Vaccine is the only way out of virus pandemic
As we approach the end of a very grim 2020 we must be thankful that there is light at the end of the tunnel in the form of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.
It was very good news to hear that it had been clinically approved so quickly and that the roll-out for key workers and those most in need could start immediately.
Whilst it is undoubtedly the case that there will be some months to go before the full vaccination programme can be completed, last week’s announcement should give us all hope that, at some point, we might enjoy some semblance of normality.
The alternative approach of‘herd immunity,’which was tried in Sweden to a certain extent, was seen to be taking too much of a risk so a vaccine is the safest route to take if we want to get our businesses and economy open again and return to the many things we value in life.
The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine has been shown in studies to be 95 per cent effective and appears to be just as effective across all age groups. The UK Government immediately ordered 40 million doses of the vaccine, with enough to vaccinate 20 million people.
News of the vaccine has been complemented by programmes of mass testing taking place across the country.
For example, the rapid lateral flow device (LFD) tests took place at all university campuses recently to allow students to travel home for Christmas providing they tested‘negative’for COVID.
And testing also recently took place at five coronavirus hotspots in the west of Scotland as part of a trial mass testing programme.
There is real hope that community testing could cut the chain of transmission by identifying asymptomatic cases of the virus and hopefully this will be expanded in the New Year.
We are now just three weeks away from Christmas.
Clearly, it will be very different from normal as we won’t be able to have our usual celebrations and visits to see friends and relatives in ways that we would choose.
But I do hope all the readers of the Perthshire Advertiser have a peaceful time and may I thank the newspaper for all that it has done throughout 2020 to keep us well informed about COVID-19 but also to help us to stick by the rules.
Let’s hope 2021 will be a better year.