Do we decline Christmas invitation when they won’t vaccinate?

[Anonymous]

Did you visit them last year pre-vaccine?

What if you all do at home BINAX tests together outside and only come inside once you all test negative?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did you visit them last year pre-vaccine?

What if you all do at home BINAX tests together outside and only come inside once you all test negative?

We did not visit for the holidays. We stayed safely at home. We did visit over the summer but now that vaccinations are available, if they still choose to not get them for their kids, I wonder if it's worth it.

Now SIL has an underlying condition and I am certain that her doctor and all professionals focused on her disease advocate for getting vaccinated. Not sure if she has, though, especially after she caught it. she might now think she doesn't need it.

The have one 10 year old a 12 year old and a 19 year old. No idea on the older two getting vaccinated but last I heard, they didn't want to.

Brother works for government contractor so he has till January 4.

The thing is, now that it is available for everyone, if they still choose not to, I don't know if I can morally support that and visit them. But they are my ONLY close relatives and our kids LOVE their cousins so at some point, we will have to roll with it but I think that is not now. I rather wait until hospitalizations are lower, cases are lower, enough for regulations to change and masks and social distancing are no longer mandated.

Perhaps that will also show them the consequences of their selfish behavior.

oh, also this is with the news that my FIL contracted COVID. He is 81 and a cancer survivor. Vaccinated but nonetheless, we are concerned.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, I don't really get the outrage / fear around being around unvaccinated people if you/your family are fully vaccinated either. Someone will be along shortly to concoct some obscure scenario showing how it can be dangerous but I feel like that's unlikely enough that I'm just not too worried about it. While I question the intelligence of unvaccinated folks at this point, that alone has never stopped me from seeing family before.

My fully vaccinated mother got COVID from very brief contact with an unvaccinated person. She was ill for two weeks.

We will be facing the same dilemma. In addition, there's a very practical side of it - if any members of my immediate family get COVID, even a mild case, my kids have to miss school and I have to miss work for at least a week. Not worth it to spend time with obnoxious idiots who won't get the vaccine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did you visit them last year pre-vaccine?

What if you all do at home BINAX tests together outside and only come inside once you all test negative?

We did not visit for the holidays. We stayed safely at home. We did visit over the summer but now that vaccinations are available, if they still choose to not get them for their kids, I wonder if it's worth it.

Now SIL has an underlying condition and I am certain that her doctor and all professionals focused on her disease advocate for getting vaccinated. Not sure if she has, though, especially after she caught it. she might now think she doesn't need it.

The have one 10 year old a 12 year old and a 19 year old. No idea on the older two getting vaccinated but last I heard, they didn't want to.

Brother works for government contractor so he has till January 4.

The thing is, now that it is available for everyone, if they still choose not to, I don't know if I can morally support that and visit them. But they are my ONLY close relatives and our kids LOVE their cousins so at some point, we will have to roll with it but I think that is not now. I rather wait until hospitalizations are lower, cases are lower, enough for regulations to change and masks and social distancing are no longer mandated.

Perhaps that will also show them the consequences of their selfish behavior.

oh, also this is with the news that my FIL contracted COVID. He is 81 and a cancer survivor. Vaccinated but nonetheless, we are concerned.

I think you've got two motivations here and you need to figure out which one is driving your decision making. On the one hand, you're not sure if you can "support" the choice not to be vaccinated (a moral argument) on the other you talk about case numbers (a risk tolerance argument). If they're still not vaccinated when case numbers drop are you able to support it then? If so, why?

Personally, I don't think either augment is compelling. You're not "supporting" someone's choice by spending time with them. Jesus ate with sinners, after all. You're also not going to change their minds by cutting them off, you're just going to entrench their view that they're persecuted and cut your kids off from their cousins.

I also don't think case numbers are a persuasive argument at this point. You're all vaccinated. You're as protected as you can be. Case numbers are going to rise and fall until we're all dead. At some point you've got to trust the vaccine and move on.