Covid vaccination taskforce should be set up if it would speed up the process – Scotsman comment

There is no more urgent and important task than the vaccination of the population against Covid-19.

Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross is right to call for a vaccination taskforce if that would speed up the process even slightly (Picture: John Devlin)

So, the idea of setting up a taskforce to make sure this is carried out as quickly as possible sounds perfectly sensible.

The Scottish Conservatives’ suggestion was designed to make a political point about the SNP’s decision to set up an independence referendum taskforce amid complaints about the rate of vaccination, as party leader Douglas Ross made clear.

"The SNP's Covid-19 vaccine rollout has slowed just as their push for indyref2 has ramped up considerably. They are distracted from the huge challenge facing us by their obsession with holding another divisive referendum at the earliest opportunity,” he said.

It should be said that, rather obviously, setting up a ‘taskforce’ is not a solution to every problem in of itself.

There are plenty of people who suspect the SNP is setting up little more than a talking shop designed to placate its more impatient supporters while the Tories’ other suggested taskforce – to tackle the Scottish fishing industry’s export problems following the end of the Brexit transition period – might sound a little gimmicky to some. Until either delivers real results, they will be vulnerable to the criticism that they are mostly designed to give the appearance of progress, rather than actually achieving it.

However, the politics of the situation aside, when there is a defined task that is not going as well as it should do, when it involves a number of different organisations, and when it is of paramount importance, then there is a fair amount of sense in setting up a body that brings together representatives of all the relevant companies, governments and organisations to identify and sort out any problems as they arise and make swift decisions.

Thankfully, this is a simpler process than it once was now that video conferencing has become a part of everyday life.

Mass vaccination is our way out of this nightmare. It will save lives. It will enable our economy to start moving again and our children to return to school. We all want to start living again.

So if a taskforce will help speed up the process, even slightly, it should be set up immediately.

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