Thread by @C4Ciaran

Been speaking to Scottish Government Clinical Director @jasonleitch about UK response to #COVID19.

Lots covered and more to come. But for starters please read this on #HerdImmunity and the extent to which it is part of the picture (short answer: seems it still is.)

CJ: Do you agree with Sir Patrick Vallance, the Chief Scientific Adviser, that one of the aims of the UK government is for people to develop some immunity to this disease?

JL: I do, I absolutely do agree with him. Because we have no choice. You can’t get rid of this virus..

JL: You can wish it away, but it will not go.

So therefore we have to manage the infection safely across the whole population. While at the same time treating the individuals who get sick. And that’s why the health services are ramping up and adjusting to allow us to do that..

CJ: The British Society for Immunology say we don’t know yet if this novel virus will induce long-term immunity. So why are you so sure that it will when they are not?

JL: So we know that if you get it, you don’t appear to get it again..

JL: But it appears very, very rare if ever you get it twice. So if we can manage that that would suggest that those people would then help us get to an immunity across the whole society..

JL: These are not easy decisions. But the alternative that people are offering, which is close our borders, send everybody home for a prolonged period. That’s not without cost either..

CJ: So just to be clear this idea of herd immunity is still part of the overall strategy?

JL: I’m not sure I like the phrase because it’s taken on a connotation that perhaps is a little bit worrying for people..

JL: What we’re trying to do is manage the spread of the virus safely over time in the population. That will lead to more people getting the virus and surviving..

CJ: People getting the virus is part of our plan to deal with it?

JL: Over a sustained and long period, we don’t have a choice. People will get the virus.

[...]
CJ: All these Qs come back to one thing which is a sense that in other countries they want to stop this virus in its tracks.. And a sense in this country that we don’t want to do that and we’re allowing somehow to transmit among the population. Is that overall the case?

JL: Everybody wants the same thing. Including the World Health Organisation and the health ministers of our country here. They want to protect the vulnerable and protect the population from the virus..

JL: There will be slightly different approaches in different parts of the world depending on the health service they have and the resources they have. Ours is based on our resources and our science, in conjunction with the science from around the world..

CJ: Just to level with people.. people might feel more comfortable if they knew what the approach was. If we’re saying we don’t want to stop this in its tracks, we don’t want to lock down, we’re going to allow it to transmit and we’re going to try and turn the taps on and off?

JL: So we can’t get rid of this virus in the world. Covid-19 will be with us for some time to come. If we thought we could do you think we haven’t thought of that?

JL: If we thought locking the borders putting everybody in their homes including the lonely and those with dementia and those with mental health challenges for three or four months would solve this problem, we would make those hard decisions. We don’t think that will solve it..

JL: We think what we’re doing gives us the best chance of protecting the vulnerable and protecting the population.

I want to thank @jasonleitch for his time and for being so upfront in his answers. There is lots more in this interview I will try and share later. Including testing resource in Scotland, ventilator capacity and why UK and Scotland is taking its approach.

Full interview here: