The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.
All Official Reports of meetings in the Debating Chamber of the Scottish Parliament.
All Official Reports of public meetings of committees.
Displaying 2238 contributions
COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Meeting date: 18 November 2021
John Mason
I want to switch to Professor Petersen and the question of testing. I had a look at the paper that explains why lateral flow testing may be relatively better now, or better than it was thought to be, in comparison with polymerase chain reaction testing. However, the paper was quite complex. Will you briefly and in simple words explain for me where you have got to with that?
COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Meeting date: 18 November 2021
John Mason
That is good. That is one question done.
Secondly, if we roll out vaccination certificates further, as well as the issue of whether people have had the jags, there is the issue of people not having access to the certificates. For example, I have what I think is the largest bingo place in the UK in my constituency and it has said that 40 per cent of bingo customers do not have access to smartphone technology. Would it be possible to send a paper copy of everyone’s vaccination certificate to them?
COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Meeting date: 18 November 2021
John Mason
I have three questions. We had a useful email from the British Society for Immunology with some figures in it. One is that someone who has been vaccinated is 32 times less likely to die than someone who has not been vaccinated. Another is that the two doses of vaccine give between 92 and 96 per cent protection against hospitalisation. Those are quite strong figures. Do we recognise them?
COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Meeting date: 18 November 2021
John Mason
It sounds very encouraging that we can put more reliance on lateral flow tests. Can we go as far as saying that we should just forget about the PCR tests and rely purely on the lateral flow tests?
COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Meeting date: 18 November 2021
John Mason
That is very helpful.
COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Meeting date: 18 November 2021
John Mason
Thirdly, we heard evidence earlier from Professor Petersen that we could put more reliance on the lateral flow tests than we have been doing. What is your thinking on that?
COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Meeting date: 11 November 2021
John Mason
Thank you, convener. I am disappointed that some members have had considerably longer to ask questions than some of the rest of us. Mr Whittle has just had 22 minutes, but Jim Fairlie and I now have to share nine minutes between us.
I am also a member of the Finance and Public Administration Committee, which has been discussing preventative spending for some time. That work has been going on for some years, and this is the 10th anniversary of the Christie commission. The point has already been made this morning, especially by Dr Buist, that there has perhaps been a concentration on hospital buildings rather than on those for the primary care sector, where all three witnesses work. Do you have any suggestions on how we take that forward? Assuming that there will be no extra money in total, should we trim money off hospital budgets and put more into primary care? That question goes first to Dr Buist.
COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Meeting date: 11 November 2021
John Mason
I will leave it at that, convener.
COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Meeting date: 11 November 2021
John Mason
Given the time, I will ask just one more question, which is on vaccination passports. For staff in certain settings—those working for certain care home companies, I believe—vaccination is being made compulsory. Is that the right way to go?
COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Meeting date: 11 November 2021
John Mason
Could we also have the dental angle?