Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:57 pm on 5 October 2021.
Well, I'm really surprised that Plaid's not taking the precautionary approach, because there's nothing stopping us passing the procedures today and then amending them if we think there's going to be widespread abuse of the regulations. I think we just have to bite the bullet now, because the universities are all starting up, and this is one of the places where it really is going to create a worse problem. We know that COVID likes winter, and the winter is nearly upon us.
I don't think this is about creating a two-tier society; I just don't think there's any evidence of that. Practically everybody in the over 40s and in the vulnerable groups have all been vaccinated. We're talking about rates in the high 80s, if not 90s; it's young people who think that somehow, they are going to be able to skip getting vaccinated because they're not the ones who are going to die of it. Well, that isn't necessarily the case.
And I just simply want to say lastly, that in France, our near neighbour in France, you can't even go for a cup of coffee on the pavement unless you show your COVID pass, and frankly, I don't think that society has ground to a halt as a result of that.