A Positive End to the Year

The good news - the best possible news - is that the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine has been approved and will begin roll out in the UK next week. The plan is to get a single dose into as many people as possible as quickly as possible, with a second dose up to three months later. While the Pfizer vaccine is brilliant and highly effective, the AstraZeneca vaccine much easier to distribute widely as it doesn't need to be kept at  such low temperatures. Best of all, it is low cost, will have manufacturing centres around the world (including a large one in India) and the vaccine is non-profit. In the long run it will save millions, and possibly even billions of lives. For us in the UK, the end of the pandemic really is in sight now, although the next couple of months will still be grim. 

The sort-of-good news is that a Brexit deal has been agreed, signed off (with virtually no proper scrutiny) by Parliament, and we will avoid the costs and chaos of a no-deal Brexit. The deal is about as thin as could be, but has one small silver lining in that the EHIC (European Health Insurance Card) arrangements are going to continue, meaning that there will still be reciprocal health care across the EU and UK. The government are trying to claim it is a "great" deal, but it clearly isn't. Brexit gains? In my opinion, zero. It won't even get rid of the interminable arguments about Europe. The government is carefully not mentioning that the agreement provides for renegotiation every five years, and includes a long list of joint committees to discuss UK/EU issues in many different spheres. In other words, Brexit doesn't change geography. We are an island at the periphery of a continent; the EU will always be our largest trading partner, and will always be our most important overseas relationship. 

I am still struggling to completely shake off the headache from earlier in the week. I'm wondering now it if is sinus related - not something I normally suffer from, but I have been a bit sniffly and it seems to be worse at night. This quiet time between Christmas and New Year is very quiet indeed this year. Nothing more exciting happening than our daily walks. We normally celebrate New Years Eve with old friends who live a couple of miles away, so this year we are going to have a virtual New Years Eve on FaceTime. The original plan was to make a buffet meal to graze at during the evening (our usual tradition), but then noticed a local pub is delivering meals and thought it would be nice to support them and have ordered a two course dinner from them. We will have a New Year's Day buffet instead. Oh, and I finished the first sock of a pair for myself.