Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 1:50 pm on 4 November 2020.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 1:50, 4 November 2020

I think it's a slight miscasting of the way that the system is actually working to say that we're leaving it to the UK Government. There are a couple of things to run through in terms of clarity. So, the first is that the UK Government, as it does with a range of other programmes, including, for example, the seasonal flu, procures the vaccine on behalf of the whole of the UK. We then take our population shares of that. So we will get the vaccines that are available when they're available, at the same time and in, if you like, the appropriate portion, as with every other part of the UK. 

In terms of the advice we get about how to deliver the vaccine, we have a UK-wide mechanism that will give advice on vaccinations, on approval and, in particular, the point about prioritising people. Because whenever a vaccine is available, we'll need to, as the First Minister said yesterday, consider how we deliver that to the most vulnerable population first—people who would gain the biggest benefit. That will, though, also be subject to the important caveat that we need to understand the characteristics of that vaccine. Some vaccines may be more or less effective for people with different health conditions, age ranges, and we need to make sure that the vaccine is actually effective for the group of people that we're looking to offer it to.

We are already planning our own programme for how we would deliver a vaccination programme here within Wales, and if we did have an early vaccine available before the end of the calendar year, then our plans are in such a position that we could deploy that for the limited group of people that we think a vaccine might be available for. So this is about planning, being able to deal with an early vaccine, if we get one, and also dealing with the more realistic prospect of a greater number of vaccines becoming available to every country in the UK at the same time at some point in the new year. But I can't give people the sort of certainties that they and I would like about when those vaccines will become available.