The Hull Story Year: A round-up of our top stories in 2020
In a year that has been dominated by the Covid-19 pandemic, we begin our annual review where it all started - with the UK’s first two cases.
They were two Chinese nationals, a mother and her son, who were taken to Castle Hill Hospital in January after falling ill in York.
The mother had just flown in from Hubei province in central China, where the coronavirus outbreak began last December. She passed the virus on to her son, a student, in what was also the first person-to-person transmission in the UK.
By being given exclusive access to staff at the infectious diseases unit at Castle Hill, we were able to tell the inside story of the dramatic first hours and days of the virus’s arrival in the UK; from the patients’ call to the NHS 111 line, to their diagnosis and initial treatment in Hull.
It was 48 hours that put Britain on a war footing and triggered the biggest public health crisis in 100 years. Click on the link below for the full story.
We were also at Castle Hill when the first vaccine to be administered in East Yorkshire was given to patient Sheila Page earlier this month, in one of the most uplifting moments since the pandemic began.
The great-grandmother, from Hornsea, said she felt “chuffed” and “on top of the world” at receiving the first of the two jabs of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccination programme. She had kindly consented to the media being present, and happily posed for photographs.
In a further positive development, it has now been announced approval has been given for the use of the Oxford University/AstraZeneca vaccine, which is easier to deploy. This vaccine has been worked on by the same specialist Castle Hill doctors who dealt with the first cases.
‘On top of the world’: great-grandma gets region’s first Covid vaccine
One of the other major stories of the year was the tumultuous Presidential election in America, which, whether Donald Trump accepts it or not, went to the Democrat challenger Joe Biden.
Biden will be inaugurated as the 46th President of the United States on January 20. His victory was an early Christmas present for our columnist Russ Litten, who gave his views on what was at stake as voters went to the polls.
US election: ‘Decency still matters - why I’m hoping for change in the White House’
From global politics to the deeply personal - Vicky Foster wrote exclusively for The Hull Story about the issues covered in her BBC Radio 4 documentary, Can I Talk About Heroes?, which was broadcast on December 22 and 27.
The programme, which examines the concept of heroes, was a response to the granting of a Royal Pardon to Steven Gallant for tackling a terrorist on London Bridge last year. This reduced the sentence Gallant was serving for the murder of Barrie Jackson in Hull in 2005.
Vicky, who is the mother of Mr Jackson’s two children, had never spoken publicly about the case before.
This year also saw the end of one of the most enduring, popular, and challenging, mayoralties in Hull’s history.
As well as somehow managing to be accessible during a pandemic, Councillor Steve Wilson was also able to modernise the ancient civic role.
The Lord Mayor reflected on his time in office in this exclusive interview.
Lord Mayor: ‘The pandemic has brought us together and we can build on that’
If you value these stories and the content we produce then please consider becoming a Patron of The Hull Story. For just £2.50 a month you can help support the continued operation and development of this independent journalism project dedicated to Hull.
The killing of George Floyd by a white police officer in the US in May triggered an outpouring of grief and anger across the world, and the largest anti-racism protests in the UK since the abolition of slavery movement.
An awful example of how much still needs to be done to tackle racism in Hull was demonstrated by the treatment of city councillor Aneesa Akbar, who was racially abused for publicly challenging a piece of far-right propaganda.
Coun Akbar, the only female BAME member of Hull City Council, spoke bravely here about the abuse she had suffered.
City councillor: ‘I was racially abused but it won’t stop me speaking out’
Domestic politics saw Keir Starmer succeed Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader in April.
One of Starmer’s biggest challenges is uniting the party, much of which depends on how effectively he can reach out to disaffected Corbyn supporters.
This is still very much a live issue, given the reaction to this hard-hitting piece from Russ, which remains one of our most viewed stories this year.
Last month, former Detective Superintendent Paul Davison spoke to us about leading one of the most high-profile murder investigations in the city’s history.
The disappearance of Rachel Moran in January 2003 sparked the biggest search of its kind ever conducted by Humberside Police.
In this exclusive interview, Mr Davison revealed he had also been battling his own personal demons at the time.
It became obvious as the year unfolded how serious the pandemic was, and how far-reaching its consequences would be.
City council boss Matt Jukes set it out in stark terms in July when he told us Hull was facing its biggest crisis since the Second World War.
It was encouraging, in that context, to hear how confident he was of the city bouncing back.
Council chief: ‘Hull is facing its biggest challenge since the war but we’ll bounce back’
As well as the dreadful human cost of the pandemic, it has also been devastating for people’s livelihoods and jobs.
This has been keenly felt among the self-employed and Hull’s freelance community, particularly among those working in the arts and other creative industries.
The city council is doing what it can to help those affected, launching the first grant scheme of its kind for those in need, but it still needs more Government support.
City council leader Steve Brady spoke eloquently in this interview about how important the arts are to all of us, particularly in a place that had so recently celebrated being a City of Culture.
Council leader: ‘Arts and culture make life bearable in times like this’
As well as being unable to stage or attend live arts events, another thing some of us were missing was sport.
For our Hull City columnist Sam Hawcroft, this was exacerbated by the club’s decision not to give commentary rights to BBC Radio Humberside, thus depriving listeners of the distinctive voice of David Burns on matchdays.
As Sam rightly pointed out here, it disenfranchised many fans who relied on it.
‘I miss Burnsy’s match commentary - we need it now more than ever’
For the early part of the year, Hull appeared to have escaped the worst ravages of the virus by emerging relatively unscathed from the first wave.
But that relief soon turned to shock and horror when it was revealed to have the worst infection rates in the country in November.
How had this happened? City hospitals boss Chris Long said complacency, and the weariness of restrictions to combat the virus, may be to blame when he spoke to us in his only in-depth interview since the pandemic began.
NHS boss: ‘We may have been complacent, but we have a duty to each other to fight this virus’
Overall, it’s been an incredibly difficult year for us all. Let’s hope for better times ahead. Thank you for reading. We wish you a safe and happy New Year, and give the last word to our columnist Joe Hakim:
