Good morning, Today could be a momentous day. As vaccines start in Scotland (and other parts of the UK) could this be the beginning of the end for the destructive virus that has blighted our lives? Certainly the mood in our (virtual) newsroom this morning is one of optimism. Before we begin, we've been noticing a startling increase in the number of conspiracy theories, myths and lies which are being peddled on social media in the last year. We see on comments below our own stories wild theories being pushed every day by an extremely vocal (and aggressive) minority. It's very hard to keep these at bay but The Scotsman will always fight and push back against falsehoods. Recently my colleague Ginny Sanderson picked out these common Covid-19 conspiracies from Facebook and utterly debunked them after speaking to a immunology expert. If you have ideas how we can fight the spread of disinformation we'd love to hear from you. You can support our fact-checked and fair journalism with a digital subscription from just £3 a month. Try us out today here. British woman, 90, becomes first in the world to receive Covid-19 jab A grandmother has become the first person in the world to receive Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine as the NHS embarks on a mass vaccination programme. Margaret Keenan, 90, received the jab at 6.31am in Coventry on Tuesday, marking the start of a phased rollout of the vaccine to older people, NHS staff and care home workers. Meet Maggie: the first person in the world to receive a fully-tested and approved Covid-19 vaccine on the NHS. Vaccine programme begins in Scotland The first vaccinations against Covid-19 will begin at 23 centres across Scotland today, as those who are lined up to give the injection to others receive it themselves first. Scotland has received an initial delivery of 65,500 doses of the vaccine, enough for 32,750 people, with more to follow. Here's how the programme of vaccinations will be rolled out. What the pollsters say about Scottish independence Often when we report on the latest polls to be released we get (not unfairly) questioned as to how we came out with the results. Our usual response is that we don't do the polling we only report the results and then refer readers to the polling data. Today we thought it's time to give the pollsters a chance to have their say. Rachel Ormston and Emily Gray of Ipsos MORI Scotland today have their say and reveal new surveys provide yet more evidence of the SNP's popularity with Scottish voters and increase in support for independence. Thanks for reading, as ever, please let me know if you have feedback. Sam Shedden, sam.shedden@jpimedia.co.uk |