Gemma Hussey ‘cannot wait’ to meet family and friends again after vaccination

Former government minister Gemma Hussey says she cannot wait to see her family again and catch up with friends in person now that she has received her first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.

The 82-year-old former Fine Gael TD got her first dose the day after St Patrick's Day and is looking forward to her second in mid-April and the increased freedom it will bring.

“I was feeling fairly down before the vaccine but I am delighted to have got it,” she says.

Seeing family members at a distance, food drop-offs and walks in parks have sustained her during the pandemic, but she is thinking ahead to in-person catch-ups with her three children, seven grandchildren and her “fantastic group of friends” once more.

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“I would like to sit down with friends with a nice glass of wine and a home-cooked meal and have a great old chat and a bit of fun.”

The wonders of science are astonishing. How lucky we are to live in this age and how wonderful that this is possible

Hussey has had a difficult pandemic. She lost her husband of more than 40 years, Derry, in December. His death two days before Christmas fell during the break in restrictions so the family could be with him, but she says the limit on numbers at the funeral afterwards was really tough.

“There were only 10 people allowed. That meant the vast majority of our relations couldn’t be there. That was very difficult.”

Public life

During lockdown Hussey has reflected on her time in public life and has been writing a memoir. She says she did not have to deal with a crisis of this magnitude during her time at Cabinet in the 1980s.

She has “immense sympathy with the powers that be in trying to control this thing. This is a life-or-death issue all the time; it is very, very difficult for them.”

Hussey is amazed at the advances in science for a vaccine to be developed so quickly and to have “something so extremely minor” as the inoculation by dropping into her doctor’s practice.

“The wonders of science are astonishing. How lucky we are to live in this age and how wonderful that this is possible,” she says.

The former minister for education marvels too at how schools and universities – and teachers and students, including her family members – have adapted during the pandemic.

“Young people are amazingly resilient. They’ll come through this. Fair dues to the teachers and the lecturers – they have risen to the challenge too,” she says.

She urges “anti-vaxxers” to listen to the scientists and agree to be vaccinated “for the sake of society and the opening-up” of society.

“I believe people can trust the science; there are great minds behind all these vaccines,” she says.

Her only frustration is the slow pace of the vaccine rollout, but she understands the constraints on supply.

“I know everyone is doing their best but I would much prefer to see it going faster,” she says. “It is what it is and you have to make the best of it.”