A Fifteenth (and last of 2020) View from The Apocalypse

Well, Christmas has gone and New Year is just ahead of us so it’s time to look back at the Apocalypse… Remember those heady days when we could greet people with a handshake, a hug, a kiss on the cheek? Those days will be coming back but not just yet. We just need to be patient for a little while longer. Better times are coming I assure you.

It’s been a hard road for many I know. I’ve been one of the fortunate ones in many ways. It was weird leaving work in March/April as this really kicked off. It’s as if I’ve been on ‘pause’ for the whole time waiting for someone to press ‘play’ again and things can get back on track. Luckily I haven’t had to risk daily contact with others and honestly hunkering down at home hasn’t been a huge problem. I’ve had the odd twinge, the odd wobble, the odd period of low level anxiety but that’s about it. With only 4-6 months (probably) before I get the Covid vaccine things could have been a whole lot worse for me and mine. My Mum (who is 84) had her first shot just before Christmas and is due for her follow up shot on, I think, 12^th Jan ’21. Both myself and my brother (both in our 60’s) are a little further down the present list so expect to be vaccinated around Easter time. If its anything like the recent Flu vaccination programme I went through a few weeks ago it’ll be fast and efficient. Gotta LOVE the NHS for stuff like this. I expect that things will be, largely, back to normal(ish) by the summer – despite new variants of Covid popping up across the UK and now the rest of Europe. The vaccine manufacturers are confident that their vaccine will cover the new stuff too. It just looks like the new variants are more contagious rather than anything that new or that nasty (or nastier!).

No matter what happens we’ll be much better prepared for the next Pandemic unless we have to wait another 100 years like last time. Unfortunately, with population increase, habitat destruction and ease of global travel I doubt if pandemic outbreaks are going to go away anytime soon. Bad as it has been the Covid-19 outbreak could have been a whole lot worse. This was a shot across the bows that we need to get our act together globally so the next one doesn’t have anything like the economic effects Covid did or kill anywhere near the number of people it has and will continue to do so over the next 4-6 months. It’s extremely impressive that highly effective vaccines have been produced in such a short time. That alone shows the power of the biotech industry across the world. That’s a huge advantage in our favour going forward. We do need to be spending a whole lot more on surveillance and monitoring though to catch the next one early and, hopefully, kill it in its own backyard.

But things are definitely looking up. Vaccines are being produced and are already going into people’s arms. This will happen in increasing numbers in the early part of the New Year and, little by little, we’ll push Covid back where it belongs, in the margins and into the history books. We just need to hold on for a little while longer. Wear a mask when you need to, wash those hands, stay away from people when you can and look forward to better days. I know that I am.