WHY are the Tories so obsessed with comparing raw percentage vaccination figures and using unverifiable vaccine supply numbers to claim that all available vaccine is not being used effectively in Scotland?
This is not a four nations competition on simple percentages; the vaccination programme is supposed to follow a sequence that will prevent the maximum number of Covid deaths.
There are Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) priorities which should be followed by everyone to achieve this end but they have not been, and consequently the basic figures and graphics appearing everywhere do not compare like with like.
READ MORE: Scottish Care chief blasts politicians for 'playing games' over Covid vaccine
For example, Scotland is lagging in the total percentage vaccinated but ahead when compared against the JCVI priority list as it had vaccinated around 95% of care home residents, the highest priority at-risk group, by the time that some others had done less than 70%.
We will never know how many lives of residents in Scottish care homes have been saved by concentrating on first vaccinating those at greatest risk in accordance with the JCVI priority order.
READ MORE: Why did England not follow Scotland's example on care home vaccination?
The Scottish Tories clearly do not understand the fundamentals of vaccination or appreciate that this is far too serious for political point scoring based on unavailable vaccine dose supply numbers and simple graphics.
John Jamieson
South Queensferry
THE stables of the Scottish Daily Mail must by now be full of dead horses that are still being flogged. The paper and its stablemate, BBC Scotland, are currently jockeying for position on who can make the Covid vaccine “scandal” run the longest.
Of course this wildcat steeplechase was never under starters orders nor will it be subject to a steward’s enquiry. Suitably blinkered, they’re off, with only the winning post in sight, impervious to the truth. Few would bet on the outcome because ideologically impure competitors are excluded.
One thing’s for sure though – it’s going to be a dead heat photo finish. Alas I can’t help but feeling sorry for the jockeys.
Mike Herd
Highland
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