The approval and early roll-out for a COVID-19 vaccine is the best news we鈥檝e had in the nine-plus months since COVID-19 restrictions first came into effect.
Health Canada has approved Pfizer鈥檚 vaccine for COVID-19. Others are expected to follow soon. The provincial government announced its COVID-19 rollout plan last week; the first doses of the vaccine were slated to arrive in Saskatchewan this week.
This is all very, very good news.
I鈥檓 not going to lie to you and tell you that I believe that I have 100 per cent total confidence. We鈥檙e all looking forward to the day when talk of COVID-19, self-isolation, lockdowns, restrictions, mandatory mask usage, U.S. border closures and other decisions that have occurred in the last nine months become a thing of the past.
I know some people are leery about this vaccine. Some concerns are valid. They鈥檙e worried about how quickly it has developed, how quickly it鈥檚 going to be rolled out, how little we still actually know about this disease, how long it will be effective and whether it will actually work.
Will there be complications?
There are still questions to be asked, questions that we won鈥檛 have answered for some time.
And ultimately, we can鈥檛 afford to be wrong with this one. If we鈥檙e wrong, then it puts us back or close to square one, and the consequences will be steep. I fear the day in which we find out that all the time and money spent on vaccines was for naught, that we rushed the process, that we were too eager to get back to normal, and more people died unnecessarily. I hope it won鈥檛 happen.聽
When you鈥檙e dealing with a new disease with so many consequences, you have to find the middle ground between aggression and caution.
You also have those who won鈥檛 get the vaccine because they cling to some goofy conspiracy theory, or because they鈥檙e in the Facebook MD crowd, or because they believe anything that fits their agenda, or, worst of all, because they belong to the anti-vaccine crowd.
When it鈥檚 my turn, I鈥檒l get the vaccine. But there鈥檚 a lot of people who should be vaccinated before me.
I still have a pretty robust immune system. I haven鈥檛 had a cold in nearly three years. Of course, when I do feel symptomatic of a cold, I can pump myself full of Cold-FX; I can鈥檛 purchase COVID-FX.
So I should be near the back of the line.
This vaccine needs to get to our front-line healthcare workers, those in personal care homes, senior citizens, teachers, police officers, firefighters and other essential services people before it gets to me. It needs to get to the immune-compromised and those with underlying health conditions before it鈥檚 administered to me.聽
And it needs to get to those in at-risk communities. We saw in the spring and summer the impact COVID had on remote, northern areas and in communal living settings.
Hopefully, once we get the majority of residents vaccinated, we can see the restrictions lifted, we can start to return to normal, and this wildly unpredictable 鈥渘ew normal鈥� of the past nine months can end.聽
Hopefully, we won鈥檛 have to wait for the vast majority of people to be vaccinated, or for the vaccine to be administered to all who want it. Hopefully the vast majority will eventually want the vaccine.
Hopefully, we can gather at a concert or a Canada Day parade or a sporting event next summer without having to hear the words 鈥渟uper spreader.鈥� But we can鈥檛 be too quick to move, and put other people鈥檚 lives at risk because of our eagerness to gather in large crowds again.聽
It truly is remarkable that we鈥檙e talking about a vaccine for a virus that we didn鈥檛 know existed a year ago. That鈥檚 a testament to the advances we have seen in science and technology over the years.
It鈥檚 due to the many people far smarter than most of us who have dedicated many hours to the incredible research.
COVID鈥檚 always going to be with us in some way. In the past 500 years, humanity has managed to eradicate one disease: smallpox. We鈥檙e on the cusp of doing it to polio (thanks Rotary International for that one) but to expect a full eradication of COVID because we have a vaccine goes against history.聽
But at least we鈥檙e now looking at the day in which COVID isn鈥檛 part of the daily vocabulary.
I look forward to the day when I get my two doses of vaccines. But there鈥檒l be a lot of people who need it more than I do.聽
