By Lucy Ashton
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader and health spokesperson Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP has called on the Scottish Government to rule out any further expansion of the Covid ID scheme, warning that it would be a “dangerous distraction” taking resources and attention away from solutions which we know stop the spread of the virus, such as a robust contact tracing operation and the booster program.
Mr Cole-Hamilton’s comments come after a week in which First Minister Nicola Sturgeon indicated that the scheme could shortly be introduced in a new array of venues such as pubs.
Mr Cole-Hamilton, pictured right, said: ““The Deputy First Minister’s evidence for the success of Covid ID cards was at best tenuous and at worst completely made up. The Scottish Government have repeatedly failed to produce compelling evidence that Covid ID works to encourage vaccination or keep anyone safe against the Omicron strain.
“Scientific evidence shows that people who are vaccinated can still pass the new strain on. The virus will not magically stop if you present a Covid ID to a bouncer or a waiter. So all that extending requirements to pubs or restaurants would do is lull people into a false sense of security.
“The solution does not lie in more illiberal and costly constraints to businesses, but in using the vaccine workforce to convince waverers and get jabs into arms. The contact tracing system needs to be robust enough to track down every case and break chains of infection. Covid IDs are nothing but a dangerous distraction from what we know will beat the virus.”
ENDS