SCOTTISH Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie has been accused of telling “pure unadulterated lies” after she launched an attack on the nation’s vaccine roll-out.

Baillie, the MSP for Dumbarton, had tweeted to pressure the Scottish Government to reduce the waiting time between doses of the Covid jag to four weeks.

She wrote: “Our vaccine effort lags behind the rest of the UK—which is why now is the time to follow WHO [World Health Organisation] guidance and cut the time between jags.

“The MHRA [Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency] has said that the 2nd dose can be given after 4 weeks.

“America and Australia have cut waiting times. We can’t afford not to act.”

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Responding to Baillie’s claim that Scotland’s vaccine roll-out is lagging behind the rest of the UK, SNP MP Gavin Newlands accused the Labour MSP of trying to take “the public for fools”.

Newlands wrote: “This is just pure unadulterated lies. Scotland is ahead of England and Northern Ireland on the vast majority of vaccination criteria. Jackie takes the public for fools.

“The sad thing is I've a feeling that the media will repeat her claim without giving the context that it is, in fact, pish.”

SNP councillor Lisa-Marie Hughes echoed the attack, writing: “This is nonsense. Scotland is ahead (narrowly to be fair) of England and Northern Ireland. This is data you can Google in seconds.

“All this does is put down folk who are working extremely hard to protect us all.”

Official UK Government data shows that, as of July 12, Scotland has given 88.9% of its adult population the first dose of the Covid jag. This is ahead of England (87.1%) and Northern Ireland (81.6%), but slightly behind Wales (90.2%).

Scotland is currently third in terms of second doses given, on 65.5%. Wales leads on 73.2%, followed by England (66.2%), with Northern Ireland slightly behind (on 65%).

The National:

Across the UK, 87.3% of the adult population has been vaccinated with the first dose, and 66.4% have also received the second. Scotland’s figures are then largely in line with the UK average.

Responding to Baillie’s claim, Health Secretary Humza Yousaf accused her of talking down the “brilliant efforts of our vaccinators”.

He wrote: “This is simply untrue, we don't lag the rest of the UK, why talk down the brilliant efforts of our vaccinators? On various different measures we are ahead of England and Northern Ireland.

“Your demand that we ignore the expert advice of JCVI is irresponsible.”

Scottish Labour has referred to advice from the WHO, MHRA, and the vaccines’ manufacturers, which says that second doses can be administered after three or four weeks, depending on the brand.

However, both the Scottish and UK governments have followed the advice of the Joint Committee on Vaccines and Immunisations (JCVI) throughout the pandemic.

Professor Adam Finn, a member of the JCVI and the chair of the WHO European Technical Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization, said the indications were that a longer gap offered better protection.

"There's a sweet spot, and at the moment the advice we have given is we should not reduce the interval less than eight weeks," he said.

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"There is an advantage in giving the second dose early, in the current circumstances with all the cases that we are seeing because you get a further boost. But the downside is probably that will mean the duration of protection you get from that second dose will be shorter."

The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has been shown to offer higher protection with a longer gap, but evidence is less clear for the others.

The JCVI has already changed their advice once, in May, from recommending a gap of 12 weeks to one of eight.

That decision was taken in order to balance the extended protection against the speed of the roll-out and ensure people “have the strongest possible protection from the virus at an earlier opportunity”.

READ MORE: Blow for Labour as experts say no benefit to reducing Covid jag interval

A Scottish Labour spokesperson said Baillie's claims were based on the above data, which shows Scotland is third in the UK in terms of percentage of the adult population who are fully vaccinated. 

Baillie said: “The SNP are more concerned with deflecting criticism than dealing with the challenges our vaccine programme faces.

“The numbers speak for themselves – whether the government want to admit it or not, the roll-out is slowing.

“We cannot afford to drop the ball on vaccinations at this crucial moment.

“The scientific evidence is clear that cutting the time between vaccines is safe – the SNP need to stop delaying and act now to get the virus under control.”