The first COVID19 vaccine had been administered to a 90-year-old lady this week in the UK. The global program to innoculate the whole world against the virus to achieve herd immunity to eventually wipe it out has begun.
With the UK being the first out of the door, other countries will also be providing final approvals soon. While billions of doses of various vaccines are in the manufacturing pipeline, it will take many months before enough people are immunized. We can then slowly return back to the old normal which was just a year ago, where travelling was not banned or there was no 2 weeks quarantine required after every overseas trip.
S’pore is in the sweet spot at the moment as it is able to keep cases under control by quickly detecting positive imported cases the moment they enter the country. It does not have to rush to approve the vaccine but can adopt a wait and see attitude to see and learn how the rest of the countries will roll out this vaccination program effectively.
The UK’s criteria on how the limited supply of vaccine is to be admired. It starts with the front line workers and the most elderly citizens, working its way down the various age groups from the 80s to the 70s, the 60s and below. It is a very practical approach to protecting the most vulnerable first while the rest will have to wait for their turn.
Those that have doubts about the vaccine will definitely want to wait for a few months to see how the first group reacts to it. Those that have a high probability of interacting with the virus (health workers) or might have a fatal reaction to it (the elderly) would prefer to have the vaccine as soon as possible to protect themselves. It is a win-win scenario and should be adopted by all countries to move towards herd immunity via the vaccine.
The race is now against time as winter approaches. As it gets colder in the western hemisphere, more people will gather indoors and the cases may rise if people ignore the advice not to have big Christmas get-togethers. America is seeing newer highs for deaths and cases every day while the lame-duck president is trying to fight to overturn the elections unsuccessfully. He is still having big unmasked gatherings because he already had Covid19. He is literally killing his loyal supporters. This is the height of irresponsibility on his part and stupidity of GOP to blindly pledge loyalty to an egomaniac who refuses to accept reality and facts.
I had a nice afternoon into dinner event this week with a group of university mates at our old school campus on Tues. We met for a walk around the university to relive the undergraduate days again. I cannot believe that we had already graduated 30 years ago. It seems like yesterday that we were still hanging around in the canteen trying to finish our tutorials. The campus has changed a lot, with a lot of new buildings up and we managed to squeeze in 2 beer stops as there was intermittent rain during our walk.
The final stop was at the NUSS Guild house for a quick shower before we head for dinner and more drinks, talking about the bygone days and interestingly, about various medical issues we are currently experiencing. Lots of uncle talking subjects I guess.
My older son and relatives were also back in S’pore on Monday from the UK. They had to quarantine themselves in a registered hotel for 2 weeks like what I did in Oct. Thankfully, they managed to adapt well and getting used to being locked up in a hotel room for the next 14 nights.
As we near the final days of 2020, I cannot help but reflect on what we had all experienced in this 1 in 100 years pandemic. Last Dec seems so far away as the old normal is like a distant memory. Everyone on planet earth had to adapt to a new and strange way of life. The whole world went into a lockdown mode. Each and every soul has been impacted by the virus in various ways.
The light at the end of the tunnel is near but yet we have not reached the worse peaks yet. The vaccines provide hope that we can return back to normal soon but there is more that we do not know yet. It would be months more before we can confidently say that we have beaten back this potent virus.
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