Fresh and familiar challenges greet us in 2021

In preparation for my first editorial of 2021, I took a step back in time and read my entry from this time last year. We had just found out the results of the general election and were apprehensively waiting to see just how this would affect day-to-day practice. Little did we know just how COVID-19 would turn everything upside down and how our lives were going to transform in a completely different way. From speaking to many of you this year, I know that plans drastically changed, and career objectives for the year have taken a back seat, but you have instead risen up in a very different way, adapting to a strange new normal that is set to continue into 2021.

I wrote my first draft of this editorial before Christmas, apprehensively waiting with bated breath to see just how the lift of restrictions for the holiday season would affect us going forward. Of course, as we all suspected, cases have surged. We now find ourselves in a place that is worse than when we went into our first lockdown in March 2020 (BBC News, 2021). I'm sure you are all frustrated, angry and apprehensive as we enter this new lockdown. The incompetence that continues to be shown by our elected officials seems to know no end, and the growing unwillingness from the public to follow measures must be concerning. But you push forward, as always. You must remember you are better prepared this time around. You have systems in place, fine-tuned from the first two surges, the roll-out of vaccinations is underway, and please never forget that you continue to have the support of your peers.