Thinking about communities

This week I've been thinking about communities and how we keep ourselves safe: how we look after ourselves and how we look after others. I was invited to book an appointment for my covid vaccine a fortnight ago and I went on Saturday. It's fair to say I had mixed feelings, a little bit of excitement that it's my turn, a little bit of excitement about leaving the house and going somewhere else. My world’s become quite small so getting on a train to go to a vaccination centre even if it’s only a 10 minute journey is a big thing! But I also had a little bit of apprehension, about possible side effects, and also a bit of nervousness about being out and  about with people.

Because of my background in science and in working in public health, I know it’s important to have the jab, I have an understanding of how vaccines work and I know it's safe. I also know it's the main way that as a society we can get over coronavirus and get the cases down. What’s interesting to me about these interventions is that the measurable benefit is at a population level and the potential risk is at an individual level. So public health interventions are very much about social responsibility and how we look after others in our communities as well as taking care of ourselves. And it strikes me that's a sentiment very much in keeping with yoga philosophy and kindness to the most vulnerable in our society.

I did have a few side effects, I was very achy the next day and very tired for a few days afterwards. I was just beginning to feel better when I got a notification that I needed to isolate because I'd come into contact with somebody who's tested positive. I don’t know who that person was because the notification was via the app, which made me think about the communities we move in and the links and the contacts we make which are unknown to us. We isolate so we can look out for other people we don’t know. And that is a big ask in many cases either practically or emotionally especially if you don’t feel particularly connected within the community.

This pandemic has really brought home to me how important our communities are to us. I’ve had times where I’ve really struggled being alone, but the excitement about everything opening up and being able to see friends that I’ve not seen for a long time is tempered with knowing that it’s not over yet and we still have to keep looking out for ourselves and others. 

I’ve still got a couple of days left with my isolation but fingers crossed I'll be ok and fingers crossed whoever it was I was in contact with is ok too.