Now the Good Samaritan's walk by on the other side of the road(or stay home in the first place)

Last Thursday, like so many of us I stood in my doorway and clapped the NHS workers. We know the risks they are taking on our behalf and frankly I am humbled by it. Perhaps like me you want to do something, there are 750'000 people who have volunteered to help the NHS. Almost every call I make ends with the other person offering to help in some way. We are living through an emergency and we want to do something. Yet almost everything we want to do, from picking up shopping or collecting prescriptions or taking food to the homeless, involves risk and not just to ourselves. We risk those we share a home with, the people who will need an NHS bed and the NHS staff themselves. Recognise that our well intentioned desire to help is something we have to contain. In an emergency the brain does strange things, we often talk about the fight or flight reaction, the same adrenalin can lead to a desire to rescue and nurture. All very sensible at the right time. We have to acknowledge those feelings but not give into them. We clapped the NHS staff now we have to give them the thank you they have asked for and stay home.