A Vaccine for COVID-19

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 1:56 pm on 4 November 2020.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 1:56, 4 November 2020

So, 'yes' to the final point—yes, of course, there have been conversations led by the chief medical officer's department, as you'd expect, with the different parts of our healthcare services about how a vaccination programme would be delivered. In terms of your point about priorities, we again will have UK advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation about how to prioritise vulnerable groups. So, it won't be the case that we'll have competing demands from professional groups about why they should be at the head of the queue compared to others; it's about which vulnerable groups in our society are likely to gain the greatest benefit, taking account of the characteristics of any vaccine that is ultimately approved and made available for use. That's really important, because otherwise, any sense that it's the loudest voice rather than the equity and the benefit that a vaccine will provide, I think, will undermine the trust that is essential for our staff who'll be delivering the programme as well as the public who we will be asking to come forward to take the vaccine as well. So, I think you can be confident that if and when a vaccine is available we'll have a plan in place to deliver that here in Wales, and we'll be clear, as I said in answer to Rhun ap Iorwerth earlier, about the communication about what we're doing and why, and which groups we're particularly keen to vaccinate first to give them the best prospect of avoiding further harm from what is a highly infectious and deadly disease.