SCOTLAND is to use TikTok to tackle vaccine scepticism among young people, the country's clinical director has revealed.

Professor Jason Leitch said famous faces will feature on the social media site to encourage young people to take the jag.

Speaking at the Covid-19 committee in the Scottish Parliament, Leitch said: "We're going to use trusted voices, we'll use Young Scot, we're going to use all the third sector organisation you would expect. It won't be me on TikTok, it will be people they recognise."

Leitch went on to say that leaders of the UK had a presentation from the Vaccine Confidence Project last week which detailed how people not taking the jag are not anti-vaxxers but those who have genuine questions.

"It is people with genuine questions about science and side effects and how they would get it and how it protects them and what it means for the future and that's exactly what it should do," he added. 

"Their fundamental advice is surround every demographic you have with the correct advice and evidence."

Leitch said he had been speaking to his counterparts in Israel, which is leading the world in progress with vaccinating its population.

He said that laziness, as opposed to traditional “anti-vaxx” sentiment, was emerging as a cause of slow uptake as programmes moved into younger age groups.

MSP John Mason had asked about Israel’s experience with the programme, where demand for the jabs among younger people has lagged despite drop-in vaccine centres being open in the middle of cities.

Leitch told the committee: “They’re the only large country ahead of the UK in terms of percentages of the population vaccinated. They’ve really had an excellent programme

“There is global evidence that as you move down through age groups, people are more vaccine hesitant.

“It’s partly vaccine laziness rather than an actual intellectual approach to it.

“It’s about making it easy for people and finding those individuals.”

Leitch stressed that vaccine uptake had been very high for the groups the UK has targeted so far, nearing 100% in some cases, meaning “big, big, numbers” could be achieved in the younger age groups.

Leitch's comments came as it was revealed Scotland passed England in the proportion of the population vaccinated.

READ MORE: Scotland overtakes England in coronavirus vaccine race thanks to huge surge

According to the latest data from the UK coronavirus tracker, Scotland now has 22.98% of the country vaccinated with the first dose of the jag, just overtaking England which is sitting on 22.85%.

Wales is leading the way in the percentage of population vaccinated with 24.89% and Northern Ireland is sitting at 20.98%.

The Scottish Government was criticised for the initial speed of Scotland's vaccine rollout due to their approach to prioritise care home residents and those over the age of 80.

At today's Covid briefing, the First Minister said by 8.30am a total of 1,354,966 Scots had received their first dose of the coronavirus vaccine – an increase of 34,892 from the previous day.

READ MORE: Today's Covid-19 data gives us a 'reason to be hopeful', Nicola Sturgeon says

Sturgeon also said we can see "very strong and compelling evidence that vaccination is starting to work to reduce the number of people dying".