Anonymous wrote:OP here, actually one previous poster mentioned something I forgot about. He is ex military and now works for a large government contractor. I also work for a government contractor and my company has already sent out HR emails and deadlines to show our proof of vaccination. I imagine his has too and he can’t claim religious exemption because we are Catholic and Pope already said we should get vaccinated.

Have you checked out what the arch bishop of the military dioscese has said?

Anonymous wrote:TLR. At this stage in the game, my experience is that people who refuse to vax are also the ones who make no other efforts to stay safe - be it masking, social distancing, etc.

Perhaps visit their city, but stay in an AirBnB and say you'd like everyone to produce negative tests prior to getting together. We're not at endemic levels yet, and I wouldn't want my kids missing two weeks of school post holidays because we visited ignorant family members.

We visited with my family recently including an unvaxxed sibling (supposedly allergic to all 3 vaccines) but only met them at restaurants that were outside/open to the outside.The city also required all indoor diners to show vaccination or a negative Covid test within 72 hours. Given that everyone but the unvaxxed sibling was vaccinated, we were willing to compromise and meet. We did not have a situation like OP where the children are used to a lot of close indoor playtime with their cousins. Frankly, I would just go by myself before or after the holidays and pass this year on getting the families together. I hadn’t seen my family in two years so I didn’t want to go any longer without seeing them. You can make the effort to show you think the relationship is important without taking on more risk that necessary.

Anonymous wrote:
Ignore the crazy "being around unvaccinated folks is no big deal" people. They fill the Political Forum with insults and lies and come to vaccine threads occasionally to spew more venom.

The entire point of a vaccination campaign during a pandemic is to protect the population in its entirety. People who refuse to get vaccinated are not doing their civic duty, and risk other people's lives, not just their own, when going about their daily interactions. They are morally, historically and medically in the wrong, and should not be enabled or encouraged in any way.
Socializing with them is enabling them. Please don't.

Flip side. Other people are going to do or not do whatever they want. You can only control your own decisions. If other people want to make more risky decisions, what do I care? The idea of civic duty is a fantasy made up by moral scolds.

Your relatives may or may not be making a bad decision, but that's on them, not you. If you want to go visit, feel free.

TLR. At this stage in the game, my experience is that people who refuse to vax are also the ones who make no other efforts to stay safe - be it masking, social distancing, etc.

Perhaps visit their city, but stay in an AirBnB and say you'd like everyone to produce negative tests prior to getting together. We're not at endemic levels yet, and I wouldn't want my kids missing two weeks of school post holidays because we visited ignorant family members.

Ignore the crazy "being around unvaccinated folks is no big deal" people. They fill the Political Forum with insults and lies and come to vaccine threads occasionally to spew more venom.

The entire point of a vaccination campaign during a pandemic is to protect the population in its entirety. People who refuse to get vaccinated are not doing their civic duty, and risk other people's lives, not just their own, when going about their daily interactions. They are morally, historically and medically in the wrong, and should not be enabled or encouraged in any way.
Socializing with them is enabling them. Please don't.

Anonymous wrote:What was the point of having your whole family vaccinated if you do not intend to use that status to live life again?

To prevent acute disease and avoid the potential for unknown long-term effects? Nah, that's just crazy talk!

What was the point of having your whole family vaccinated if you do not intend to use that status to live life again?

Anonymous wrote:At this point since your whole family is vaccinated, this isn't a medical or public health issue for your family, it's a political one. Do you want to cut ties with your brother because he has a different stance then you? How much does your relationship mean to you?

This isn't true. Vaccines aren't 100% effective, which is why herd immunity matters. For no disease is a vaccinated person at zero risk.

That said, your risk is much lower. Do whatever you and your DH agree to. But people need to stop spreading misinformation about basic principles of vaccination.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where does it end? Are you going to start asking people about boosters, when they got their last shot and waning immunity? We are vaccinated and my youngest already had her first dose last week. My sister has decided not to vaccinate her kids. One is under 12 and one is over. They don’t live locally, but we will still get together and socialize with them like normal. My kids eat lunch with other unvaccinated kids in the cafeteria every day. It’s not different.

