Devolved nations should use borders to take lead in Covid battle

I say new, but it was first identified in India on March 24. Unfortunately, the UK Government prevaricated, waiting a month, until April 23 to be exact, to put India on the red travel list. It became the dominant strain south of the Border, which means, given the loosening of restrictions, that this is now being mirrored in Scotland. We are into a third wave of the pandemic.

This is all thanks to the refusal of the UK’s most famous libertarian, Boris Johnson, to introduce effective and far-reaching border controls. Instead, we’ve had a kind of Covid roulette border policy, shutting the borders to those countries where the Beta and Gamma variants were spreading but keeping them open to other countries. The flaw in this policy is that we don’t have a crystal ball telling us where the next variant would come from. We have no way of predicting this, or that the Delta variant would originate in India. Now there is fresh concern on a Beta variant from Nepal. Are our borders still to be open to travellers from this country?

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I’m reminded of Dr Michael Ryan, executive director of the World Health Organization, who warned, right at the get go of this horrendous pandemic that the best course of action is speed when it comes to a global virus. Prevaricate at your peril. Better to throw everything at a situation, to over-react rather than delay like the UK Government. It is in that fashion you stay ahead of the viral curve and save lives.

The WHO has not had a good crisis. However, that may be due to the enormity of the challenge and the paucity of resources. However, Ryan knows what he is talking about and the reality is that a year on from this essential and informed advice, we are still dragging our heels on reaction to new strains of this deadly virus.

In Delta’s case the best science estimates it could be almost 50% more transmissible than the Kent, or Alpha, variant we battled last year. To make matters worse, we are still unsure about the full effectiveness of at least some of the vaccines against Delta, with it being less vulnerable to a single dose, and possibly also less effective after a few months in older and vulnerable groups who have been given two doses.

We are living through a terrifying global experiment, with an unstable and unempathetic leader at the helm. I wouldn’t put Boris Johnson in charge of washing petri dishes or turning off the lab Bunsen burners, never mind guiding us with the scientific acumen and effective management needed to get us out the other end of a global pandemic. The death toll in the UK says it all about the human coast of Boris’s blundering.

So, what more can Scotland do about this, given we are devolved and in charge of our own health service? In devolved Wales, their FM announced this week that they will complete their vaccination process six weeks ahead of schedule, with all those aged over 18 to have been given an appointment before next Monday.

THIS is impressive. Mark Drakeford has steered a steady ship throughout the pandemic, taking bespoke decisions and tailored lockdowns to tackle the spread of the virus. His government’s motto is that “no-one should be left behind” – and what’s great is that rather than this being just another slogan parroted by politicians, they have actually achieved this in reality.

Now Wales can boast one of the best vaccination programmes in the world.

Scotland has followed a similar bespoke programme, so why are we not at the same stage? Given that Wales has around two million fewer people than Scotland, they are at an advantage in terms of manageable numbers, but this can’t be the only reason. The Army has now got involved to speed up the vaccination process here, but Scotland still lags on jags.

There have been delays at vaccination centres in Lothian, with reports of a combination of long queues and staff shortages leading to chaotic scenes last month. There is more than a suspicion that the much-reported “no shows” at the big vax centres in Glasgow and Aberdeen of a couple of weeks were not in fact evidence of vaccine resistance but of a breakdown in the notification system.

Given the question marks over single versus double dose effectiveness against this virus, and concerns over the growing spread of the Delta variant, it’s imperative that Scotland accelerates the process so we, too, don’t leave anyone behind.

At present, people aged 30 and over can get the vaccine, with Glaswegians aged 18 and above able to get a first dose due to the longer restrictions and increased infection rate in that area. In England they are at the 25 and over stage, and 18-year-olds and above in Northern Ireland.

To be fair all of these numbers are well above average in international terms but not, it should be noted, in historical ones.

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Back during the dark days of the war, the Scottish public health system vaccinated the whole of Glasgow against smallpox in a few days and guess what? It didn’t have a single computer to help, just boots on the ground and jags in the arms.

However, with 76% of the adult population having received their first dose so far, the Scottish Government should at least hit their target of everyone over 18 having a single vaccination by the end of July. But it is simply not quick enough nor sufficient on its own.

Given fears over the new variant from Nepal, the question of border control remains. Since we are yet to find out how effective the vaccines will be on new variants, it seems incredible just to focus on the vaccination programme without full border protection.

This is something none of the constituent nations of the UK has really tackled so far. While Johnson prances on the global stage at the G7 in Cornwall this weekend we should remember what an empty charlatan the man is – Trump without the Twitter account.

Perhaps the devolved nations need to finally take the initiative on borders – after all its not hard to beat Boris on delivery.