It's good news day- the moment we've all been waiting for.

 It's good news day- the moment we've all been waiting for. 

How we've longed for this day. It's been long overdue but all good things come to those who wait. Or maybe that's a cliche well past its sell-by date. We've been gnashing our teeth, biting our fingernails, frequently incensed and at the end of our tether. How much more could we take? We were inclined to think that this was beyond a joke but the truth is that they've found a vaccine for the coronavirus. Now there's a sentence we never thought we'd ever utter - certainly not this year. This has been one of those painfully agonising dramas that looked destined to end in more floods of tears, grieving and mourning and aching exasperation. 

For a minute or two we thought it was one of those late Saturday tea-time radio announcements designed to buck up Britain in its lowest mood of gloom and doom. We thought they were just mucking around, creating havoc with our emotions, stumbling around in the dark looking for lights and candles in the gathering winter darkness. But then there was the delightful realisation that perhaps it was for real, that they had made a revolutionary medical breakthrough and we might, just might be on the verge of something spectacularly brilliant. 

Now before we get completely carried away on the crest of some dreamscape scenario where the whole world does the Hokey Cokey and dances around the Trafalgar Square fountains in perfect formation, this could be the time to err on the side of caution. The last seven months have been horrendous for those who just want to do the kind of things that they'd grown accustomed to. Our lives have been turned upside down and inside out by Covid 19 but within hours a vaccine for the virus could be around the corner. 

Britain has always remained rightly cynical about anything that feels as though it might be good news. It is our default position. If it's too good to be true then it probably isn't right. Besides, it took us the best part of three years to accept that Brexit was indeed a genuine work in progress that could only yield a positive result. There was a wonderful sense of vindication when they told us that we were leaving the European Union. We did tell you and how correct were we?

But a deadly virus was an altogether different set of blood cells and bacteria. When Covid 19 first struck back in March some of us thought it was just a fleeting visit from the wintry bug that used to be flu. We shrugged our shoulders dismissively, expressed surprise that a minor ailment that had struck down a couple of people on a cruise ship would just vanish overnight never to return again. Oh no it hadn't and it didn't. 

Here we right at the end of the year in November and finally the research scientists have cracked one of the great imponderables of the year. The vaccine could be on our doorstep within a couple of weeks or months even. But is it the definitive vaccine we're perfectly at liberty to ask about. We've been down this road before and it's full of potholes. In fact it's heavily populated with red and white cones but that's another story. There is though something in the air that's both bracing and invigorating. And no it's not the delicious smell of fish and chips from a British seaside resort.

What we have here is Pfizer@BioTech, the wonder drug that could save the universe overnight. They've poured chemicals into a myriad test tubes, carried out rigorous checks and more checks and hey presto. Houston we have ignition. Let's get this one on the road folks. It could be that elusive formula, the ultimate antidote, the perfect combination, the one we've all been searching for. Just in time for Christmas and Chanukah this is the present that we've all been looking forward to receive. 

And yet there remains that nagging suspicion, a lingering doubt, more negativity and another round of despondency. Vaccines are supposed to take years and years to become a remote possibility so you can forget about a cure because that could take centuries. Certainly this is an exaggeration but this is understandable. Still, we can keep dreaming because dreamers are visionaries and that has to be a good thing.

However here we are on the brink of something truly exciting. After all of that spontaneous Thursday evening clapping on our doorsteps, that banging of pots and pans in our roads, it's here. The NHS in Britain is about to get its loveliest news for seemingly ages. So put those saucepans and wooden spoons awayand get out the carnival maracas. It's time for the ladies to balance baskets of fruit on their head and pretend they're Carmen Miranda. It's time for the gentlemen to masquerade as John Travolta and strut their funky stuff on the disco floor with a fashionable nod to flared trousers.

By the beginning of 2021 we could be in carnival mood, shaking our hips to the sound of steel drums and revelling in reggae. Covid 19 will slip into some forgotten corner of history never to rear its ugly head ever again. We could be about to enter a golden age for not only Britain but the rest of the world. Who knows we could be restored to full health by perhaps next Easter or St Swithins Day. Hold on it could rain on that day. Stop again. Let's not get ahead of ourselves. 

The fact is that a breakthrough has been made and we have to find comfort in hope, certainty in re-assurance. We've been mesmerised by video conference computer screens, found novel ways of exercising with our dogs and then whipped up some of the most mouth-watering dishes when all of the eggs had gone and the baking powder looked as though it was running low. We've mixed and matched, improvised and adapted, imagining that we could find coping mechanisms without quite realising how.

But yes folks the vaccine could be winging its way towards us at the rate of knots. The men and women in white coats in experimental laboratories have hit on the elixir of life, the potion that waves a magic wand and guarantees immunity from that dreaded virus. That'll be the day. The grumpy curmudgeons are convinced that this is all rubbish and nobody should take any notice of these glad tidings but it'll only end in tears. 

Some of us though are still worried about the repercussions and side effects that the vaccine could exert its beneficial influence should it arrive on the commercial market in the immediate future. There is a school of thought though which would lead us to believe that this vaccine is just a smokescreen, a false dawn, a temporary morale booster when wishful thinking seemed the obvious reaction. Come on, this is not happening and we know it. Or is it?

Yesterday though Boris Johnson, the blond human dynamo who presides over his country as Prime Minister of Britain gave us yet another session of blustering bravado, optimistic and fairly jolly for a while before descending into some blunt dystopian vision where the good people of Great Britain had better not get too carried away because this could get worse before it gets better. 

Once again we have been told to stay at home, keep warm against the biting winds of winter. We have to remain safe and free of sniffles, coughs and spluttering. But somebody really should tell our Boris that we've been doing the aforesaid for almost the whole of the year so there's nothing new about this portentous warning. So the National Health Service had best be prepared for another winter of serious illness on quite the most remarkable scale. 

Today though we can all briefly luxuriate in the knowledge that this could be the turning point of this stifling and emotionally draining disease. This could be now known as Vaccine Day. Oh yes. Let jubilation be unconfined, dig out the bunting for joyful street parties with a thousand balloons, cakes for everybody, egg sandwiches for the entire population and lemonade for all. Line up those Conga dances. This is the day to put behind all of that unrelenting misery behind us. We can carry on and drink coffee. We can smell the roses and begonias. We can believe again. 

We can hardly believe the dramatic sea change because we thought we'd be stuck in this rut for ages. It's all going swimmingly well though. Over the weekend America welcomed its new President-elect and one Joe Biden stepped into the breach as replacement for one of the most comical Presidents of all time. Or have we simply underestimated Donald Trump. Trump buried himself on some very isolated golf course, still roaring with faux defiance, still protesting innocence and malpractice. 

By the end of this tempestuous year we may all feel like slumping onto our sofas, blow out our cheeks in both relief and hopefully elation  hoping that on New Year's Day that 2020 had been one exceptionally long and bad day after bad day. Some of us believe that we've now reached the bottom and the nadir. So here's the plan. If we close our eyes and wish upon a star the vaccine could be in your local doctor's surgery in no time at all. We can see the finishing line. We're almost there. Surely.