Quoting myself here. I’m sick of people making this political. DH and I are Republicans. We vaccinated our kids and ourselves the first chance we could. My sister and BIL and very left leaning Democrats. They will not vax their kids and we’re not in a hurry to get themselves vaccinated. All 4 of us work in person.

Your anecdote aside, Republican areas are less vaccinated than democratic areas and as a result are dying of covid at greater numbers. Trump and the Republican party chose to make it political. This is from yesterday's NYT, with the headline "The partisan gap in covid deaths has grown larger." https://messaging-custom-newsletters.nytimes.com/template/oakv2?campaign_id=9&emc=edit_nn_20211108&instance_id=44869&nl=the-morning&productCode=NN®i_id=75148455&segment_id=73822&te=1&uri=nyt%3A%2F%2Fnewsletter%2Fae90aa41-a76b-52af-93bb-f5ed3d8d9541&user_id=461031c9d7b63528d4545f307a563c56

We are declining an invitation where both kids are now eligible for vaccines but the divorced parents won't get them vaccinated. Father (our friend) is vaccinated, mother with whom they usually live is not and is full on anti-vax.

We're young and healthy but the kids are quite frankly now more than ever disease vectors of COVID and lots of other things. We do other things indoors, my husband works in person, but we don't have any other instances where we would spend such a long amount of time in such close proximity to known unvaccinated, unmasked individuals. It's not worth the risk, but we also don't really like kids. Anything we really want to do we do without worrying about it.

OP here, actually one previous poster mentioned something I forgot about. He is ex military and now works for a large government contractor. I also work for a government contractor and my company has already sent out HR emails and deadlines to show our proof of vaccination. I imagine his has too and he can’t claim religious exemption because we are Catholic and Pope already said we should get vaccinated.

I wouldn’t go. These morons need to understand that their behavior is unacceptable. I would tell them you aren’t comfortable spending time with unvaccinated people.

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t do it this year. Yes everyone in your family will be vaccinated but you’re more likely to catch it from an unvaccinated person. There is likely to be a holiday surge because there are still so many unvaccinated scum running around. If you get a breakthrough case from hanging out with them, it puts you back into quarantining. I have vaccinated teens and the last thing they need is a week away from school.

Your husband should ask them. They may be anti vax but may have gotten it anyway because of mandates.

OP and her husband already know they are not. Why is it a good idea to start an argument?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are multiple studies that show natural immunity is much more durable than the vaccines that (insanely) lose effectiveness after 6 months (a joke). The cdc refuses to study this data set on natural immunity even though they have the information to do so because it goes against the narrative that all the sheep in this thread are slurping. If you are vaccinated, what are you worried about? Just go and have fun and get the bug out your butt (I’m vaccinated btw but not a fascist)

Sorry, recent studies have shown the opposite. mRNA vaccination is 5 times more efficient at keeping patients out of hospital than a previous Covid infection.

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/covid-19-do-vaccines-protect-better-than-infection-induced-immunity
https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2021/10/covid-19-vaccine-gives-5-times-protection-natural-immunity-data-show
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/11/01/what-works-better-vaccines-or-natural-immunity/

https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2021-11-04/study-shows-dramatic-decline-in-effectiveness-of-covid-19-vaccines

https://www.science.org/content/article/having-sars-cov-2-once-confers-much-greater-immunity-vaccine-vaccination-remains-vital

yeah as long as you get a rushed syrum injected into you every 4-5 months you'll be good

Anonymous wrote:There are multiple studies that show natural immunity is much more durable than the vaccines that (insanely) lose effectiveness after 6 months (a joke). The cdc refuses to study this data set on natural immunity even though they have the information to do so because it goes against the narrative that all the sheep in this thread are slurping. If you are vaccinated, what are you worried about? Just go and have fun and get the bug out your butt (I’m vaccinated btw but not a fascist)

Sorry, recent studies have shown the opposite. mRNA vaccination is 5 times more efficient at keeping patients out of hospital than a previous Covid infection.

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/covid-19-do-vaccines-protect-better-than-infection-induced-immunity
https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2021/10/covid-19-vaccine-gives-5-times-protection-natural-immunity-data-show
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/11/01/what-works-better-vaccines-or-natural-immunity/