Public Health Scotland and the misinterpretation of data

In its report of 14th February 2022, PHS has declared that it will no longer publish data on COVID-19 outcomes (cases, hospitalisations and deaths) classified by vaccination status, a hitherto valuable component of the COVID-19 vaccination surveillance strategy. The reason given for making this change is that ‘PHS is aware of inappropriate use and misinterpretation of the data when taken in isolation without fully understanding the limitations’.

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Should children be vaccinated against COVID-19?

HART would contest that it is unethical to ask children to take a vaccine to boost herd immunity or to offset political decisions such as school closures, at a stage when the drug trials have still to be completed. Policy makers would do well to re-read the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights and to follow the authors’ guidance to ‘weigh up the risks and benefits with caution and to proceed with care’.

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How many people think they have had Covid?

Knowing how many people have had Covid will provide a benchmark for estimating how long Covid will be with us. Other factors such as the extent of prior immunity and the number of people who will be susceptible to future variants are also needed before attempting to predict the future course of the virus, but knowing how many have natural immunity (after infection) is an important first step.

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