Index – Abroad – Brits have mixed emotions after Vaccine Day

Few people can say of themselves that she wrote her name in the history of the Western world at the age of 90, but Margaret Keenan still managed it. The elderly woman, who lives in the small town of Coventry, 150 kilometers north of London, was the first person in the world to receive an officially approved coronavirus vaccine from the pharmaceutical factory Pfizer.

Of course, the reputation also required the London government, the first to start mass vaccination, launch a promotional campaign with Margaret Keenan. The promising “Vaccine Day” (V-day) in the dark period of the coronavirus took place on Tuesday. The head of the British National Health Service (NHS), Sir Simon Stevens, said on the occasion that barely a year has passed since the first coronavirus patient was registered, yet the agency is delivering the antidote to people. Margaret Keenan also spoke up, saying that the old woman, who was celebrating her 91st birthday next week, couldn’t have wished for a cuter gift.

I will finally be able to be with my family, my friends, after spending most of the year alone.

Margaret Keenan told reporters.

The Index has spoken to a number of healthcare workers in the UK, with expert reports backing up what was said on V-Day. The population still needs to be encouraged to achieve greater vaccination coverage as the vaccine is surrounded of widespread mistrust. Except for the most vulnerable. In the UK, 15.5 million people are over 60 years old, representing 23 per cent of the total population; most believe that they no longer have anything to lose, they just want to be with their families again.

“Retirement houses have been separated from the world, many inmates have been alone since March. They are with him that there will be what will be, it will simply end ″ – he tells a health worker in the south of England to find the Index. Our reporting subject worked in a luxury nursing home during the epidemic, but excellent services worth up to thousands of pounds a week are no substitute for family.

“In addition to the increased vulnerability, this also justifies getting vaccinated first. Of course, there is no better test subject than them: if they do not fail, the side effects of the vaccine will not fail and the younger ones will have no problem ″

He adds. While this may sound a bit morbid at first glance, it can be crucial in terms of communication. Vaccination is voluntary and many fear the vaccine. “They came up with a vaccine in half a year, which raised suspicions even among health workers,” continues our source.

The vaccine is administered for the first time to people over the age of eighty, which means approximately 3.2 million people. Also among the former are some patients in need of hospital care, as well as others at risk. Or healthcare workers, who should now set an example for the younger generations of the British population.

It wouldn’t be a very good message if you didn’t take the vaccine as a healthcare worker.

Says another source in another city near London. As an audiologist, she primarily cares for elderly patients with hearing impairments, helping out in social homes on the weekends. He adds that by April, the majority of the population over 18 years of age would be vaccinated by the government, and the World Health Organization, according to WHO, would grant immunity to herds at 60-70 percent vaccination.

So the next few months will focus on convincing UK skeptics. It was certainly not good to judge the vaccine that a couple of vaccinates developed allergic symptoms 24 hours after day V, however, no serious complications occurred in any of the patients. And there are many motivational tools in the hands of the government, and British politicians have already put forward some of them. Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat indicated in an interview that it cannot be ruled out that those who refuse to be vaccinated will be excluded from their jobs.

Once we see that the vaccine is completely safe, I think the time will come when employers will tell you: either you get vaccinated or you don’t come.

He said Tugendhat. Tourism can also be a motivating force. Already in spring there was talk of introducing a so-called digital immunity passport, the essence of which is that vaccination certificates will be presented in a common system that can be viewed by other states. The British press, of course, is also examining whether the government can make vaccination mandatory, as is otherwise possible by a law passed in 1984 in England and Wales. The Welsh Minister of Social Affairs, Vaughan Gething, said in this regard that the mandatory vaccination could occur in the most extreme situation, but so far he has not ruled out any possibility.

(Cover image: Margaret Keenan while receiving the vaccine on December 8, 2020. Photo: Jacob King / Pool / Reuters)