IN essence, those promoting the “herd immunity” approach to a vaccine-free pandemic are simply setting out an ordered way for those who would likely die from the viral infection to die without putting undue stress on the health systems and business world. The extended protection of those groups most at risk would eventually be lifted once they could die without unduly stressing the health system and the business world.

The alternative would appear to be putting in place resilience for the short, medium and long term, and assigning such measures locally, regionally and nationally by states, groups of states and internationally. All such measures would have to be capable of dealing with lockdown and/or global catastrophe.

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Think we might need a national resilience in 3D printing? Provide additional capital grant funding at nominal interest rates for businesses, who in turn retain an obligation for emergency assistance.

Think we might need a state resilience for protective clothing? Provide additional payment for preparedness inclusive of capital grants at nominal interest rates, for beyond normal levels of production, and for protracted periods.

For the avoidance of doubt, building in “resilience” is somewhat protectionist, not cheap, and is inclusive of citizens contributing to the economy, rather than being regarded simply as a form of corporate commodity.

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So now it’s up to Scotland whether to go down the expensive resilience road or the deathly austerity just-in-time road. What is clear is that as the type and nature of multiple resilience is identified, and the consequential actions are identified, business as usual is practically impossible, and the tax and support regimes that currently exist are shown to be inappropriate.

To state the obvious, an independent Scotland (EU) is required to enable such divergence from the ethos of the UK Government, who currently pursue “herd immunity” type approaches.

Stephen Tingle
Greater Glasgow

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