The morale boost from the vaccine is as important as the medicine itself

BACK in November 1942, near the small desert town of Al Alamein, in Egypt the Allies won their first major victories against the Nazis. Three years of defeats at the hands of the Nazi war machine had left the allied nations battered, brutalised and utterly demoralised.

As a result the victory in Egypt – while relatively minor in the overall context of the war – represented a major turning point in the conflict and provided the world with the morale boost it so desperately needed.

In his speech to the House Commons Winston Churchill explained what the Allies’ victory in the desert meant for the world in typically simple but effective fashion.

‘Now this is not the end’ he said ‘It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps the end of the beginning.’

Those words have seemed very apt in the last week as we watched the first Covid-19 vaccines being issued in the UK. A signal that we may, at long last, be nearing the end of this soul sapping international crisis.

We’ve long heard there was a light at the end of the tunnel. This week we finally got a glimpse of it.

When the history books are written about 2020 and the Covid pandemic they will be filled with thousands of names – from every corner of the globe – of those who helped turn the tide and eventually win the battle against Covid.

No doubt one of the most prominent names will be a 90-year-old grandmother from Fermanagh, Margaret Keenan , who became the first person in the world – outside medical trials – to get the Covid vaccine.

Compared to the experts who created the vaccine or the countless medical workers who have selflessly fought to contain the virus and save lives what Margaret Keenan did on a hospital ward in the UK last week was minor.

It is what it meant that was so incredibly important. By sitting down and getting that little jab in her arm Margaret Keenan has given hope to the world. For that alone the Irish granny deserves her place in the history books.

There is, of course, still a very long way to go and it will be many months before most people are vaccinated. But it must be remembered that with every vaccination we will be one step closer to getting our lives and our world back.

The process of vaccinating Ireland – let alone the entire world – will be enormously complex and doubtless there will be some bumps along the road.

Over Christmas, if you are lucky enough to be with loved ones, please spare a thought for all those who will be working day and night to prepare Ireland for the vaccine. It will be a challenging complex process but, as we have shown throughout the crisis, there’s nothing we’re not capable of when we work together.

Whatever happens, in terms of morale, we are all in a far better place than we were before a retired jewellery shop assistant from northern Ireland sat into a blue armchair on a Coventry hospital ward.