Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:12 pm on 14 December 2021.
Thank you, Minister, for your statement, and also thank you to our vaccine NHS champions. Minister, we know that the omicron variant effectively reduces immunity achieved by two doses of vaccine to virtually nothing in the case of Oxford-AstraZeneca and to minimal protection from infection in the case of Pfizer, but that is not to say that the double doses will not dramatically help people fight off severe illness as a consequence of being infected with COVID-19. So, Minister, will you join with me and ask for people to 'flow before they go' and also call for the people of Islwyn to get boosted this Christmas, to keep themselves safe, keep their families safe, and to keep Wales safe? And when people ask, 'Why get the booster shot after two doses?', is it not correct that the booster will increase immunity levels to over 70 per cent, and, as one correspondent put it, the first dose is the primary school education for your body, the second dose is comparable to sending your body to secondary school, and the booster is akin to university, deepening and broadening our body's own ability to fight this vicious virus?
Finally, Minister, outside of the priority groups, when will you be looking at opening walk-in lanes and centres for the people of Islwyn, as well as dramatically extending opening hours of vaccination centres? Diolch.