Bill Harvey: You’re wearing a mask

Perhaps the starkest statistic yet was released this week by the Office of National Statistics; 45% of deaths in January of this year were due to Covid-19. And now that the Kent variant of the virus has mutated to join the South African variant recently found in the UK, the race really is on between a full and effective vaccine roll out and the spread of the highly infectious variant viruses.

As mentioned in this column many times of late, ECPs are in a privileged position in having access to the community and play an essential role communicating with our patients. Like many readers, I have been undertaking teleconsultations and it is a nice surprise when they are focused on an eye or vision problem. Much of my time has, instead, been spent reassuring, advising on how to access local council services, dismissing vaccine myths, or re-emphasising the need for obeying self-isolation rules and explaining why they are important. Luckily, ours is a profession with experience in communication and now is the time for this to come to the fore.