I could just cry: just found out my BIL & SIL are not getting the COVID19 vaxx...

[Hekate]

I love these people, and all year have felt the soft pressure of people who love me back letting me know that they miss me but “understand that I am afraid.” As of yesterday hubby and I are fully immunized, 2 weeks past our second shot.

My husband went over to pick something up and came back with this news. They’re not going to. They’re just not. They don’t trust that the vaccine is safe because it was “produced so fast.” And they never get the flu. And if they do get COVID, it won’t be any worse than the flu — which they never get.

They are intelligent, well educated, and don’t watch FOX. They are not nuts. I am trying to cope with this news, because I already have to deal with my daughter (mother of my only grandchildren) being a total anti-vaxxer and a borderline nut who embraces

As best as I can figure out, this is on Trump and his “warp speed” crap. God damn him to hell. Just may all the gods damn him to the seven hells.

Thanks for listening.

[LAS14]

1. My sympathies. How does this happen????? nt

[DENVERPOPS]

25. It happens

when the corrupt politicians have constantly told us not to trust government. Starting with Reagan and accelerating for the past forty years, and their shit is still going on today...........

[Nevilledog]

2. ...

[onecaliberal]

3. I'm sorry. If it helps we are in a very similar circumstance.

My daughter, mother of my only 2 grandchildren turned into a wing nut after she married. I’m pretty sure my grandkids are not fully vaccinated and she isn’t getting the COVID vaccine. 😕
Yet another thing to cope with.

[blueinredohio]

18. That makes three of us then.

My daughter has turned into a real asshole. She was not raised that way. Says she's not getting the vaccine even though now she works in a nursing home. She doesn't trust it either. If not for the grandkids I could care less if she comes around or not.

[Rebl2]

23. I wish

people who work in nursing homes and around the elderly had to take the vaccine, but they can’t be forced to-yet. I think once it’s fully approved ( instead of emergency use approval) they will have to get it to keep their job. At least I hope they have to.

[Freethinker65]

4. Selfish, willing to catch the virus and spread it to others.

Fortunate to be able to let others take the perceived risk of a scary vaccine so they are less likely to contract the virus.

Not much you can say.

[piddyprints]

5. I am so sorry.

I also have two very dear friends who refuse to get vaccinated. It really hurts. They aren’t afraid of COVID and don’t give a thought about whether they’ll spread it because, well, they just won’t get it. Completely contrary to what we know.

This election has really brought out the irrational part of people. I thought I knew them but I guess I didn’t.

Our daughter gave us some pushback a few weeks ago but then she got her first dose last week. I don’t know what changed her mind. Perhaps there’s still hope with your family.

[malaise]

6. I have a colleague who sounds just like them

He says he'll get the vaccine next year

[UTUSN]

7. Mine are cousin & her husband. Fundies & Drumpfers. Our generation next to oldest of what's left.

I lost track of the denominations they've journeyed through. Our family has a multi-silo construction and some lost track of others. In the past few years there has been some reconnection with this cousin, who laughingly told us that several of her nuclear family and close friends had de-friended her over her FB politics. I've gingerly let her know that no politics and religious proselytizing is how we can keep some kind of contact. She has tapered off of inserting a bible verse in emails. But the infrequent glance at her FB shows total Drumpf worship, TOTAL hate speech about "Leftists", and, of course, the verses.

Really, ours is not much of a relationship. And in the bigger picture, any relationship is inauthentic if the participants can't be who they are with each other. So if she participates in an email, fine. If she drops a wingnut bomb, back at her.

[Shermann]

8. I saw an interview with Sam Harris

He discussed how human intuition is amazing at determining certain things like whether somebody is acting suspiciously or not.

Yet, for other types of things intuition can be way, way off. Example: how thick is a newspaper if you fold it in half 70 times? The answer is about a light year in thickness.

Pandemics are an invisible threat which fall into the latter category. Your intuition can fail you here.

The trouble with these types of analogies is that they tend to mostly resonate with the same smart people who have already managed to gravitate to more enlightened positions. But feel free to us it.

[mobeau69]

9. You're not alone.

My situation involves daughter and son and three grandkids each.

[LisaL]

10. You can bring a horse to water but you can't make him drink.

By now hundreds of millions have gotten the vaccine.

[StrictlyRockers]

11. One of my housemates is choosing not to vaccinate.

I'm kind of bummed about it, but everyone gets to make their own choices, I guess.

He works as a materials coordinator at the big hospital for the past five years.

