After an awful year beyond description, the news of a vaccine for COVID and a change of guard in The White House, makes next year look a whole lot better than this one. It will be. And that gives Christmas and the New Year an added sparkle. Yes, I know it won’t be the same as Christmases past; parties and mixing will be difficult and cheer will be in short supply, but we have just witnessed an historic, life-saving achievement. In less than a year, a vaccine for a deadly disease, capable of ripping through the world’s population with devastating and catastrophic results, is ready, safe, and available for mass inoculation, and more vaccines are just round the corner. This has never been done before, taking years – almost ten in some cases – in the past. What’s not to cheer about that?
The UK kicks off the immunisation programme next week, a programme that will reach out to immunise the entire world population by the end of next year. In a year’s time, the end of 2021, the world will look a very different place. Let’s be grateful and thankful to those that’ve made this happen.
Let’s raise our glasses.
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This will make you smile. Family in South Australia find live koala in their Christmas tree.
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My latest novel is called Otto and Frankie – about a dying man’s fight against injustice, his wife’s unusual affair, and the love from his long-lost daughter.
Otto and his daughter Frankie could not be more different. He’s rich, an acclaimed author, human rights activist, and lives in England. She lives in New York, just about survives from one pay cheque to the next and hasn’t seen or spoken to her father for twenty years. Dutifully reunited by his impending death, she’s amazed to find him a kind and noble man who, while grappling with his wife’s bizarre affair, champions for the world’s forgotten and dispossessed to his last. After Otto’s death, Frankie’s admiration for her father leads her into a dangerous and life changing pursuit.
Nick Wastnage 