One year ago, I wrote a piece titled, ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’. The words that inspired that article came from a song written by Oscar Hammerstein II and Richard Rodgers, and sung by Gerry and the Pacemakers.
When you walk through a storm
Hold your head up high
And don’t be afraid of the dark
At the end of a storm
There’s a golden sky
And the sweet silver song of a lark
Walk on through the wind
Walk on through the rain
Though your dreams be tossed and blown
Walk on, walk on
With hope in your heart
And you’ll never walk alone
You’ll never walk alone
Walk on, walk on
With hope in your heart
And you’ll never walk alone
You’ll never walk alone
One year on and we are now on the verge of our national lockdown being eased. Much has happened since COVID hit these shores. As I write we have seen some 4,333,042 cases of COVID, 126,592 have died, 3,805,416 recovered and 401,034 active cases. During this time, we have administered 121,517,399 COVID tests. As a nation we have gone through a nightmare.
At such a time we as a nation came together. Do you remember the ‘Clap for Our Carers’ which took place every Thursday evening at 20:00 hrs between 26 March and 28 May 2020? Every Thursday, people of all ages, all colours, all faiths and differing political persuasion came out not just to clap for our carers, but to bang on anything that made a loud noise. I used a stainless-steel thali with a wooden ladle – and trust me, that made some serious noise. All our neighbours came out, some we had not seen or spoken to - but each Thursday, we felt part of a family. One of our neighbours is a Doctors, she broke down in tears. The affection of the nation for the carers was just too much to take. The raw emotion of having faced COVID patients, day after day and keeping that emotion and pain in check, just gave way.
Fortunately for us our Government was one of the leaders when it came to seeking a vaccine. During Spring of 2020 it had ploughed hundreds of millions of pounds towards securing a vaccine for the nation. On 8 December 2020 the UK started its vaccination drive. The methodology was simple and effective. There were multiple tiers of seriousness. Those most vulnerable to be vaccinated first and so on. The media, and some politicians from the opposition parties of course played games. However, by the end of January 2021 almost 1 million of the most vulnerable had been vaccinated, including my Dad. The rate of vaccination increased dramatically. It took everyone by surprise. Every call the Government was making on the vaccine programme was proving to be correct. Today more than 50% of the adult population has had the jab. That’s more than 30 million!
This week we will see the lifting of some of the restrictions on the lockdown. My only observation being, let’s not go mad. We are not out of the woods yet. There is still a lot to be done and our success is dependent on all of us doing our bit. Let us stick to the timetable set forth by the Government. Don’t take unnecessary risks. Anyone who knows of a loved one with COVID will tell you, this is not a joke. Let’s not put our loved ones at risk.
We don’t walk alone; we walk together, and we win together. March 2022, I wonder what my article will contain?
