The title gives the gist of the situation. Daughter is pregnant and due in about 3 weeks. She’s been reading “horror stories” on some facebook group(s) about mothers losing their unborn fetus after getting vaccinated. Her boyfriend (the father) also is not vaccinated and won’t be getting the jab. She works from home, he works at a food packing plant.
I have been gently prodding my daughter to reconsider. Begged her repeatedly to talk to her ob/gyn about the benefits of vaccinating before the birth, benefitting not just her but her baby as well. I’ve sent her many an article debunking the anecdotes she’s been fed by anit-vaxxers posing as grieving mothers on these facebook groups (if it were such an epidemic of miscarriages caused by the vaccines, wouldn’t Fox News be jumping all over that?). I’ve pointed out that should she not get vaxxed now, her baby will be at a disadvantage. As things stand now she won’t be able to get vaccinated until five years down the road, putting her at much more risk than many of her peers.
Ultimately I am letting her make the best decision for her and the baby and keeping quiet now. I feel I’ve done what I can. My concern now is, what are the real risks of me interacting with the baby, holding, feeding, etc? I don’t really want her first memories of me to be the old guy with the cloth face, or who wouldn’t touch her or get close.
Which risk you are worried about – are you primarily concerned that you might unknowingly have an asymptomatic breakthrough case and give Covid to the baby, or that you might get Covid from the baby? If it’s the first one, surely the fact that the baby is going to be interacting closely with multiple people that aren’t vaccinated at all means that any additional risk from interacting with one more vaccinated person would be tiny, but you could mitigate it down to pretty much zero by getting tested before interacting with the baby.
A bit more that I should’ve included in the OP: I’ve taken a fairly hard line stance against interacting with anyone not vaccinated, without exception. There’s been some noticeable consequences but ones I felt were worth it. This is the first time where the consequences have me questioning that stance and its worth.
As for being tested, that’s true, but it is only a snapshot in time. Test results have typically been taking 3 days to come back and I isolate until they come in. To make matters worse, my state has run out of funds for subsidizing community testing, and insurance will only cover it if it’s for symptomatic testing. So it looks like I’ll be paying for testing out of pocket.
My state is below the national average by several percentage points for vaccination, and cases are on the rise in my county. To exacerbate matters, Omicron Persei 8 is beginning to loom as a threat closer to home. My stance has always been “don’t make things worse, don’t be part of the problem, do your part in keeping the hospitals from being overwhelmed”. If I can do that by simply avoiding people, that’s what I’ve been doing. I still maintain the same bubble protocol I’ve had since the beginning of the pandemic. I don’t come in to close contact with people outside my bubble even if they’re vaccinated.
As far as the risks I’ve asked about, well… both, plus a third. While I may not be as much at risk being sick or catching it in the first place because I’m vaccinated, and the baby has maximum exposure already, being around both parents and the baby could mean I’ll spread anything I contract unknowingly elsewhere. I don’t want to be the fail point in causing a spread if I can help it.
It’s too late for this to change your daughter’s mind, but I wanted to mention that my niece had a baby a few months ago. The niece’s mother and her husband are both doctors. They are all vaccinated. A bonus of being vaccinated is that the baby presumably has gotten some immunity from the mother (in utero and from breastfeeding).
You can protect the baby by wearing a mask around them, not fun for you but does protect the unvaxxed. The baby will still get attached to you, through touch and the sound of your voice, etc. Of course, wash your hands first thing when you come in the door.
You might want to ask your doctor about prescribing for you a Tdap booster, which will protect the baby from catching pertussis (whooping cough) from you until the baby can start their series of newborn vaccinations at 2 months. I did that for both of my grand babies, one born in 2017 and the other born this June. By having my doctor prescribe it for me my insurance paid for it, although you can probably get it without a prescription at your pharmacy and pay out of pocket. It’s just something that grandparents can do to offer a little safeguard. Do it soon so you have two weeks to develop immunities. Of course, a flu vaccination for you is another way to protect that darling baby (and your daughter). I’m assuming you’ve been able to get your booster.
I don’t think your grand baby will have to wait 5 years for a Covid vaccination~research and trials are already underway for the younger kids.