ON Tuesday morning in the Royal Victoria Hospital, Sister Joanna Sloan became the first person in Ireland to receive the new Covid vaccine. It was a highly emotional moment for so many people, not least those who have lost loved ones in the pandemic and who must have found themselves cruelly torn between hope and grief.
It will be some time before the vaccine becomes generally available and in the meantime residents of care homes, the vulnerable and frontline health staff will rightly be first in line for the arriving stock.
Ironically, the long-awaited good news comes in a week in which the latest ‘circuit-breaker’ lockdown comes to an end across the north. On Friday, it’s expected that we will return to something approximating the Covid regime in place before the two fortnight-long lockdowns from which we’re about to emerge.
Can anyone really believe that if a disastrous set of figures were to be released, say, next Monday that a robust and purposeful reaction would not be required? Of course it would.
It would be a tragedy of epic proportions if any loosening of restrictions were to lead to another spike at the very time when it appears that we may be getting a handle on the crisis. Throw in the upcoming five-day Christmas relaxation allowing multiple families to gather and the potential for a New Year disaster becomes all too clear.
First Minister Arlene Foster has stated categorically that there will be no more Covid restrictions, while deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill has refused to rule out the possibility of further strict measures. Once again, the DUP has allowed business and commercial dogma to trump common sense and logic.
Any response to a fast-changing and unpredictable pandemic environment must of necessity be agile and responsive.
Can anyone really believe that if a disastrous set of figures were to be released, say, next Monday that a robust and purposeful reaction would not be required? Of course it would.
The DUP leader continues to be beset on all sides by the Brexit loudmouths and Covid sceptics of her party who say whatever they want, regardless of policy and unconcerned about any meaningful rebuke from DUP HQ.
Decisions must be made on the basis of cold, hard science and fact, not on a desire at any cost to breathe life back into business, vital though that is. There is cautious optimism that the pandemic battle could be won by the spring or the summer – but that is not going to happen if we let hope turn into complacency.
• TO the fore among those heroes who have brought us to this place of cautious optimism are the NHS staff who have displayed such bottomless courage and commitment throughout this year of catastrophe.
So we’re delighted tonight (Thursday) to present online our Aisling Person of the Year award to nurses’ leader Pat Cullen. But more than any award, Pat and her colleagues deserve that we repay the debt we owe them with a determination to show responsibility and ensure that we really are at the beginning of the end.
