There seems to be a degree of frustration and anxiety circulating and that is understandable.
I'm very much a glass half full type and tend to look at the optimistic side of things more than the negative side.
As we leave the year, chronologically, its a good time to look back and see how the situation is in regards the pandemic.
When all this kicked off here in February/March we were faced with a situation that there seemed to be a sense of helplessness as we knew nothing of what lay ahead, the virus had arrived and nobody really knew what the consequences such as deaths of citizens, or the effect on the economy or indeed our lives and futures.
The decision was made to lockdown the country in its totality with everything bar essential businesses allowed to open, we listened intently to daily updates and really got on with it as a population.
We lost people, we had thousands in and out of hospital, we cheered our essential workers who literally put their lives in danger for the better good, and by the end of May we were returning to something approaching normal.
News began to seep out that the science world had been working silently and there was hope that a vaccine or treatments might be in place sooner rather than the years it normally took to develop such medication.
Summer came and went with intermittent local lockdown but in general people got on with whatever they could.
In the Autumn schools reopened and the scientists were making noises that the work on vaccines was progressing and hope was rising that there might be a solution on the horizon.
The unity shown earlier in the year was evaporating the blame game had begun in earnest and the ludicrous side of humanity began to show its face online and on our streets, meanwhile the virus had regained its foothold and the circle of lockdowns and reopening began.
Cases and deaths once again rose, the majority simply got on with it again doing their best to protect themselves and their communities despite the constant barrage of false narratives being posted online.
We slowly became polarised and the virus continued to infect and kill people, but that fact became secondary our hospitals began to fill up again.
In September data from the vaccine development began to be issued and the news was positive, with the real chance that viable vaccines would be in our communities late this year or early 2021.
November arrived and the first set of data from Pfizer/BioNTech showed that there vaccines were over 90% effective in protecting people from Covid, a week later Moderna issued even better effectiveness and another vaccine Astrazeneca/ Oxford University showed more promise.
Details of how the vaccines work were debated extensively with some bemoaning the speed of the development and dragging up false and unproven theories and constantly making noise.
The virus meanwhile was again infecting more and more with impunity .
In December the UK approved the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and finally on the 8th of December it was injected into an elderly woman in Coventry and hope got a boost.
However the virus found new ways of infecting the world and is now , today , probably going to be more infectious that all the other waves we have witnessed but that doesn't mean that we are in a worse place, in fact we are probably in a far better place than 9 months ago, we have vaccines that are safe and are being rolled out, this is something that many thought impossible 10 months ago.
But this isn't good enough for some, we have created a new class " the moaning class" where the best efforts of others is a constant target for ridiculous ill-informed attacks including personal attacks on people who have given it everything, everyday for everyone.
We are in a far better place now than we were 10 months ago and the road ahead will not be carefree, but people will have to be pragmatic and careful if we are to return to lives that might be described as normal.
P.S. Astrazeneca/Oxford vaccine has just been approved by the UK regulator.