THIS week's community column comes from Helensburgh and Lomond's MSP, Jackie Baillie.

* * * * * * * * * *

THERE has been one topic that has been raised with me far more than any other in the past week or two, and which I know has been the subject of conversation across Scotland – the introduction across Scotland of vaccine passports.

The SNP/Green coalition laid plans before the Scottish Parliament last week to require vaccine passports to gain entry to a number of venues and events.

It is my job as an MSP to weigh up the evidence and take into account the views of experts and of my constituents. That’s why I voted to oppose the introduction of such passports.

I genuinely believe that these passports are the wrong way to go about suppressing the virus – and I have very little confidence in the Scottish Government’s ability to deliver a workable system of certification.

We all want to see the virus brought back under control, but I fear that rather than encouraging vaccine uptake, as the government intends, the mandatory use of domestic vaccine passports could in fact have unintended and opposite effects.

READ MORE: Opinion - Restrictions may have eased but we still need to get the basics right

It is the case that fully vaccinated individuals can still get the virus and pass it on – especially so with the much more transmissible Delta variant. So the way to suppress the spread of Covid has to be through regular testing and having a Test and Protect system that actually works.

And there is a long way to go. Just recently people in Helensburgh were unable to access PCR tests at our testing hubs. They simply ran out. Not being able to test those who either have symptoms, or who have been close contacts, is one of the biggest barriers to suppressing the spread of Covid-19.

In addition, the number of people being contact traced has plummeted below levels recommended by the World Health Organization – and in fact are at an all time low. Yet these are the very things that would actually help to contain the virus.

The new SNP/Green coalition gives the government a majority at Holyrood, and so, in spite of my vote last Thursday, the government’s vaccine passport proposals were voted through. But I fear that evidence and expert opinion may well have been set to one side, so that the government could give the appearance of doing something – even though it may be the wrong thing.