrary to Sturgeon’s early claims, it’s certainly not one of supply – as Jack points out in his letter, Scotland has had access to the same pool of doses as the rest of the UK.

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