Over fifties with no medical conditions now qualify for the seasonal booster and I went to have mine. I had been surprised to see that 10 million people had already had their booster and was further surprised to see a 45 minute queue when I got to the centre. This was for appointments only and there was a “sorry no walk ins ” sign outside the building. I think that the volunteers might have been surprised at the take up , as I was , but on reflection we really should not have been.
This was the fourth vaccine and for most people the side effects are slightly unpleasant but much better than a bad case of the disease itself . So the seven day average of deaths is 102 and increasing , one in thirty of people in private households have covid at the moment ,but with a population of nearly 69 million that really shows that the vaccines are working. So a combination of listening to the scientists and our own experience of the program , really not a surprise at the take up.
Not surprising , even with the numbers involved it was very calm and and polite in the queues. The volunteers were excellent and the medic seemed completely used to my reaction of “I don’t want to know anything about it , just please tell me when it is done”. She told me how she wanted me to sit and told me where to look and then it was all over. Certainly you get good at administering the vaccine when you have done a few thousand and I guess someone who just wants the thing done is probably music to the ears of the medic. I have found a surprisingly high number of men that I have talked to have also taken this approach.
So let’s take it all back. It was 26 March 2020 that the lockdown was legally enforceable . At the time , no one would have imagined that life would be as it is today. Yes , there are minor restrictions today , but when you remember being trapped in your house with only an hour of exercise outside. Or later when there was a bit of a relaxation and you were allowed to exercise in groups but it had to be outside. We all have our memories of the start of the virus. I remember being in a queue in a supermarket and there was a guy in front of me who was buying mountains of food and plastic containers so that he would have food when presumably the supermarkets had run out. How could he not realise that one of the jobs of government is to ensure that there is food for the population and there are always plans for things like this even though they hope that they will never happen.
Many changes have happened in the world especially in the last three years. Younger people may not understand my wonder at the fact that I have a mobile device which allows me to access nhs records and can give people assurance that I have been vaccinated if I need to prove it.
People are worried at the moment with war, energy problems , cost of living crisis , but there are people working very hard to make things better.