Optimism in tough times
This was another week of good news-bad news on the COVID front with the decision that the current lockdown has been extended to mid-February.
I appreciate how very difficult it is for parents and their children, all trying to juggle both the physical space and the head space needed to allow everyone to attend online classes and work from home, or those struggling along with vastly reduced incomes as a result of the lockdown restrictions.
The good news is that there is hope in the shape of vaccination programme and in the Scottish Parliament, this week, we heard details of the progress that is being made on that front.
In Scotland we have been following the priority lists advised by the Joint Council on Vaccinations and Immunisations (JCVI), starting with residents and staff in adult care homes, all those aged 80 years of age and over and frontline health and social care workers, then working down the age groups in five year bands down to the over 50s.
Over 90 per cent of care home residents have now received their first jag.
Over 70 per cent of both care home staff and front-line health and care workers have also received their first dose.
Early focus, in line with
JCVI advice, has been on elderly care home residents, the group for whom the virus poses the greatest threat.
With that task nearing completion, the pace of progress is now picking up and we are on track for everyone in JCVI groups one and two to have been offered the first dose by the start of February.
By the middle of February, it is expected that all over-70s and those deemed clinically extremely vulnerable will have been vaccinated, those over 65 by the start of March, and everyone on the JCVI priority list given first doses by early May.
In three months’time, approximately three million people will have received at least the first dose of the vaccine.
That really is reason for optimism.
There is reason too for optimism beyond COVID.
I am sure many were as relieved as I to see Joe Biden inaugurated as president of the US and the curtain finally come down on the horror show that was the Trump presidency.
No doubt the USA has a great deal of healing to do but there is already a sense that the new leadership is a breath of fresh air.
It is not just about celebrating the departure of Trump.
There is much to be positively welcomed in the incoming team, not least the fact that, in Kamala Harris, we see the first female vice president, and a woman of colour at that.
So, I think we can look forward in hope and positivity – to the vaccine winning the race against the virus and to the prospect of greater calm and stability emanating from the White House, a place with massive influence and impact around the world.