Doctors have criticised the North's First Minister Paul Givan for likening a Covid-19 vaccination passport scheme to demanding someone prove they are taking medication for depression, cancer or heart disease.
The British Medical Association (BMA) said it is "reasonable and responsible" to ask someone if they have been vaccinated during a pandemic and warned "it is not the time to encourage the anti-vaxxers."
Ruling out a vaccine passport scheme in the Stormont Assembly on Monday, Mr Givan said it was not the place of society to ask people if they have been vaccinated, adding that it would not happen for any other type of illness.
“Nobody walks up to somebody and says: Are you on medication because of your depression, or are you taking medication because you have a heart condition, are you taking your medication because you have cancer?” he said.
Dr Tom Black, chairman of the BMA in Northern Ireland, said a vaccination passport scheme would encourage uptake of inoculations and "therefore save lives".
“This is the biggest threat to our community in the last 100 years,” he said. “As a public figure, if you are not going to encourage vaccinations then you should probably stay quiet. Because this is not the time to encourage the anti-vaxxers.”
Dr Black said there was “no similarity” in Mr Givan’s comparison between Covid-19 and other illnesses, describing it as a fallacy. “If you want to discuss vaccinations, discuss the pros and cons and what people should be doing, but once you dip into an analogy like that you are avoiding the subject,” he said.
Questioned in the Assembly, Mr Givan, a DUP MLA, declined to answer whether all of his party’s 26 MLAs have been vaccinated.
Dr Black said it is “reasonable for political parties to declare the numbers who have been vaccinated to give confidence to the public that leaders are showing leadership”.
The Derry-based GP also took issue with Mr Givan’s claim that a vaccination passport scheme would impinge on people’s civil rights. “I don’t think looking after yourself and looking after your neighbour is an infringement of anyone’s civil liberties. It is a responsibility of being a citizen.”
North and Republic
The North remains an outlier in vaccinations compared to the rest of the UK and Ireland. As of Sunday, 76 per cent of the population aged 12 and over were doubled jabbed. In the Republic, the figure is 88 per cent.
Some 78 per cent have been doubled vaccinated in England, while the figure is 81 per cent in Scotland and Wales, according to UK government data.
While 100 per cent of over 60s in the North have been fully inoculated, 7 per cent of those in their 50s have still not been vaccinated, 12 per cent of those in their 40s and a fifth of those in their 30s.
A quarter of those aged 18 to 29 and half of those aged 16 to 17 have not been vaccinated.
Latest figures from Stormont's Department of Health show the death rate from Covid-19 is almost twice as high in the North as it is in the Republic, although this differential has narrowed in recent weeks.
Dr Black said the North’s health service is already running at 10 per cent over capacity and faces being “overwhelmed” in the coming winter months, as lower vaccination rates drive higher Covid-19 admissions.
Urging the immediate introduction of a vaccination passport scheme, he said he understood “it is not normal for a society, but we are in a pandemic”.