The long-awaited COVID-19 vaccine has not yet brought about any concrete changes, barring lower anxiety levels, to the lives of the medically vulnerable who have been through a hard year due to their health conditions.

Getting the jab amidst a spike in virus cases and the resulting partial lockdown crushed any cause for celebration and hopes to return to a form of normality and socialising.

One year on, meningitis survivor and transplantee Amy Camilleri Zahra, who has borne the brunt of being immunocompromised in the pandemic, is still hoping the day she can be with her family and friends is drawing closer.

She and her husband are still working from home and sticking to their own small bubble.

However, knowing she now has “a little protection” has, at least, eased the fear and anxiety that has characterised the last 12 months.

“I could not believe the day and time had arrived for my vaccine after such a difficult year,” she said.

But, despite her excitement, her situation has remained unchanged.

“As things stand, I could not really ‘celebrate’ but I look forward to the day when all this is behind us and we can go back to being social beings,” the activist and academic said.

“Human beings thrive on social contact. This year has taught us a lot about what is important in life and, at the end of the day, we all crave being with others.”

This is something she and those in her situation have been deprived of.

Camilleri Zahra had, in fact, recently highlighted that the vaccine was also vital for their families, who have been making sacrifices to protect them all this time.

She had spoken up for young people living with anything from multiple sclerosis to cystic fibrosis, diabetes and on dialysis, who feared they were being pushed down the vaccine line.

I look forward to the day when all this is behind us and we can go back to being social beings

Vaccination, it was pointed out by medically vulnerable people, who risked dying if they caught COVID-19, had wider implications in that even family members could finally resume life.

Camilleri Zahra encouraged everyone who had the opportunity to take the vaccine to do so. But she also highlighted that the level of immunogenicity after two doses in the immunocompromised was, as yet, unknown, insisting “we still have to be careful”. 

Meanwhile, the mother of one was still awaiting the simple pleasures that have been so out of reach – the day she can meet someone for a coffee, go on a playdate with her son or enjoy a BBQ with friends. 

Marija Schranz, who suffers from ulcerative colitis and lives with a stoma, has only had her first dose and will have to wait until May for the second, the gap between the two being 10 weeks.

“To me, it felt like the vulnerable kept getting pushed further and further down the list,” Schranz said.

With the numbers as they are one year later – March has seen record positive cases and the spread of the more contagious and dangerous UK variant – Schranz is still isolating, still indoors and her son is still homeschooling.

Given the current situation, this would have remained the case even if the schools were open, she said.

“Before things spiralled out of control again, the discussion in my family was that, hopefully, even after the first jab, we could gradually start opening up a bit more and we considered sending our son to school,” she said, adding it was soon clear that would not be an option.

“Things might change – with an emphasis on might – with my second dose,” she hoped. Unfortunately, that was still a while off and depended on the situation by then.

Cancer survivor, Lorinda Mamo, whose son, Henry, a kidney transplantee, suffers from the rare prune belly syndrome and is heavily immunosuppressed, has not yet been called up despite being on the list of parents with a vulnerable child.

When the time comes, she knows it would “totally mean a calmer state of mind”. The vaccine would help her feel “safer” – something she has not experienced in a long time.

“I do not know who may be carrying the virus,” Mamo said.

“It is safety I am after, especially to be able to take care of Henry.”

As things stand, she even gets nervous walking along the Sliema Front and is constantly telling her son not to go close to anyone and touch anything.

Reacting to a recent comment by the Medical Association of Malta calling on over 60-year-olds and vulnerable people to stay at home for the hospitals not to be overwhelmed, Mamo insisted everyone had to do this.

She took exception to the fact that “it is only us who need to stay home... so others can go out and enjoy life”, summing up the plight of the medically vulnerable.

“Do not put this on us,” she argued.

“We have been safe because we know what it means to be sick and to need the hospital.

“You tell this to my eight-year-old vulnerable son, who has been inside for a year, missing family and friends, who are being careful too.

“Tell this to my mother-in-law, who passed away and missed her last year seeing her grandson even though we were all being careful!”