Welcome to the first issue of the journal for 2021. The last year has certainly been momentous and many will have been happy to ring in the new year. However, the start of this year looks to be turbulent as COVID continues to impact widely on all aspects of society. On 1st January the United Kingdom officially left the European Union following the Brexit referendum and the end of the transition period. A ‘no-deal’ scenario was avoided when an agreement between the EU and the UK was reached at the last minute, but the future ahead is uncharted, and even Brexit advocates were predicting a ‘bumpy’ period as adjustments take place to the new rules.¹ At the time of writing also, the different nations of the United Kingdom have entered into a further lockdown as cases of the virus continue to escalate placing unprecedented pressures on health services. The situation is the same across many countries, and while the promise of widescale vaccination is on the horizon, the return to a semblance of normality still seems like some distance away.

中文翻译：

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大流行的缓刑

欢迎阅读2021年该杂志的第一期。去年无疑是非常重要的一年，许多人将很高兴在新的一年响起。但是，随着COVID继续对社会各方面产生广泛影响，今年年初似乎动荡不安。1月1日，英国脱欧公投和过渡时期结束后，英国正式离开欧盟。在最后一刻达成欧盟和英国之间的协议时，避免了“无交易”的情况，但是未来的前景尚未明朗，甚至英国脱欧的倡导者都预测，随着新协议的调整，将出现“颠簸”时期。规则。^1个在撰写本文时，随着病毒病例的继续升级，联合王国的不同国家进一步受到封锁，这给保健服务带来了前所未有的压力。在许多国家，情况都是一样的，尽管即将进行大规模疫苗接种的希望越来越大，但要恢复到某种正常水平似乎还有一段距离。