The light at the end of the tunnel, finally
BarcelonaUntil Sunday the names of Josefa Pérez or Araceli Hidalgo did not mean anything to us. Now we know that the first is 89 years old and that she is in the Feixa Llarga Residence in l'Hospitalet de Llobregat, and the latter is a 96-year-old woman who is in the Los Olmos Residence in Guadalajara. They became the first people vaccinated against covid-19 in Catalonia and Spain yesterday. Beyond the media representation of the beginning of the vaccination and the unexpected protagonism of these two women, yesterday had an undeniable importance in the fight to defeat the virus and recover normality. And the fact that it was done in a coordinated manner (with some specific exceptions) throughout the European Union still adds symbolic value to the date of December 27, 2020: Europeans began the process to achieve group immunity together.
It is clear that we are still far from our goals and that yesterday's is only the first step, but by reverting to the image used yesterday by many political and health representatives, we are already beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel, even if the tunnel is long. Because it is one thing to follow the information on vaccine trials, or to read that the European Commission has bought shipments of all the vaccines on the market, and it is quite another to see how the doses prepared for injection arrive punctually throughout the EU from Belgium, where Pfizer's factory is located.
This is an unprecedented logistical challenge (on the same level as the scientific success of the vaccine) that will have to be implemented in the coming months to ensure that everyone has access to the two doses needed to achieve group immunity. Specifically, in Catalonia the goal is to administer the first dose in two weeks to the 104,000 people, including residents and workers, in nursing homes for the elderly. Then we will have to wait 21 days to give them the second dose, and wait one more week for the body to be immune. This is the calendar of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which has been produced following an innovative genetic method. At the same time, we will also start to vaccinate health personnel and the idea is that, with the arrival of more vaccines such as the Moderna vaccine, the majority of the population can be vaccinated at the beginning or end of summer.
Of course, during these long months that still remain, it will not be possible to let our guard down, because there are still many unknowns, such as whether an immunised person can spread the virus or how long this immunity will be effective. The WHO has also issued a warning that the euphoria caused by the start of vaccination could lead to a relaxation of the precautionary measures. It is now, when the end of the nightmare is in sight, that safety measures must be stepped up to minimise infections and deaths. It is now only a matter of months and we must therefore avoid taking risks which may cause irreparable loss.
