Nearly time to bid farewell to 2020. Never been prouder to …

A realisation at the end of Jan that this could be ‘the one’...

https://t.co/DXYLW44NZt

...and that healthcare might need rationing. Except I thought this would be a one-off in the spring first wave. Never dreamed we’d be in a worse place nearly a year later.

Remember, we have yet to pay the ‘Xmas mixing’ dividend 😔

https://t.co/uYs5j7HsM6

But at least a vaccine was in the works. The road was shorter than I thought 😂...free to read)

https://t.co/m8lSRwoPIi

...but, until it arrived, we had to learn to operate in a new landscape of risk (free to read)

https://t.co/ZVRPVK0l2U

Public trust is vital in a pandemic but in summer the U.K. govt was losing it over schools.

Again, can’t believe we are fighting this one all over again. The worst ever Groundhog Day...
https://t.co/FbwTdljNju

...and in the summer we were still debating how the virus spread, particularly whether aerosols mattered.

https://t.co/0i3kBjaf9N

The vaccines were ticking along nicely in the autumn but we still didn’t have a good evidence base on behavioural science & non-drug measures like masks, 10pm curfews. fear we have not seen the last of these, even after vaccination...

https://t.co/hjdakvC19Y

...partly because we might need to spread vaccine doses a bit more thinly than we’d like (and while I opined this 👇🏽in mid-Dec, I didn’t think it would actually end up happening)

https://t.co/uTa5DPICVI

I could not have survived it without fab @FT colleagues like @brookeamasters & @clivecookson @donatopmancini & many more, but most of all...

...I am so very very grateful to the frontline health workers - nurses, docs, support staff - that have given *everything* to keep the rest of us safe, at great risk to themselves....

...plus the school & uni staff who ensured my children were still educated *in a pandemic*....and the food industry & supermarket workers who kept us fed *in a pandemic*....

...and the transport staff who kept London moving *in a pandemic*....and the delivery drivers who kept us supplied *in a pandemic*...

...and it is out of sincere respect and gratitude to them, and to so many others, that I will be staying indoors tonight for the first NYE I can remember. With copious amounts of Prosecco I will toast my dad, who died alone in hospital (not of #covid)

...this year because we, like so many bereaved families, could not see him. I only wish he could have lived long enough to see the vaccines rolled out: Dad always believed that science was a powerful force for good in the world, a conviction I share.

So, my final thank you: to the scientists, drug companies and manufacturers, and clinical trial volunteers that have brought us such hope for the future. I cannot wait to get my jab. 💉

Here’s to a happier and healthier 2021 🎉 🍸