Yesterday, at Holyrood, from Alex Cole-Hamilton (Edinburgh Western) (Scottish Liberal Democrats):
To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to reverse the reported fall in the number of children in Scotland being vaccinated.
Joe FitzPatrick: Childhood immunisation rates across Scotland remain very high. Apart from rotavirus vaccine, over 95% of children had received each routine immunisation by the time they were 12 months of age. This reflects both the hard work and commitment of our colleagues in the NHS and a recognition among parents of the benefits of vaccination. However, we are not complacent and will continue to make every effort to promote and encourage childhood vaccinations.
Click to access WA20190801.pdf
The ‘reported fall’ seems to be the tiny 0.6% decrease in the uptake of the two-dose rotavirus vaccine from 93.4% in 2017 to 92.8% in 2018.
Click to access 2019-03-26-Childhood-Immunisation-Summary.pdf
Readers will know that change of this scale is statistically insignificant and that trends worthy of action can only be observed over periods of at least 5 years.
For context:
Despite ongoing controversy NHS Scotland has achieved 96.6% adoption of the one-dose MMR vaccine by 5 years-of-age and has now beaten the 95% target for ten years.
The uptake in England is only 91.2% and falling.
Click to access 2019-03-26-Childhood-Immunisation-Summary.pdf
Talking-up Scotland 