Tag: vaccine

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Scottish Government significantly widened access to free flu vaccine to give more than twice as many, per capita, protection from worrying new mutation

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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 … Continue reading Scottish Government significantly widened access to free flu vaccine to give more than twice as many, per capita, protection from worrying new mutation

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No major flu deaths surge expected in Scotland after 80% vaccine uptake and in cleaner hospitals

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Professor John Robertson OBA The above is from the Over 5 million under 65s with a long-term health condition could miss out flu vaccine reported in the Mirror yesterday. From: Less than a third (28.9%) of people with one or more long-term health conditions (LTHCs) have had a flu vaccine. 9 million aged under 65’s in clinical risk groups are eligible but just 40% vaccinated last year (2024 to 25) – leaving over 5 million missing out and unprotected. Uptake of the flu vaccine in older adults, aged 65 and over, is higher – 61.5% this year to date; and … Continue reading No major flu deaths surge expected in Scotland after 80% vaccine uptake and in cleaner hospitals

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How I rebutted Reform UK’s vaccine denier doctor over and over three years ago

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Support Talking-up Scotland’s work to counter the lies and get you the facts, daily, at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/checkout/help-talking-up-scotland-tell-truth-about-scotland/payment/nBQxjVzq/details or by direct bank transfer method – Sort code 08-91-04, Account 12266421 Professor John Robertson OBA In the Guardian yesterday: A controversial doctor given top billing at the Reform party conference has used his main-stage speech to air a claim the Covid vaccine caused cancer in the royal family. The speech by Aseem Malhotra, a British cardiologist who was appointed as a senior adviser to the US health secretary and vaccine sceptic Robert F Kennedy, drew sharp intakes of breath in the Birmingham auditorium where he … Continue reading How I rebutted Reform UK’s vaccine denier doctor over and over three years ago

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As Scottish Government release new vaccine guidance, how babies have been better protected from whooping cough in Scotland

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Support Talking-up Scotland’s work to counter the lies and get you the facts, daily, at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/checkout/help-talking-up-scotland-tell-truth-about-scotland/payment/nBQxjVzq/detailsProfessor John Robertson OBA From Public Health Scotland today – Whooping cough vaccine. Protect your baby from whooping cough: https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/whooping-cough-vaccine-protect-your-baby-from-whooping-cough/ It’s good to see no resting on laurels here. In July 2024, from the BMJ: Nine infants died from whooping cough in England between November last year and the end of May 2024, the UK Health Security Agency has reported. Altogether a total of 7599 cases of whooping cough have been confirmed in England this year, with cases continuing to rise from 555 in January to … Continue reading As Scottish Government release new vaccine guidance, how babies have been better protected from whooping cough in Scotland

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Scotland’s measles risk does not come from its own tiny ethnic minority groups but from ‘imported cases’

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Professor John Robertson OBA BBC Scotland, only, has an investigation today into the lower vaccine uptake among ethnic minority groups. The report has percentage and vulgar fraction descriptions of the shortfall but no actual figures so we cannot see just how many children are unvaccinated so we cannot really see the scale of the problem. The BBC Scotland report opens with: Last year data on childhood vaccines was broken down by ethnicity for the first time. It showed a wide variation in uptake across ethnic minority groups and Public Health Scotland called for more work to understand what is going … Continue reading Scotland’s measles risk does not come from its own tiny ethnic minority groups but from ‘imported cases’

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More than 80% of measles infections linked to imported cases and rest of unknown origin as immunisation levels in Scotland climb again to herd immunity level

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Quarterly uptake rates in Scotland have gradually declined over time. However, in the latest quarter ending September 2024, there have been small increases in levels of protection for children aged 12 and 24 months, compared with the previous quarter. https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/childhood-immunisation-statistics-scotland/childhood-immunisation-statistics-scotland-quarter-ending-30-september-2024/#:~:text=This%20release%20by%20Public%20Health%20Scotland%20%28PHS%29%20provides,the%20spread%20of%20disease%20in%20the%20wider%20population. Where have these cases come from? From Public Health Scotland on 4 March 2025: Immunisation and vaccine-preventable diseases quarterly report, October to December 2024 (Q4) There were 24 laboratory-confirmed measles cases reported in 2024: six cases in the first quarter, eight cases in the second quarter, five cases in the third quarter and five cases in the fourth quarter. Of … Continue reading More than 80% of measles infections linked to imported cases and rest of unknown origin as immunisation levels in Scotland climb again to herd immunity level

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How Orkney islanders fought off a lung cancer risk, nearly 100 times the normal rate

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Professor John Robertson OBA Many thanks to Frances McKie for alerting me to this. In 1975, not much reported at the time, as far as I can remember, the residents of the Orkney Islands faced and fought off a dark threat. From Beyond Nuclear International in April 2021: The Orkneys were being surveyed for a potentially valuable deposit of uranium ore. The South Scottish Electricity Board had already persuaded local farmers, unaware of the health risks, to allow bore hole drilling on their land. By 1977, the entire local population on Orkney opposed uranium exploitation there. Among those opponents was … Continue reading How Orkney islanders fought off a lung cancer risk, nearly 100 times the normal rate

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As vaccination levels fall in neighbouring UK and cases and adult measles deaths increase how Scotland’s crucial high vaccination rate gets no coverage

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By Professor John Robertson OBA From the Guardian today: An adult who was infected with measles has died in New Mexico, state health officials announced Thursday, though the virus has not been confirmed as the cause of death. The person was from Lea county, just across the state line from the west Texas region where 159 measles cases have been identified and a school-age child died last week – the first US measles death in a decade. New Mexico health officials have not linked the outbreak there to the Texas cases. On Tuesday, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention … Continue reading As vaccination levels fall in neighbouring UK and cases and adult measles deaths increase how Scotland’s crucial high vaccination rate gets no coverage

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Research – SNP Government’s early action and £4m spent on RSV vaccine for over 75s achieves 63% more coverage than NHS England, slashes hospitalisation rates and will have saved many lives

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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 … Continue reading Research – SNP Government’s early action and £4m spent on RSV vaccine for over 75s achieves 63% more coverage than NHS England, slashes hospitalisation rates and will have saved many lives

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Covid care home deaths – the thousands saved and lost in Scotland and England

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On 22 January 2021, BBC UK had a special report on the anxiety in English and Welsh care homes that they were being left behind in the vaccine rollout. They had the above graphic and the percentages showed Scotland to be well ahead on the curve. Days earlier, in response to a question by Philippa Whitford, Matt Hancock confirmed that only 24% of care home residents in England had been vaccinated. On the same day, the First Minister of Scotland indicated that 80% of care home residents and staff had now been vaccinated. Some councils, Inverclyde and North Ayrshire claimed … Continue reading Covid care home deaths – the thousands saved and lost in Scotland and England