This is me outside the pharmacy where I got my booster shot. I don’t want to get Covid, but honestly, the reason I got the booster is not out of concern for my own health.
For better or worse, I routinely put off annual wellness visits and my annual flu vaccine and dental cleanings. When these things are just for me, I push them to another day.
But in this case, in the midst of a global pandemic, I’m concerned for the more vulnerable members of my community who could potentially get Covid from me.
I can care for the older members of our church community with a booster, and for the people who have chosen not to get vaccinated, and for the people with compromised immune systems.
If there’s anything this pandemic has shown us, it is the way that our individual lives are all interconnected, how we cannot make decisions “for ourselves” and think they have no bearing on our communities.
We can harm one another through our individual actions.
We can also participate in care for one another through our individual actions.
One way for me to love my neighbor is to get a booster shot.
Read more with Amy Julia:
- AJB Recommends: Healing From a Year of Covid-19
- Privilege, Social Divisions, and Covid-19
- How Love Is Like a Vaccine
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