Professor John Robertson OBA
From BBC Health today and being broadcast widely and frequently, the above and:
Flu strikes every winter, but this year something seems to be different. A seasonal flu virus suddenly mutated in the summer. It appears to evade some of our immunity, has kick-started a flu season more than a month early, and is a type of flu that history suggests is more severe.
The NHS has now issued a “flu jab SOS” as fears grow that this will add up to a brutal winter. There is a lot of nuance and uncertainty, but leading flu experts have told me they would not be shocked if this was the worst flu season for a decade.
BBC UK has a link to the story but BBC Scotland does not.
Important information is not being communicated.
First, availability in England – you can get the free NHS flu vaccine if you:
- are aged 65 or over (including those who will be 65 by 31 March 2026)
- have certain long-term health conditions
- are pregnant
- live in a care home
- are the main carer for an older or disabled person, or receive a carer’s allowance
- live with someone who has a weakened immune system
Source: https://www.nhs.uk/vaccinations/flu-vaccine/
In Scotland, significantly wider free availability is in place
This includes:
- those aged 65 and over (on or before 31 March 2025)
- those aged 18 to 64 with an eligible health condition (as defined in the chapter 19 of the Green Book)
- those who are pregnant
- those living in a long-stay residential care home or other long-stay care facility
- those living with someone who has a weakened immune system
- an unpaid or young carer
- a frontline health or social care worker
- a non-frontline NHS worker
- a poultry worker or bird handler
- an asylum seeker living in a Home Office hotel or B&B accommodation
- those experiencing homelessness
- those experiencing substance misuse
- those living in a Scottish prison
Second, uptake-levels in key groups are already significantly lower in key >65 group in England.
For 2024-2025, early trends show Scotland with stronger uptake among over-65s (71.6% vs. England’s ~60-65% estimated based on historical patterns) – multiple sources at: https://x.com/i/grok?conversation=1987603360061788291
Perhaps most indicative of the risk is the number of doses given and the contrast is shocking.
NHS Scotland has given 927 000 doses so far (down 20% on last year’s total): https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/viral-respiratory-diseases-in-scotland-surveillance-report/viral-respiratory-diseases-in-scotland-surveillance-report-6-november-2025/
All things being equal, we might expect the figure in England to be around 9.27 million but it was only 4.3million: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/national-flu-and-covid-19-surveillance-reports-2025-to-2026-season/national-flu-and-covid-19-surveillance-report-6-november-2025-week-45
So, less than half the Scottish uptake per capita, in England, reflecting the wider free availability, above.
Has any journalist in Scotland noticed this?
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
THE STANDARD OF HONESTY IN THE ENGLISH BBC IS AT LAST EXPOSED
AND NOT BEFORE TIME
PITY THESE ENGLISH PAPERS DO NOT EXPOSE THE MISLEADING AND FAILING JOURNALISTIC LIES AGAINST SCOTLAND
TOTALLY DISGUSTING NOT FIT TO BE CALL JOURNALISTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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The big story is that the BBC misled viewers in editing a speech made by Donald Trump……this has now resulted in the BBC director general Tim Davie and CEO of News Deborah Turness both resigning.
Who knew that the BBC misled viewers ?
Well most of us did within Scotland, as since 2014 we have been painfully aware of that fact.…..and they , the BBC Scotland and their HQ, are still doing it now….
Just look at the BBC Corrections and Clarifications section on their website, hidden away and so really what is the bloody point of it being there at all.
Then after checking it out , ask why have these types of, checks bloody notes, supposed mistakes and errors have been allowed to keep happening with no one within that BBC organisation taking any real accountability……
All you get is a trite non apology with the same comments from them stating that they are “happy to correct it” , “happy to make something clear” or “happy to correct the record……….but not happy to try to actually do something to stop making it continue to happen as a bad practice by them !
Also who in 2014 resigned for the biased and tactical editing of Nick Robinson’s report in a press Conference with Alex Salmond , as when it came to the Q & A’s session and Robinson asked Salmond a question the news report cut straight to Robinson’s voice saying that he, Mr Salmond, never answered his, Robinson’s, question.
Of course he, Mr Salmond, did answer Robinson’s question , as the video online proved that to be the case.
Much much later Robinson apologised and used the terrible excuse that he had” badly worded the report” and that he had “meant to say that he’d (Salmond) tried to avoid answering it”. (also a lie).
However he, Robinson, kept his job….as did the then Director General and CEO of News also…….as the only ones negatively impacted and damaged were those on the YES side….and so that apparently did not matter , or indeed was it ever considered to be seen as significant as an event, and so it was not , at the time, ever regarded as a scandal connected to the BBC.
