The first person was vaccinated in the U.K. on December 8, 2020, after which the vaccine was rolled out to the rest of us in stages: first to residents in care homes for older adults and their carers; then to people 80 years old or older, as well as front-line health and social care workers; then to those 75 years and older; 70 and over; 65 and older, and so on. By the end of November 2021, between 80% and 90% of the adult population of the Southwest of England (including Gloucestershire) had had one, and most adults two, doses.
The Vaccination Thermometer began life on the Village Noticeboard at the beginning of January 2021. It was regularly updated, and gave us a sense of where we were as a community. You can track our progress in the pictures below. Did it really take so long? Did it really happen so quickly?
January 10th, 2021: Seven Wormingtonians have been vaccinated. We are only in Stage 1 of the roll-out campaign, for Wormingtonians 80 years old and above!
Photo: January 11, 2021
January 18: Vaccination extended to people 70 and older.
February 15: Extended to people 65 and older, and to clinically vulnerable people 16-64.
March 1: Extended to people 60 and over.
March 6: Extended to people 56 and above...
Photo: March 8, 2021
March 17: Vaccination extended to people 50 years old and older.
Photo: March 22, 2021
March 20, 2021: Halfway there!
Photo: April 5, 2021
Photo: April 26, 2021
(On April 26 Vaccination was extended to people 44 and older. )
Photo: May 10, 2021
Photo: June 27, 2021
This is the last photograph of the series. Given the date of the photograph it looks as if we may have stalled in May at about 79% take-up by adults. Not everyone in Wormington believed in vaccinating, so it would never have been 100%; but at the same time the roll-out continued down the age range, and not everyone will have alerted the thermometer-keepers that they'd been vaccinated. We may well never know.
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WORMINGTON IN THE PANDEMIC SPECIAL PAGES:
St. Katharine's in the Pandemic
Made in Wormington: Sewing for neighbours and the nation
Pandemic and Food: The PCC-WVS Takeaways
Litterpicking and The Pandemic