Yes, a year on and we’re still nagging: Grab that jab

We like Michael Tibbs. Quite a lot actually. We like him because he is 100 years old and he has a lovely, gentle sense of humour. ‘I find it difficult to believe I’m 100, but the Queen has told me so in a letter, so it must be true,’ he tells us today, and you can almost see the twinkle in his eye.

We also like Michael Tibbs because a year ago today he shone a light out of the winter darkness and gave us something to cling on to – hope at the end of an interminably long, stressful and painful year.

For, as we remind readers on pages 6 and 7, it was 12 months ago today that great grandfather Michael Tibbs became the first person to receive a potentially life-saving vaccine against Covid-19 at Queen Alexandra Hospital, Cosham.

It was the same day Margaret Keenan, the first person in the world to get vaccinated, had hers in Coventry. But Mr Tibbs, well, we claimed him as ours.

Reading that story today does two things; it makes us smile because of his sense of fun, but much more importantly, it makes us thankful that 365 days after that ground-breaking jab Mr Tibbs is still with us. Yes, he has had both vaccinations and the booster.

The other emotion that story provokes is sadness. Sad because the most recent government data shows 158,430 eligible people in Portsmouth – or 78.21 per cent – have had at least one dose and 70.8 per cent have had both.

So, a year after Mr Tibbs, at 99, broke new ground and showed us in this part of the world that really there is nothing to worry about, almost 30 per cent of those eligible in Portsmouth have not had both jabs. That’s disturbing.

It is sad because some of those who have not had their jabs are occupying hospital beds which are needed by others.

For a year now we have been urging everyone to Grab a Jab or three. If you haven’t, please reconsider. You too might make it to 100.