[BobTheSubgenius]

35. I'm afraid he wouldn't be my housemate for very long.

[DanieRains]

12. Restrict Them From Everything Everywhere To Protect Others

And for their own good.

It's those ignorant effs that will develop the Covid-20 variant that will kill a half million more.

[USALiberal]

13. You list me at "They are intelligent" nt

[Hortensis]

14. I'm sorry, Hekate. Your upset goes way beyond their physical safety,

of course, but at least they'll all probably continue okay that way as immunity grows around them. If any should get it and become symptomatic, attitudes may change (our DIL's did) and antibody treatment would help lessen severity.

[Hekate]

28. That's what I was trying to express: after a year of what I believed was *prudent caution*...

.. I am ready to have my relationships back. My SIL/BIL think I’m neurotic and my daughter thinks I’ve been willingly deluded by Big Pharma. That’s what “We know you’ve been frightened” means — jeez.

I was prepared to continue to negotiate the nuttiness of my 45 y.o. offspring, but I am shocked, disheartened, saddened, and bereft at suddenly discovering the stance of my in-laws. I was hoping, dare I say it, to resume a social life.

[Hortensis]

36. Yes. I feel pretty sure someone close to us would have gone

that way except for being surrounded by sensible people with a preference for honesty and reason. As we learned what was happening to so many with leanings toward woo-woo, I even worried enough to wonder if she might be secretly imbibing, so glad when she went back to work and got very busy.

As it is, it's friends we've lost, a few sets of nice people who remained friends through all the earlier political divisions but have fallen as craziness advanced. We might finally be visiting with some this beautiful day, whose new home we haven't seen, if only...

This will pass. And your family will always be family. I've read that people recovering from pathological mass movements often handle it by choosing to mostly forget and deny. Move on.

[VarryOn]

15. My son and his wife are the same way...

Were big O'Rourke voters and supports. My wife and I have nagged til its embarrassing. They don't trust any vaccines. Ild inject them myself if I could, but oh well. I love them still..not one iota less.

[leighbythesea2]

16. This article

Was enlightening, encouraging, super technical but I loved it.
There was already some developed technology/delivery systems for the vaccine.

It all came together.
The science in this article is beyond layman, but what a great read.
Quite long but it is The New Yorker, so well crafted.

[link:https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/12/14/countdown-to-a-coronavirus-vaccine|

[dianaredwing]

17. I'm sorry, what are these people afraid of?

I have never been considered a particularly trusting individual, but if you don't trust Dr. Fauci and Joe Biden you have some serious trust issues that might need psychological intervention.

[bdamomma]

21. Welcome to DU!!

I know if you can't trust Fauci and Biden, and your own Dr. cause my GP said go for it. The Drs. that I know promote the vaccine, enough evidence for me to trust the science.

[NH Ethylene]

20. One of my daughters decided not to get the vaccine.

I would much rather have her get it, so I'd know she was relatively safe. But it's her choice. I'm not going to pressure her and I'm not going to let myself stress out about it.

I think there are a lot of people who are not right-wingers who are hesitant about the vaccine, just because it is scary - a new technology, rushed out, and there has been an intense PR campaign to get the shots, which can make a lot of people skittish. I'm hoping more people get the vaccine over time, as they see that it has turned out to be pretty safe.

Unfortunately, we are in a race with the variants.

[Johonny]

22. I assume roughly 15 % of the population or more

will slowly vaccinate over the summer and fall as they notice the 75% of adults that vaccinated aren't dropping dead or nothing and the pharmacies are now treating the ample vaccine supply more like a flu shot.

As my one friend said, wait a little while before worrying about people reluctant to vaccinate. The country shifted from scarce mode to ample supply mode rather quickly. Soon it's going to be everywhere and not hard to get at all.

[Danmel]

24. My daughter's future father in law is a trumpie who didn't want the vaccine

They were supposed to get married this past October and delayed the wedding by a year.
My future son in law told him without a vaccine he couldn't come to their wedding and he relented.
His wife got vaccinated awhile ago and loathes trump. They have a very strange dynamic.

[Lilaclady]

26. So sorry to hear

My daughter, 53, is ‘researching’ before getting vaccine. Her oldest son is getting vaccine - he works at Summer camps in Virginia and I told him to go to government website to find a place. My son, 48, won’t get it because he thinks it isn’t safe. My husband and I will be fully vaccinated on April 13.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

27. I fear this whole thing will permanently divide people. There are

friends or more like good acquaintances that I never care to see again due to their utter disregard for humankind.

In my view, in the end, there will be those who get the vaccine and those who get covid. Your choice.

