We’ve now been living with Coronavirus restrictions for almost exactly ten months. Individual views on the moral validity, good sense, or otherwise of these restrictions varies widely. Sadly, neither the presence nor tuning of Covid restrictions has been devolved to any tier of local Government.

Ending these restrictions is now clearly only going to happen once everyone over a certain age (who wants it) has been given a vaccine; likely to coincide with the arrival of spring though we still don't know exactly when we'll see the full restoration of normal levels of liberty. Some talk of Easter, others of over 65s being vaccinated, others of NHS emergency capacity.

Nationally vaccine distribution has been going well, and ministers have mentioned figures of two hundred thousand vaccine doses currently being administered daily, across the UK.

Locally, patients of the Jubilee Medical centre (New Ash Green and Longfield) can expect to be called for a vaccination at Meopham Medical centre (and many of you are, of course, patients at Meopham directly). I am personally very grateful for useful conversations with the Meopham Practice Manager, and for the fact that Meopham have been able to accommodate patients from the Jubilee Practice.

Of course, there are smaller numbers of patients of many other GPs within the Ward and, if you are still unsure at this stage, of how you will be getting your offer of a vaccine, then do get in touch and I will try to find out for you.

Also, if you are offered a vaccine, but do not know how you are going to get to Meopham (and if you are not able to find a solution through any obvious method) then do write to me or call about that also. It is very likely that, with reasonable notice, we can arrange something through the local volunteering network, or similar.

[Edit 7/8/2021: Sadly in the intervening months since this was first written we have started to see the introduction of vaccine passporting in various areas. While this is mostly a matter for central government I would, nonetheless, be very interested to hear from any residents for whom this is causing a difficulty in their lives. Clearly the introduction of a vaccine as an option for any adult who wants it is a very good thing. Having such an option for all adults, regardless of age or medical vulnerability, is a benefit to living in a rich society and its early availability in the UK is a credit to those involved in its distribution (see above), as well as to the Government for taking a risk to procure vaccine doses at an early stage. However, if vaccination becomes a condition for a return to normal life then we are into the territory of, de facto, forced medication, something which about which we should all have serious concerns.]