‘Clinicians everywhere are all nervous about what will happen if that loosening of restrictions occurs too quickly. Though death from Covid among the under-50s is relatively rare, it can still be a terrible, terrifying disease, capable of rendering its victims breathless and exhausted for weeks (and in some cases, months) after its fevers have run their course. One of my own patients, a nurse in his 20s, used to run 10km three or four times a week. The staff vaccination programme was too late for him: he caught Covid on the wards just before Christmas. Though he’s now back at work, he still hasn’t recovered sufficiently to be able to get back to running.
‘For the next six months, all my colleagues and I will be vaccinating as needed, as many hours as we’re able to. This week I’ve been gladly trudging the streets in the snow, vaccinating our housebound patients, and there aren’t too many still to go. In Scotland, the programme is anticipated to go on at least until 31 July, and the hope is that everyone over 50 will have had a first dose by May.
‘The numbers are daunting, but there’s a spirit of anticipation and celebration in the air. Many are starting to dare to plan for a world post-Covid, and I’m tempted to share that optimism. Opening my first box of vials, I thought of a friend in Orkney, a GP who’d already vaccinated all the over-80s of his practice, and who’d begun to call in the over-70s. We met briefly in Kirkwall, outdoors, on my journey from Orkney back to Edinburgh. “How did it feel to get started?” I asked him.
“I almost wept as I opened that box of vials,” he said, smiling at the memory. “Each one was hope – pure, liquid hope.”
Read here (The Guardian, Feb 11, 2021)
