<< One for the team

A couple of weeks ago I got the corona vaccine. At a waiting room in my small town filled with people whom I hardly (or had never seen before). As we sat through the whole ordeal I think we mostly had the same expressions.

Some were of course doubtful, sceptic even, after all, what can you do about something that after all this time is still not fully understandable? It was also understood though that we were undertaking a risk. 

The question then becomes one of responsibility, we all look fondly back to the life before the pandemic but many simply refuse to do what’s necessary to fight against this unseen enemy. The problem then becomes one of collective responsibility. 

Far from a quasi communistic argument defining the good of the community as a higher goal, or a purely economical reasoning (reactivated economies, healthcare costs and so on); my personal argument is often rather selfish but concludes in self-responsibility. 

The way I understand it, while it’s true that I might not be in direct exposure and danger towards the virus; members of my family and community could be, and thus it becomes my duty to do as I can to defend those around me. And in doing the same we all, together, rebuild our communities and ensure a proper functioning and safe place.

My sympathy, though, doesn’t extend to those who would deny themselves the benefit of the vaccine on some conspiratorial argument in which the governments of the world are bringing the small man down. 

Whatever validity this may hold aside, the argument is ultimately a rather cynical and unprocessed response to the fear we all share as to what the consequences for the vaccine might be. And, as much as I try to understand this; I cannot, with good conscience, know that I haven’t done as much as I can to stop this collective threat that has already taken too much from those I love.

And as I sat there with a bit of pain in my arm and the uncertainty of the world on my shoulders, I took solace on the fact that for the first time in over a year I had finally had the chance to make a difference, and more importantly, fight back!

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