Covid vaccine: Nicola Sturgeon must be held to account for innoculating the nation – John McLellan

Even with the promise of mass vaccination to bring this nightmare to an end, this lockdown’s gloom is far deeper and more grinding than the first.

It’s not hard to understand why.

We know what lockdown is like; the lack of interaction, to socialise, to browse in the shops. We know how crushing it is when family occasions are not properly marked and for many there is the real possibility it will be the second year running.

We know how lonely elderly people become, we know how boredom grips children cooped up at home, we know blended learning for thousands is no learning at all, and thousands know how depressing it is for previously good livelihoods to be snatched away.

We all understand that with an average Covid death age of 82, the over-70s are particularly vulnerable, and we all understand the NHS will be overwhelmed if the same wave of serious coronavirus illnesses experienced in spring combines with the usual winter surge of respiratory illnesses and broken bones. So we put up with it.

But it’s all very well to be told that if we all hunker down and obey the rules there will be a bright new dawn in summer, or spring if we’re really lucky. The trouble is we’ve heard it before.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon this week received plaudits for acting swiftly to bring down the shutters before the NHS is swamped and for being good at giving grim news, and indeed it’s hard to deny she’s very adept at telling us what we can’t do.

But as well as telling us what she is doing to us, it would be nice to know what she is doing for us, to get us out this mess as quickly as possible? The police imposing the rules but where is the army of medics to get the vaccination programme motoring?

Is it too much to know how many additional vaccinators are being trained, what steps are being taken to bring back recently retired medical staff, how the Army will be deployed, how many extra vaccination points can be opened and, crucially, how many people are being vaccinated each week?

Public Health Scotland can tell us where the virus has spread, district-by district, but it is apparently too onerous to collate information about vaccination. Really? Why is it too difficult to tell us how many people have been immunised but not how many are infected?

We all understand the principle of over-promising and under-delivering, but we deserve better than just a vague notion the over-50s will have been vaccinated by May; five miserable, morale-sapping, economy-destroying, education-wrecking months away.

So pardon me if I don’t parrot the praise about how brilliant the First Minister is at breaking bad news, as opposed to glossing over it, like ferries that can’t sail, hospitals that can’t open, fabrication yards that can’t fabricate, a curriculum for excellence which isn’t excellent.

Failure after failure is brushed aside, but with Covid vaccinations there should be no hiding place. She’s taken full control of the pandemic response and has full responsibility for the recovery.

John McLellan is a Conservative councillor for Craigentinny/Duddingston

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