Chamber and committees

I remember the hesitancy among ladies who were pregnant or trying to pregnant during that time of vaccinations.

Thank you—that is very helpful.

During the height of the pandemic, when Covid was dominating the news and all Government business, was there information overload, and did people not keep up or not want to keep up? If that is the case, can too much information sometimes be unhelpful?

That is great—thank you. We turn to questions; I will ask the first one. Stefan Webster, with regard to enforcing standards, has misinformation increased during the pandemic or has it always been there?

Dr Phin, given all your experience and your background, did you ever envisage the scale of Covid-19 that hit us in March 2020?

I will bring in Brian Whittle, but we are very short of time.

Thank you—I am very conscious that we are five minutes over. I thank all the witnesses for their evidence and for giving us their time. If anyone would like to highlight any further evidence to the committee, they can do so in writing; the clerks will be happy to liaise on that.

The committee’s next meeting will be on 9 June, when we will consider the Coronavirus (Recovery and Reform) (Scotland) Bill at stage 2.

That concludes the public part of our meeting.

Dr Phin, what has been done in Public Health Scotland to evaluate public health communication throughout the pandemic?

That is interesting. I remember that, in the beginning of the pandemic—probably going back to March 2020—there was a lot of social media content about what Italy was going through. Then, all of a sudden, it just disappeared and you could not get any information from that either.

Does anyone else want to respond to the question?

Are members content with page three?

Members indicated agreement.

Are members content with page four?

Members indicated agreement.