Hello! How are you? All good? Is everyone good in your family? Are you feeling better now? Have you vaccinated? These are the common questions that’s doing the rounds now.
I personally ask almost everyone of them. Most people I know have someone who is tested positive in their family. All that I can do is listen to what they have to say. I have my own stories during these times and honestly wished someone listened to them. Just listened to them without saying anything else.
I am glad to have friends of mine who are sincerely empathetic. They listened while I poured everything and kept asking how I was and how my parents through the week while they were in the hospital.
Now as they recover, good friends who know, still ask about them. The feeling is surreal. I feel blessed and also wonder if I could even be kind in small ways. Such friends often teach me to choose kind, to let go of anything that makes me feel otherwise.
This wall broke my heart. It is dedicated to those souls lost due to COVID-19.
How many dear ones have each one of us lost? How many more are we going to lose? In rememberance of the ones we lost and our living loved ones, here’s what I decided.
I have chosen to stop arguing about what I cannot change and focus on the little things that I can do to make things .0000000001 times better. I promote herd immunity due to various reasons.
Herd Immunity
There are many situations where people are unable to take vaccinations for Corona. It is our duty to protect them by vaccinating ourselves. It could be an immunodeficient grandmother who is bedridden or just too old to get out. A pregnant family member or a highly infectious family member who fall in the exception list for vaccination. This is when herd immunity plays a vital role.
Pregnancy already has its own set of risks during the pandemic. If there is someone who is pregnant at your home, it is highly important to protect them by vaccinating yourself and those in your family. Even though they are vulnerable to infection, they are going to be moderately safe if you are vaccinated.
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For the elderly or people with multiple health complications that not able to vaccinate, then it is essential that those with them get vaccinated.
Also, there are those who do not believe they need vaccine. I was one of them until last year. Now, I understood that this pandemic playing here we go around the mulberry bush on repeat. So, I decided to get vaccinated. I got my first shot last week.
A few senior citizens in my family were tested positive after their first dosage of vaccination. Their symptoms were mild, but even that exhausted them. Imagine what could have happened if they were affected like my parents.
My parents went through a difficult time when they were tested positive. The fear and shock they went through during that time was immense. My sister and I were feeling completely lost for a while, but luckily she was calmer than me and focussed only in doing the needful.
Travel after Vaccination
We were planning to travel to India sometime. If there is a possibility of travel to other countries, then we need to be safe. Vaccinating is not the only step for this cure, it is one of the steps. It is a crucial step.
If you are a keen traveller, a photographer, or the one who does most of the outside work for your family, then kindly get vaccinated. Those of us who were not able to accept this new normal life, are now slowly accepting it.
Travel is hit, most countries are looking to restart travel with all measures in place. Summer is about to start here in UK now. When I visited a nearby park yesterday, I was surprised to see almost 1/3rd of the boys and men, shirtless. It is common to see them walking in the streets like that, since it is SUMMER.
Well, none of the boys were allowed in the air bounce balloon slide. All the coordinator asked was, kindly wear a shirt and you will be allowed to play. They laughed back at him and told, we don’t have one for today.
This is a good joke that I would have laughed on a day before the pandemic. Not now. I find them irresponsible. To a certain extent, I was annoyed that these people still couldn’t understand the seriousness of this pandemic.
This pandemic only reiterates one principle on repeat: The human race must learn to respect others space. The right for everyone to live in this space in a kind way.
Health
I have seen exercise freaks and fit people losing their lives in this pandemic. This is a sign that anybody could be affected. There is no one formula for complete protection except vaccinating and still following all measures narrated to us so far.
At one point in time, we heard some of our closest people losing their lives to the pandemic.
Those people have children as young as 2 months old to 8 years old. A few of them were very recently married. We had to give it so much thought before agreeing to get vaccinated. We have a 4 year old. What will happen if something goes wrong with either one of us or both of us? That one thought scared me a lot.
I might follow a moderately healthy lifestyle, but I don’t really know my possibilities of getting infected. As a whole community, we can do something about it only if we work together. There is already so much fear and hatred growing due to losses. That’s enough to make us feel sick during these times.
When we protect ourselves, we start the work towards protecting our small community. Why not save yourselves from the guilt of killing someone you love?
Concern for Others
I know a lovely couple who love to travel. They are strong individuals. There was one particular thing I loved about them. They had a trip planned last year, but cancelled it for their safety and for the safety of others. There was only one thing that I learned from them.
We might be strong, but we could be carriers of the virus and pass it on someone who is immunodeficient. This strong concern for others is what most of us lack today.
Now, let me tell you about another couple.
They travelled to a known red zone and when they were back, they were known to have symptoms. Instead of isolating at home, they had made a few rounds here and there in the community they live.
While they do not follow the rules themselves, it is clear they do not know even a single way to make their kid stay at home. When we learned about their visit, we had to keep our kids at home. Had they isolated or at least been honest, things would have been better for other families.
You might think you are strong, but your true strength lies in thinking about the safety of others during this pandemic. We all have someone in our home who is immunodeficient. Respect that. Get vaccinated.
If you don’t believe in vaccine, then shut up and don’t screw up someone’s mind with your half-baked thoughts! Thank you!
