COLUMN: Normality is within touching distance for millions

The progress of the British vaccination programme has shocked the world in its pace, its efficiency and its scale. The global value of Britain’s scientific community has been key in making progress against Covid-19. The dedication of British keyworkers and our NHS should reaffirm our faith in our communities and our institutions.

Nobody would claim any government has got everything right in their response to the pandemic, and in time it will be wholly right to look to learn lessons for the future – but in some matters we should all feel huge pride too, especially in Britain’s positive contribution to the global response.

It is, nonetheless, vital to remember that even as dawn approaches, for many times remain very dark: schoolchildren who find themselves, perhaps unexpectedly, desperate to do exams or know how the system will work in the their absence; those who await hospital appointments or whose mental health, newly fragile perhaps, relies on the normal social intercourse we all crave; those of us who simply can’t bear the combined small privations, from masks to coffee shops to normal friendships. All these things add up, even before considering the huge impact on business. No wonder some estimates claim children’s education will take years to recover, and even so their eventual salaries will be permanently hit.

That’s all the more reason for one last burst of stoicism, and a renewed bid to be kind to each other and ourselves. As individual tempers fray or worse, we must all bear in mind that normality is within touching distance for millions.