Corona Diaries: Vaccination Stations
25.03.2021
Isn’t it strange how much we talk about the future? About how things might look in the future. Whether it’s The Jetsons’ suggestion that we’ll all be travelling around in flying cars in 2026 or how often someone might say, “Well, obviously house ownership/petrol cars/the job market won’t be like this for our kids.” We’re always imagining some fairly far off period of time where our reality is dramatically altered and yet, we didn’t anticipate this reality at all. This (more than a) year of fear, panic and constant rule changes. This strange new world where we can’t see or touch our loved ones. Where children don’t go to school and we spend more time with our partners than we ever imagined possible. This wasn’t in anyone’s list of expectations for the future. Or it wasn’t for most of us.There’ll always be the conspiracists/awakened who will tell us this absolutely was always on the cards.
This time last year we were still brand new to the idea of lockdown, just a few days in and everyone processing what was going on differently. Most of us hadn’t even heard of Zoom! Once we’d established that Grandma was happy to stay home alone rather than moving in with one of us, we sent her off for twelve weeks of shielding with constant attempts to play down how long that was. Now it’s one year later and none of us genuinely thought there’d be so little change, that we’d still be hiding from a virus, cancelling event after event, losing our livelihoods. Distracting ourselves by spending money we’re not earning on ever more complicated make-your-own meal boxes.
Yes Lucy, we’re living in a grim reality that we’re sugarcoating by constant distraction. Tell us something new. Sorry, I know as much as you guys. On a more positive note though, the flip side of course is that sure, we didn’t guess how bad this would get but we also didn’t realise how good it could get. Few people really believed we’d have effective vaccines and we’d be rolling them out less than a year later. The pandemic still stampeding its way through our world is awful but the ability of humans, science and world authorities to pull off such a quick development and distribution of a brand new vaccine - something that will help us not only in this situation but offers significant process that will impact future vaccines - is nothing short of a miracle.
The world has changed so much in the past year and, although I believe I’ve helped in my own way here and there, I’m not one of key players, not one of the people who’ve given over pretty much their whole lives to the effort of getting us through this. It’s easy for me to proffer a platitude or two and watch on while other people make everything better. That can mean I can find myself tuning into for daily briefings, checking the number of vaccinated citizens and nodding sagely, assuming we were always going to get here, that things would get better if I was just patient enough. But of course that’s not the case. This stuff is only getting better because of such incredible proactivity, commitment and talent from so many.
Nowadays, when I take my dog for our daily walks, I no longer hear people bemoaning the state of the world or guessing at when pubs might reopen. Instead, there’s a constant soundtrack of people announcing they’ve ‘had their jab’ or even planning to meet in the queue at the local health centre when they realise they’ve been booked on the same day for their second dose. There’s a sense of excitement in the air, of the older and more vulnerable members of society seeing a brighter future for themselves. These conversations make me smile, but every now and again it strikes me how strange they are, how we’re hanging so much hope on these jabs, how they’ve become an essential aspect of most of our lives going forward. It’s amazing and sad all at the same time.
So no, I certainly didn’t imagine this future a year ago, even when we were freshly locked up and death toll reports were evening viewing. It’s not my dream future either. The dream would have been something closer to New Zealand’s achievements. Or, you know, none of this happening at all. I wish we hadn’t lived through a year of death and separation and fear. I wish we were all back at work and didn’t think twice about hugging a friend or family member. But I’m glad someone could visualise this future of life-changing vaccinations. I’m glad my Grandma has had two doses. I’m glad those I love with compromised immune systems feel a little safer. I hope this terrible time is nearly over.