Meeting of the Parliament 19 November 2020
We are giving that a lot of consideration. The matter is particularly relevant to island and other communities in and around Scotland. There are many such comparable considerations north and south of the central belt. The Pfizer vaccine does indeed need to be stored at the temperature that Mr Allan mentioned. As yet, the number of what are called transportation steps before it absolutely has to be used is to be confirmed. The vaccine cannot be moved around any more than that.
That has implications for where it is taken to be distributed from in the first instance. We have 22 commercial-sized freezers that will be deposited around the country. We are considering whether we need more of them or more of the same standard of commercial freezer but smaller, which we might need to take to other parts of Scotland to ensure that we can distribute the vaccine as widely as possible before we get to the point at which we actually have to use it. That is about reducing waste of the vaccine and maximising the amount that we can use to vaccinate individuals.
If members have particular knowledge about their constituency areas, I would welcome hearing it from them. Dr Allan has done that very helpfully for me in the past, in pointing out the nature of the Western Isles community and telling me things that I, as someone who does not live there, would not immediately understand. I would welcome any particular constituency information to which any member wants us to pay attention.