Nah, not special. Just fully vaccinated. If the CDC says its okay for me to do go maskless indoors without social distancing, then I suspect they don’t think I’m that much of a danger of giving it either.
I see the new CDC guidance released today. Perhaps I am being overly cautious? Maybe there’s a part of me that just doesn’t want to listen to my aunt’s lunatic conspiracy ramblings, regardless of the actual risk to myself? I’ll have to think about it some more.
So, which poster are you responding to…or are you claiming that any attempt to keep relatives that disdain common safety rules from infecting you and yours is the same as saying “Fuck you, you anti-vax lunatic!”?
“Worth more”? Maybe it’s just that I’m old enough to remember when a lot of affectionate relationships were permanently long-distance, but does it really have to be a choice between seeing somebody in person and entirely sacrificing a relationship with them?
If you have an unvaxxed out-of-state relative who’s a public-health hazard during a pandemic, does politely avoiding in-person contact with them during their visit necessarily equate to jettisoning cordial relations once and for all?
I don’t think I saw my eldest aunt in person for about the last 30-40 years of her life (not because she was a public-health hazard or for any other ideological-disagreement reason, though), but we kept in touch by occasional phone and letter and it was fine.
My family drama example isn’t as large as those of others. But I do have an example My dad tried to get away with not wearing a mask at Thanksgiving. I made it clear that I would not attend if he didn’t. The whole reason we had got together and decided it was worth eating with my sister in town was that we could mitigate the issues by being masked. He was the one responsible for putting our relationship at risk. I held firm, and he wound up wearing it, even though he was clearly angry about it. By Christmas, he wore it willingly.
I understand being worried about relationships. In that moment, I was scared. But I do not see how I had a choice in the matter. The whole reason we decided it was okay was that (1) we lived in the same area (2) had been following all social distancing protocols and (3) were going to follow the CDC recommendations and wear masks. If one of those things was removed, the whole thing falls apart. Nothing I could do would change that.
It would not be my refusing to go in until he put on his mask which harmed the relationship. It would be his sudden desire not to wear a mask that did so. Sure, it would have been more convenient to say nothing and go into that house, but I’m not going to put what is convenient above what is right.
I mean, that’s the very thing that we hate the antimaskers for doing.
Unfortunately, they don’t say anything about the risk to others in this statement. That’s exactly why a lot of us are questioning this.
Also, it would have been good to mention the CDC announcement when you made your post, if it was the reason for your choice.
The opinions expressed are my own and I went into some detail about my own personal circumstance and conflicted feelings on the matter.
I realize the CDC hasn’t been the paragon of consistent messaging through this pandemic, however it strikes me as somewhat strange to suggest that the CDC hasn’t considered the “risk to others” when evaluating their new guidance. Do you have any reason to believe they’ve missed a key element in their decision making?
My granddaughter and her b/f actually broke up over his anti vax attitude.
Well, as far as I know, my state hasn’t completely lifted everything. So if a store I go to still requires a mask, I’ll wear a mask. But if they don’t, I won’t. Like I said, I have exactly two people that I’m close to that I know for a fact haven’t been vaccinated. They’re adults, they know the risks. As for everyone else, it’s not like I’m going to be giving them bear hugs, especially if they’re wearing masks. But they’re weighing their own risk too. Vaccinations have been available to everyone over 16 in my state for weeks. Anybody I run into out and about could have had the vaccine, if they wanted to.
It is my hope that lifting mask restrictions for fully vaccinated people will push more holdouts to be vaccinated. However, I suspect a lot of the “anti-vaxxers” are also “anti-maskers” who won’t wear masks after these restrictions are lifted, regardless of what the CDC says. I don’t think they’re going to be carding people around here. I’m not going to have aa lot of sympathy if these people get covid, and I’m not going to go around trying to read minds of who is or who isn’t vaccinated, or wear masks all the time because of them. If that sounds like “fuck em”, then I guess that’s “Fuck em.”
A family member’s refusal to vaccinate has caused our extended family Thanksgiving to be canceled. This is very sad for our older relatives.
If it did, it might be worth it. But since we have no vaccine passports, nor will we, it really just means “no one needs to wear a mask any longer”.
Suppose you don’t use a smartphone. Could you get a printed card with a QR code giving access to the same information.
All I can say is that I am so happy I don’t have any insane relatives. All my kids and all grandkids over 18 are fully vaccinated and the two under 18 now have appointments. But if I did have such a relative, I would tell them they are not welcome in my house. I would assume they are not masking or social distancing. Allergies are no excuse; that’s why you wait 15 minutes and no one will stop you if you wait a half hour. A genuine medical excuse (e.g. a transplant recipient taking immunosuppressants) is a different matter entirely, but I would expect such a person to be super careful about masking, distancing, etc., and would certainly not be getting on airplane.
Which Thanksgiving? If you mean, for this coming fall, isn’t it premature to be cancelling it now?
Good for her, it’s better to do it now, before they have kids that he’d be putting at risk.
My spouse has a kooky aunt, who has always been so. She winds up being credulous with certain people in her life, but not with the sensible ones. It’s been frustrating, but mostly harmless up until now. She works in a position that put her at risk, and she got COVID early on. She’s not vaccinated, and doesn’t plan to be. She’s worried we will cut her off. Some of the family is already headed that way.
My spouse and I won’t be letting her visit until our kids can be vaccinated. But at that point, my concerns will be much more about certain topics of conversation. I will likely want to have certain topics just be off limits. My spouse loves her for her many good qualities, and doesn’t want to cut her off, and I get that.
I wonder how much our kids’ risk is mitigated by the fact that she’s had COVID? It does make the calculation a little different. Maybe eventually most unvaccinated will have the involuntary immunity of having had COVID.
Pre vaccine, I cut family out of my life. There is no pass on bad behavior because you are family.
I don’t know. It would certainly be a good idea if one could get a hard copy of something really verifiable at the point of delivery for test results or vaccinations, but I don’t know.
Too bad too, he’s an incredibly polite & pleasant fellow. But he’s from a Trump type poorer working class background.
I don’t know, how old are your kids? If we’re actually talking about calculating things, there is nothing that could possibly mitigate a kid from dying from Covid more than being a kid. Less than 300 people under 17 (a population of 74 million) have died of Covid in the US. During the same time period, 43,000 died of some other reason. [Cite]