I have a friend who is an intelligent, socially-minded progressive who is not vaccinated. While it’s true that he wonders about the government’s intentions (who wouldn’t, once they know about MKUltra, for example?), what we think has happened is that his skepticism has intersected with his fears, resulting in not vaxxing and increasing agorophobia. He is not going out or insisting that others shouldn’t vaccinate. He is not conservative or Republican. I think he’s caught in a cognitive dilemma. I’ve talked with him, but criticism isn’t going to help, and he offers no pushback to being told I won’t be indoors with him.
I think I’ll start another thread asking folk what they feel comfortable doing.
It sounds to me like your social situation is very different from mine. Even pre-pandemic, there are only a handful of households I might be invited to or would invite over. And I already know the vaccine status of the ones I’m still in contact with.
The only wider social gathering I had was of my church, and I left when they wouldn’t deal with a sexual assault purpetrator, ignored even the Arkansas mask mandates for kids, and so on. So that’s not really an issue.
Everyone who knows me knows that I do not tolerate the antivaxxers. If there are any left even in the periphery of my friend group, they shut the hell up about it, and presumably know I would want nothing to with them.
But, yeah, I guess if somehow I was unsure, I would inquire before attending. I’d make sure the host has the same zero tolerance policy as I do. That’s why I’m able to do what I do now. I’ve hung out with one other household since the pandemic started, because I know I can trust them. They took duty on keeping the antimaskers out of mom’s funerals. They mask up in a world that seems to have forgotten. And they told the world on Facebook when they got their shots. So did my uncle who we sometimes ferry from place to place when he can’t drive.
I don’t tend to hang out with people I don’t know well enough to know if they got vaccinated. If your lifestyle is different, I can see the dilemma. It’s not like I refuse to eat at restaurants where antivaxxers may be—though I do require that the waitstaff mask.
I hope I did not give the impression that my wife and I are social butterflies. Far to the contrary. If not a handful of houses, we are definitely less than 2 handfuls. Basically 4 or so immediate family members in the immediate area, and then I play golf and music with some people, and she is in a couple of book clubs. Then we have maybe 4 couples we periodically have diets with. I KNOW all of the folk I’m regularly in contact with are vaxxed - with the exception of young grandkids - which poses another type of problem.
But this weekend, my sister a couple of hours away asked if I would come by for Sat dinner. So my other sister and I are driving down. I haven’t seen that sister or her family for 2 years. And I know she is vaxxed, and am pretty sure MOST of her kids/in-laws are - but I’m not sure. So I pretty much figure I’ll go and just avoid any hugging and kissing - which is easy for me to forego.
But I’m wondering if someone brings up Covid, the MAIN thought in my head is “Fuck these stupid assholes!” But I’m wondering if I should temper my remarks in the probability that there might be at least a couple of stupid assholes in the immediate vicinity.
I’ve written before about my homeopathy-touting aunt who is refusing the vaccine, and how I told her via email I believe we all have a moral responsibly to get vaccinated. I also made Halloween decorations including funny tombstones, one of which read “I did my own research,” and posted a photo to Facebook, where I knew she’d see it. (I didn’t do it specifically so that she would see it. But after considering all the alternatives-- not making fun of antivaxxers in the first place, making it but not sharing the joke on social media, sharing it but limiting the audience to at least exclude her–I decided I wanted to share it with everyone else, and didn’t care enough to protect her from it.)
Just recently my husband’s stepmother (whom I believed was vaccinated, but now I’m starting to wonder if she lied) backed out of visiting the family over Thanksgiving. There was a big blowup because my husband’s brother and his wife were insisting on everyone getting boosters, as they have a three-year-old who can’t get vaccinated. BIL & SIL even backed down and said they could take a test instead, but my FIL & stepMIL still canceled. I think I’m going to pass next time FIL/SMIL invite us over. I’m not actually that worried about my own health. But I support my BIL & SIL’s decision, and I don’t really want to spend my precious time with someone who chooses not getting boosted or tested over seeing the rest of us. And yeah, if they ask, I’m going to tell them exactly that.
This, pretty much. At my workplace, management has asked us to avoid discussions about vaccination status, vaccine/mask mandates, and that sort of thing - the idea being that at this point nobody is going to change anybody else’s mind, and the most likely outcome of such discussions is just going to be severely damaged working relationships.
Interestingly, there was a large group meeting on Microsoft Teams a couple of months ago where that exact thing happened. The presenter was covering a range of topics that included the eventual return of everyone to working on-site, and in the text-based discussion happening alongside the presentation, attendees soon began sniping at each other over the utility and perceived dangers of the COVID vaccine. This was worse than a face-to-face conversation, because it captured in writing everyone’s positions on the issues, all of their snark and condescension, and appended their names for posterity. I sat on the sidelines and was dumbfounded at how stupid some of my colleagues were - not just the anti-vax nutters, but the people on both sides who were writing some pretty nasty stuff. Some day in the not too distant future, these people will be working side-by-side, and it’s gonna be awkward as hell for everyone.
