Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:24 pm on 5 October 2021.
I thank Joyce Watson. Those are all really important points. She’s right that vaccine take-up in Wales has been very high and it’s been very high across the age ranges. There is a gap between vaccine-hesitant communities and everybody else, but that gap has narrowed. It's not fast enough, but every three weeks we publish the figures, and every three weeks we see that gap slowly being eroded. And that is because of all the actions that I mentioned in my original answer, plus everything else we do—vaccine centres in faith centres, cultural centres, community centres, taking the message out to where people themselves are to be found.
We're right to be worried about the activities of the anti-vaccine people. I was very concerned to get some reports over the weekend of parts of the Member's own region where leaflets were being delivered and children targeted by anti-vaxxers. That does create a climate that makes it more difficult to persuade some people, because they hear this deeply misleading information, and they get that information before you're able to get to them with more accurate and persuasive information. For pregnant women, I completely agree with what Joyce Watson said: the vaccine is safe for pregnant women throughout pregnancy, and the risk from COVID is much higher than it would be from the vaccine.
For 12 to 15-year-olds, we have deliberately allowed a period of time for there to be those conversations between parents, their children and the people who are responsible for the vaccine programme in different parts of Wales, to make sure that those young people get the best possible chance to have the best possible information, and then, as we hope, make their minds up to take up the offer of vaccination.