Scottish Covid adviser’s vaccine U-turn

Professor Devi Sridhar has been rarely off Scottish television screens during the pandemic. The Edinburgh academic has become something of an SNP pin-up owing to her membership of the Scottish government’s Covid advisory group. In this capacity she has repeatedly lobbied for more Holyrood powers which she claimed were necessary to stop the spread of coronavirus – powers that were already at Nicola Sturgeon’s disposal when Sridhar demanded it. She has also frequently praised the First Minister’s ‘wise words’, her ‘strong leadership’, and ‘decisive action’ in tackling the virus. And, the single time that Sridhar did seem to contradict Sturgeon’s official policy, the academic hastily clarified that she and Sturgeon were ‘completely aligned’.

Unfortunately however Sridhar’s own record during Covid has been less than spotless. Eight weeks ago, Mr S pointed out that the good professor was spreading inaccurate information about the effectiveness of the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab against new variants after she tweeted on March 26: ‘Huge risk: watching a slow-moving car crash as UK govt stays open to France and other European countries, which have a S.