The resulting justified protest by independence supporters outside Pacific Quay at the BBC Glasgow studios was criticised by UK politicians and also by the UK media where it was promoted that we , as independence supporters, were bullying and intimidating BBC Journalists……..
In fact when it was proven Robinson had lied about Salmond not answering his question, as in when Salmond was actually heard to answer Robinson’s question via a video online of this press conference, then I cannot recall the same stooshie happening back then as is happening now within UK Politics and within the UK media , with the careful editing of Donald Trump’s speech by the BBC.
In fact Salmond himself was criticised for not condemning the protest outside the BBC Glasgow studios……against BBC bias.
Today the newspapers have headlines that state:
“BBC bosses quit in disgrace”
“The BBC’s biggest crisis in more than a decade”
“The death by a thousand cuts”………
This is the same newspapers that backed Nick Robinson and the BBC in 2014 after that disgraceful BBC behaviour.
Who also , as a UK media, condemned Alex Salmond and criticised all of us on the independence side , for what was obviously an unscrupulous stunt by Nick Robinson and the BBC in their blatant and disgraceful attempt at news manipulation in that scandalous and infamous news report.
It was clearly a news report that was very very tactical, very very malicious and that had very very biased editing by them, the BBC and Nick Robinson.
All done to try to discredit Alex Salmond and so yet again help the NO side try to win the 2014 referendum on Scottish independence.
In fact the blatant bias and careful editing of many of the past and current BBC Scotland news reports on Scottish politics will have the blessing of the same UK media who currently condemn BBC HQ for what they have done to one of their own……..as in another right winger, Donald Trump.
Laughingly Nigel Farage has posted this:
“Davie and Turness going must be the start of wholesale change. The government needs to appoint somebody with a record of coming in and turning companies and their cultures around. Preferably it would be someone coming in from the private sector who has run a forward facing business and understands PR. This is the BBC’s last chance. If they don’t get this right, there will be vast numbers of people refusing to pay the licence fee”
Reform UK are never bloody off the BBC, be it BBC Politics Live, BBC QT , BBC Debate Night and also constantly in their BBC News reports….free publicity and promotion for sure.
Their , the BBC’s, reward for platforming Reform UK is for the leader of that pretend party to now attack them (again) when they are mired in what is a very public exposure of their blatant incompetence and bias in their news reports……..
Also just look at who Nigel Farage works for as a nice wee sideline and so also a nice wee earner outwith his supposed ‘day job’ as an MP……….that would be GB News………where facts and truth goes to die and where it , as a supposed news provider, oozes bias and right wing propaganda that tries to radicalise all of their gullible viewers on supporting right wing politics and where it also does it’s bit in selective editing in it’s news reports.
The hypocrisy of Farage and GB news just now, especially when he, Farage and his own party’s politicians and also a few GB News presenters are all only too happy to be a guest on the BBC as panellists on BBC QT , BBC Debate Night, or BBC Politics Live , yet all they do is constantly attack, smear and criticise the BBC as a broadcaster.
So where are their supposed principles then upon the BBC , as they supposedly oppose it as an organisation, yet they are all only too happy to be constantly invited onto it’s various BBC programmes……
Honestly we have all been saying for years that the BBC is politically and constitutionally biased against Scotland and the SNP .
Yet they , the BBC, are not alone in doing this……..as most of the UK media is also the exact same as the BBC but currently they are all combined in their showing a mock display of faux outrage and contrived shock at the BBC, as if they themselves would never be biased, partisan and so promote heavily edited news themselves in both their own TV news reports and the headlines and pages of their newspapers.
The UK media has never ever been a friend to or an ally of our country Scotland , or indeed of the party that we have elected to represent us as a Scottish government, as in the SNP……….so spare us all your current condemnation of the BBC , as we are more than aware of all of your fake news that is published and reported as the supposed ”news where we are’ via UK sourced news whose respective HQ’s are all mostly based in England.…..as are the political parties who represent UK politics.
Of course now, for us in Scotland, ‘Nothing will change’ with the future BBC Scotland news output as in misreporting Scotland…and not one other UK media news outlet will either condemn that fact or indeed expose it , as they too are all mostly the exact same as the BBC.
So spare us the current supposed ‘breaking news’ upon the BBC as we already knew about their blatant constant bias news ….a long long time ago……….and nobody in other media outlets gives a damn about what we in Scotland endure as so called news….as they too , as a media, are also part of the problem and they bloody well know it too !
Liz S
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