[Cassidy]

29. I have no sympathy for anyone who doesn't get vaccinated or wear a mask - over nose, under chin.

These anti-vaxxers are continuing to endanger us all. They are forcing the rest of us to continue using masks month after month after month with no end in sight - and not just in the US - in the world. They are forcing us to keep our lives circumscribed and our economies in the toilet for no one knows how long.

They are smarter than the epidemiologists and virologists at the CDC? Fine.
Ask them to explain the difference between a bacteria and a virus. If they can't explain it in one sentence, they don't know the simplest, most basic things about disease. Ask them to explain how RNA works and where it comes from. If they can't, they shouldn't be pretending to know the first thing about these new vaccines.

I have to deal with anti maskers and anti vaxxers at work, as customers and fellow employees. Last week, the son of the family business tested Covid positive. I left work on Friday as soon as I was told and got tested. I wore an NF95 mask from Friday through Sunday morning, yes even while sleeping, and slept on the sofa until I got my negative result on Sunday morning, to try to keep my husband safe. I told my bosses that I wouldn't come into work unless his son was gone for the 10 days required by law. Two more employees called in sick today. I have had it with these idiots. If they want to kill themselves, fine, just let the rest of us live our lives.

At work, I triple mask: NF95; triple cotton fabric homemade masks, washed after each use; and a face shield with fabric scarf attached to make it less permeable. I often sweat like a pig and occasionally come close to passing out, but triple masking is the minimum I can do to protect myself. I am supposed to get my first vaccination shot Thursday. I haven't qualified to get it before now.

This is not "how I was raised," but I am done. If they insist on destroying themselves, fine. I am done.

[speaknow]

30. That's sad because

it really wasn't hard to come up with the vaccine, they
had vaccine's close to the Covid-199 a little tweak and
they got it, plus they're working on the booster shot
already. So really no big deal on coming up with the
vaccine.

[Richard58]

31. I sympathize.

My girlfriends 26 yr old daughter used to be very liberal. But then she hooked up with a Trump-loving wingnut and did a 180. She now spews Fox News BS talking points. She refuses to get the Covid vaccine because "Covid is no worse than the flu and the mainstream media is lying to us." She is also pregnant with said boyfriend's kid. It's maddening. We are becoming a nation of idiots.

[pnwmom]

32. I am so sorry, Hekate! Yes, Trump did so much damage with his "warp speed" crap.

I finally got one of my relatives to take it by pointing out that the testing started last year, and already 150 million shots have been given out -- far more than in any kind of standard testing.

This relative was happier with the idea of the J & J vaccine, because it was more conventional. Fine. I just wanted him to get something.

It IS sickening to see how the Trumpers have been using anti-vax and natural-everything people to push rightwing politics. I'm so sorry your daughter got caught up in all that.

[Warpy]

33. Tell them you understand perfectly. Yeah, it's a lie, but bear with me.

Let them know that the data will be in by late May on all unanticipated side effects from the various vaccines and safety should be well established by then.

It still might take someone they know getting sick and nearly dying from it to convince them completely.

A lot of people have serious reservations about the vaccines and, as you said, it's all due to Dumdum's idiotic rhetoric about rushing everything out while throwing tantrums because all the various companies insisted on following testing protocols to the letter instead of just throwing one together and pushing it out without proper testing. Full testing was done. They are safe and effective, but a lot of people are going to need to wait until June or so before they're convinced.

Personally, I want Dumdum to live a very long life, watching his real estate empire get sold out from under him to pay legal bills and court settlements, while becoming more and more isolated, the bright lights and cameras gone forever. This is the worst thing that can possibly happen to a malignant narcissist as one by one, his inner circle drifts away as they realize his grandiose ideas will never have any follow through and will always be so underfunded they are doomed to failure.

Alone and forgotten. That's his hell, right there.

[ancianita]

34. I feel you.

My daughter and SIL are the same way. But she's now an anti-vaxxer because she's read nothing by scientists, only science "interpreters" who think that RNA beats virus by changing DNA in our cells.

I've recently read The Code Breaker about Jennifer Doudna's atomic mapping of mRNA that's now being used in PfizerBioEnteck and Moderna vaccines. It doesn't; it simply changes the cytoplasm, the outer part of body cells, including phages (for lack of technical names) of the immunity system. I'll tell her, but she probably won't believe me, even though Doudna won the Nobel Prize for doing what no one had ever been able to do with mRNA.

We know smart people, but what they decide is a matter of their openness, exposure, and trust that scientists who do great work don't do it for the money, among other factors.

Eventually they'll learn, one way or another.