The Talking-up Scotland fund raiser primarily, finishing in 14 days, to enable the recruitment of some research assistance, in order to take pressure off me [74 in June and tiring] and hopefully to further improve the blog, has made a good start. To contribute, only if you can (!) go to: Talking-up Scotland - a Politics crowdfunding project in Ayr by Professor John Robertson
By Professor John Robertson OBA, former Faculty Research Ethics Chair, UWS
BBC Scotland have reported RSV vaccine cuts hospital stays for older people but you’d never know from their broadcasts or the fuller website report, unless you read 13 paragraphs down, this:
Neil Gray said: “Once again we see evidence of the role which vaccinations play in preventing serious illness and keeping people out of hospital. We were pleased to be the first nation in the UK to introduce the new RSV vaccine in time to maximise the benefit to the more vulnerable ahead of winter.”
There’s no sign across UK media of research into the effect of this this vaccination programme on hospital admissions.
This may be why [sources below].
The Scottish programme began in August 2024 and achieved 68% coverage of the over 75s by the end of November 2024. The programme in England began one month later and by the end of November 2024, had only managed 41.8% coverage. The coverage in Scotland was 63% higher. How many lives will this have saved? Will the SNP Government get credit?
The scale of the improvement in Scotland:
Other sources:
Support Scots Independent, Scotland’s oldest pro-independence newspaper and host of the OBA (Oliver Brown Award) at: https://scotsindependent.scot/FWShop/shop/
The Oliver Brown Award for advancing the cause of Scotland’s self respect, previously awarded to Dr Philippa Whitford, Alex Salmond and Sean Connery: https://scotsindependent.scot/?page_id=116
About Oliver Brown, the first Scottish National Party candidate to save his deposit in a Parliamentary election: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Brow
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Cynically , I am of the view that the Scottish Government’s best efforts to reduce sickness/death among the older population will have been more than offset by Freeze Reeves robbing them of their Winter Fuel Payment , coupled with Starmer’s failed election promise to reduce Energy Bills !
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We’d need to see the evidence for that. Luckily though Scotland’s NHS is functioning far far better than the English NHS so older people in Scotland will have a better chance of surviving Labours’ cruel attempts to shorten their lives.
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