Grey heads everywhere. In fact, there have not been so many grey heads in the Brighton Centre since the Leonard Cohen concert in November 2008. I think I recognised some of them at the weekend when I went for my first AstraZeneca jab.
It was a good experience. I followed the yellow-footstep road into the main hall guided by a series of stewards. The first was a Virgin Airlines cabin-crew member, the next an older woman from Brighton who “wanted to do my bit”.
A lady from Peacehaven at one of the many and busy desks took my details. When I told her I had a history of severe allergic episodes, she called over a nurse and an NHS manager from the Sussex Eye Hospital.
After a lengthy discussion I was sent to a special cubicle where a concerned doctor went over the anaphylactic questions again with great thoroughness. He seemed reassured when I told him I had never experienced a bad reaction to a vaccination of any kind.
I had the jab, and I was asked to wait at the centre for 40 minutes in case of any severe reactions.
Meanwhile, a small army of volunteers was quietly and continually cleaning and disinfecting the chairs spaced out across the Centre’s huge main hall.
Anna, a charming archaeologist turned peripatetic NHS worker from Worthing, sat at a social but friendly distance with me until the doctor said it was OK for me to go. Anna said there was a great spirit of common cause at the centre, which she hoped would continue generally After Covid.
Released carefully and relieved into the quiet dusk, without any reactions then or since, I walked past a silent and dark Grand Hotel sharing Anna’s hope.
I was hugely impressed by the thoroughness, concern and kindness that marked my jab experience and was shown by everybody from the security man who checked my appointment number at the front door to his colleague who wished me well as I left from the back door.
Perhaps I went through that door to a better world where people will find a common purpose and heal the deep divisions that have scarred us all in recent years.
On Saturday I was given great hope that this might be the case through the work and commitment of many men and women of good intent and the excellent NHS at its very best.
We can all live with greater hope, if we all get the jab. For those who have doubts, I can only say that everybody I know who has been vaccinated has shared my good experience. Indeed, the vaccination roll-out is the only government success story among a catalogue of errors and U-turns.
I urge the doubters not to listen to balmy weather forecasters and fruitcake American evangelicals who see the whole thing as a 5G conspiracy. You certainly wouldn’t seek their help, if you had a broken leg or cancer symptoms.
Seek advice and reassurance about the vaccination from your GP and the NHS. Get the jab, and we’ll all get back to the Brighton Centre to hear good music sooner rather than later.
Bill Randall was the first Green leader and mayor of Brighton and Hove City Council.
A very good piece by Bill Randall.
The vaccinations have been organised by the NHS itself rather than made over to such clueless companies as those that failed with track and trace.