Lord Winston (Lab) [V]: My Lords, speaking from these Benches, I
think it would be appropriate to thank the noble Lord, Lord
Bethell, very much for the amazing amount of work he has been doing
on this very difficult issue. I hope he will continue to take our
concerns back to the Department of Health and the Government in
general, because that seems very important. I join my noble friend
Lady Thornton in congratulating the Government on getting vaccines
out, but, with all due respect, Israel...Request free trial
(Lab) [V]: My Lords, speaking from these Benches, I
think it would be appropriate to thank the noble Lord, , very much for
the amazing amount of work he has been doing on this very difficult
issue. I hope he will continue to take our concerns back to the
Department of Health and the Government in general, because that
seems very important. I join my noble friend Lady Thornton in
congratulating the Government on getting vaccines out, but, with
all due respect, Israel has already vaccinated over
one-fifth of its population with a massive vaccine campaign. On the
important issue of dividing the time of the Pfizer vaccine, many of
us have given informed consent for a period of three weeks between
the two injections; by extending that period, we now risk not
obeying the consent issue, and therefore there is an ethical
problem. Could the noble Lord address that issue, because it is of
considerable importance, certainly increasing the risk of suspicion
of the vaccine, already very prevalent in parts of the
population?
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health
and Social Care () (Con): I am
extremely grateful for the noble Lord’s kind words. I know lawyers
looked at the question he raises on informed consent; I am afraid I
do not have the precise answer at the Dispatch Box right now, but I
will be glad to write to him with a clarification.
(Con) [V]: My Lords, I would
like to ask my noble friend the Minister two questions, if I may.
Like many others, I first congratulate him and the Government on
the progress made so far with the vaccination programme. But what
plans do they have to further turbo-charge the vaccine deployment
programme? I am, of course, thinking of a 24/7 vaccine centre, as
many others have referred to already. Reference has also been made
to Israel’s much greater progress, so far. But is
the Minister aware of the comment of the highly respected Professor
Bell of Oxford, who said that we could vaccinate the whole country
“in five days” if we had the will, subject, of course, to supplies
of the vaccine? Professor Bell went on to say that this vaccine
rollout is a “war” and should be treated as such by the Government.
Therefore—in my respectful submission—to refer to consumer demand
is not necessarily consistent with that status of war. On my second
question, the Government have said that they expect all nine
high-risk groups to be vaccinated “by the spring”. Can the Minister
tell us what exactly the Government mean by the spring—in other
words, months and days or dates?
(Con):
My Lords, on turbo-charging the vaccine deployment, the two
key focuses are: first, on very large centres, which can have a
very large throughput of people, as these will make an enormous
difference and bring an industrial energy to the process; and,
secondly, to extend the reach into the hard-to-reach communities,
whether those are rural or where people are not in the mainstream
of British life. Regarding the noble Lord’s point on the “war”,
while it might seem obvious to him that everyone will step forward
for the vaccine that is not, strictly speaking, right. Some people
are going to make careful decisions before stepping forward to have
it, so we have to think about making it attractive and reasonable
to as many people as possible, particularly those who are
vulnerable to the disease. I do not think it is right that we
cannot have a consumer mentality to this. We have to treat the
public with consideration and thoughtfulness, because they will
decide whether they are going to step forward or not.
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