Emerging from the darkest of days

The start of the island’s vaccine programme feels like a similarly auspicious turning point.

After months of grim news, lockdowns and loss of life the Bailiwick can join the rest of the world in looking to the future with renewed optimism.

The upturn in spirits was palpable at the Emma Ferbrache Room at the hospital yesterday as care home matron Dr Sue Fleming became the first person to be vaccinated on-island with the Pfizer jab.

Darker days in early spring when nurses and doctors stood sweating in full personal protective gear not knowing when the next case of Covid-19 might come through those hospital doors now seem long in the past for the Bailiwick.

Watching the news from the UK, much of Europe and the Americas is like getting in a time machine. We talk of lockdown and tough restrictions as a moment passed, hopefully never to be repeated.

Others, including our neighbours to the south, are not so lucky.

Like the journey to short nights and long warm days, however, the return to brighter times will be an extended process.

Islanders must be patient for their turn and let the aged, the most vulnerable, health staff and other key workers go first.

Weeks and months will pass while the biggest vaccination programme in this island’s history is painstakingly worked through.

Each passing day will, however, make our community safer and take us closer to a time when, if not defeated, Covid-19 no longer has the power to bend us to its will.

The speed at which that transformation takes place is down partly to the logistics of the vaccination process. It is also dependent on the willingness of islanders to play their part, trust the science and get inoculated as soon as they get the call-up.

Hopefully, by the summer solstice the whole world will be emerging from one of its darkest times with the hard work of scientists to be thankful for.