It’s now or never ...

 Has the time come? The age profile of those being offered vaccinations against COVID-19 is gradually getting lower. I read today that this week people over the age of 74 can apply. And then that age will fall and - eventually - we shall be the right age to be vaccinated. The question then is whether we want to be vaccinated or not. It’s such an individual matter. Ann and I, through age and medical history, would be deemed “vulnerable” and that’s good enough for me. I shall bare my arm, grit my teeth and “feel a little prick”. Ann is mulling all this over and I shall support whatever decision she comes to.

I read with incredulity that Cyprus is planning to welcome Israelis with vaccination passports as tourists from the first of April. Something of an appropriate date in my opinion. If that is to be the case then hospitality venues will open and the whole game will begin again. Already there is a sense that the vaccine  has freed people from the obligation of behaving sensibly. I despair of news reports and photographs from both the UK and Cyprus of people not giving a damn about others. “Me, me, me” is the message that is shouted from the tabloid press and the television stations.

Individuals seem to think that if they are low risk, then their lives and freedoms and inalienable rights are more important than anything else. Given that the western world (or at least those parts that are wealthy enough to purchase the vaccines) will be vaccinated by the end of 2021, it begs the question why life cannot be put on hold for a few months longer.

There is a moral question here of course - yet another elephant lurking in the room. It is something of a truism that “No one is safe until everyone is safe”. The wealthier nations have been buying up enormous stocks of vaccines, whilst the third world is being cast adrift. Someone in The Guardian this morning suggested this would result in wealthier nations (mostly with majority white populations) closing their borders to black and brown (and may as well include Asian) people who would not have the inevitable vaccination passports. Horrifying yet perhaps with a grain of truth.