Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 2:39 pm on 30 September 2020.
Well, first, to plan and to deliver an effective seasonal flu campaign, and this will be our largest ever seasonal flu campaign—we expect to deliver more flu vaccines than ever before to the people of Wales this winter—we need to make choices in advance of the season to be able to do that, and we have chosen to target and to increase significantly the amount of flu vaccine that we procure for the people of Wales and that we then deliver.
The question about whether we should have whole-population coverage in terms of the NHS campaign is rather out of the scope of where we are at present, but it's something that we can consider in the future. It's not currently supported by the joint committee that advises the Welsh Government and all UK Governments on the delivery of vaccination programmes. But, as ever, as the evidence base changes, then we're of course prepared to shift and to change our position, because the objective here is how we protect as many lives as possible, and avoid as much harm as possible, whether that's from COVID, the flu or indeed a range of other infectious diseases and conditions that we know are a regular challenge for how we live our lives today.