This I thought funny. My wife visited her 92 year old bigoted, Trump loving father yesterday. He decided to say that he was disappointed that the federal government hadn’t done more to control covid. Fucking stupid old man who has his thinking done by Fox and hopefully will die soon.
Glad I wasn’t there. My wife expressed surprise that he did not appreciate the efforts made under Trump to have private industry compete and successfully come up with multiple vaxxes. And when she asked if he thought the gov’t should mandate the max, he said that was “a matter of personal rights.”
Fucking useless, senile idiot, well beyond his “use by” date. I’m mildly amused at and curious about what these fuckers think the govt SHOULD be doing. I imagine it is some ill-informed immigration-related us vs them idea, that them furriers are bringing it in.
I don’t pass comment at all beyond a surprise that anyone would refuse it. The risk/benefit equation is so overwhelmingly positive.
Thankfully the numbers of “At-Risk” people fully vaccinated in my area is very high so I just don’t think I come into contact with too many who aren’t. There is always that risk of course but that isn’t ever going away.
As a family we are eating out again and it doesn’t concern me that unvaccinated people may be in the room. Heck, for the majority of 2021 I’ve been sharing my house with unvaccinated people, unmasked, who were in a known situation of covid exposure so I’m willing to take the chance in a restaurant now and again with the reward of that feeling of normality.
If anyone asks me because they are concerned then I’m happy to share my status if it puts their mind at rest.
Build a wall to keep the viruses out.
It doesn’t even have to be a very tall wall. Viruses are small.
And make the bats pay for it.
Yeah, I know what you mean.
I keep all my dough under the mattress because I haven’t forgotten the Panic of 1837.
Me, I keep my krugerrands sewn into the hem of my coat, lest I need to flee to Canada.
My friend I knew from church had bible study at the library, I went once in November. After she drove me home, she said she had no intention of being vaxed. I told her I’m not going to see her any more.
To the ones claiming that they will not take vaccines because it benefits evil pharma companies, that is like claiming that they will drink no bottled water ever from the likes of Nestle for being evil with water rights, thing is that no one can show that the water itself that Nestle bottles is bad.
That corporations can be bad does not mean that their product is necessarily bad, it is usually good because there are other independent groups checking for the quality of the end product.
I got my third shot this afternoon.
I told my colleague on my way out that I was going to the pharmacy to get my third shot.
A truck driver that was standing at the counter straightaway asked me ‘why ?’
He was not mean about it, just asking stuff like ‘well you know the first two did nothing’. I smiled and said ‘I would not be allowed to work at the airport otherwise Sir’. He responded by saying I should quit and walk out the door. Then he repeated that to all my colleagues. " What are they gonna do if y’all just walked out the damn door ".
Answer: “Not be able to fly you anywhere.”
Stop paying y’all for one thing.
I just let him say his piece and went to get my shot.
We’ve got a few vaccine-resistant people here at work, where the company brought in a vaccine mandate. Some of the maintenance staff had a forced period of time off late last year until they at least got the first jab. One guy told me “I got vaccinated to keep my job, but I draw the line at boosters.” and I’m curious to see if the company announces those are a requirement as well. But I say nothing, because I don’t want to cause waves at work and piss off union guys.
To me, they may as well be speaking a different language. By the fall of 2020 I was doing weekly google searches to see if there was any news on the vaccine front. When they were brought out, I was checking the provincial website daily to see when I could get mine. When my age cohort opened up for one (even if it was AZ), I jumped on it, and also got my second shot literally the first day I could. Then a few weeks ago I got up at the crack of stupid one morning to stand in the freezing cold for four and a half hours waiting for a pop-up clinic to open so I could get my booster ASAP.
TL;dr I couldn’t wait to get the jabs, and will happily rush to get a fourth one if it’s required. And I literally don’t understand the mindset of anyone who says they won’t, for stupid political reasons, or they’re scared of needles (I used to get allergy shots and I’ve got a handful of tattoos, so needles mean nothing to me), or they just don’t like The Man telling them what to do. They might as well be Martians, and I don’t have the Rosetta Stone to communicate with them.
Fear of needles I understand. I’m OK with them myself, but I have other fears, and I understand how powerful they can be. I suspect a lot of anti-vaxxers are scared of needles, or medical stuff in general, but are embarrassed to admit it, so they come up with or latch on to other rationalizations. I have the utmost respect for needle-phobes who admit it, ask for help, and find a way to get it done.