Salisbury, United Kingdom: Melding the ornate trappings of medieval faith with 21st century science, Salisbury Cathedral is injecting new hope into thousands of elderly people as Britain mounts its biggest ever vaccination drive.
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The soaring edifice in southwest England is one of three cathedrals that have turned their cloisters and naves over to the government's programme to inoculate the most vulnerable against Covid-19 by mid-February.
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On a wet and blustery day, 98-year-old John William Perry was among those who received their first dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, after it was taken out of cold storage by nurses working in a small chapel normally reserved for private prayer.
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Perry, who worked as a Royal Air Force engineer in World War II, servicing Spitfire fighters during the Battle of Britain, then took a seat in the vast central nave for an obligatory 15-minute rest in case of after-effects.
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"It's nice to think they're doing something to keep me going for a few more weeks or years - to get to 100!" he told AFP as he sat in a socially distanced space from other recipients, including a farmer and former policewoman, both in their 80s.
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After the war, Perry worked for 40 years as a maintenance engineer for the Royal Mail. "So I think I've done my little bit for the country," he said, as he reflected on a trying 10 months since Britain first went into lockdown. "This is the first time I've been out (since March)," he said. "It's a bit wet, but never mind - very special, very nice to be here."
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Along with cathedrals in Blackburn, in northwest England, and the central city of Lichfield, Salisbury opened its oversized wooden doors as a vaccination centre at the weekend, and aims to process 3,000 patients in all this week.
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Two organists worked in shifts throughout the day, playing softer pieces by composers including Johann Sebastian Bach, Antonin Dvorak and Ralph Vaughan Williams.
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Perry was escorted to his inoculation by his 62-year-old daughter, Jeanie Grant, one of several people appreciative of the planning put into the day by the cathedral administrators and National Health Service staff.
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"It's quite a scary thing to be going through - the thought of the disease and what it can do to families and people," she said. "(So) to actually come to a building that has seen so much history and is still serving a beautiful purpose for the community, I think it's very special." Grant added: "It'll be lovely when we've all had it done, and life can begin to get back to normal."
Image Credit: AP
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