Covid vaccination: Care home residents show Scotland the way out of this crisis – Scotsman comment

Given the appalling death toll from Covid-19 in Scotland’s care homes, it was absolutely right their residents were among the first people to receive the vaccine after the thousands of healthcare staff involved in the mass immunisation process.

Resident Annie Innes, 90, talks with a healthcare worker after receiving the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at the Abercorn House Care Home in Hamilton.

Annie Innes, 90, of Abercorn House Care Home in Hamilton, was among the first elderly Scots to receive the first dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, saying it was “wonderful to get the vaccine before Christmas”.

Back in March, when the pandemic arrived in Scotland and the lockdown began, it was hard to believe that this would still be plaguing our lives and causing so much damage to our economy nine months later.

But, as many have pointed out, vaccines are at last giving us a way out of this terrible time in human history – providing people agree to be vaccinated.

It is obvious that by focusing on the most vulnerable groups, the loss of life will be reduced.

However, the older generations’ willingness to be innoculated may also help persuade anyone who still has doubts that they should do so. Many of them will be old enough to remember when life was blighted with diseases like polio that no longer exist in the UK thanks to vaccination. Once a lethal danger, the UK’s last case of domestically acquired polio was in 1982.

The message for younger generations is that we need to patiently wait for our turn to be vaccinated while sticking to the other measures designed to stop Covid spreading: such as social distancing, wearing masks, washing hands, and self-isolating and getting a test if you have symptoms.

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