Friendship vs vaccination

Good reply!!! Love it!

If you are vaccinated, there is very little risk to you from an unvaccinated friend. What are the conditions of your friendship? Do you require all of your friends to vote as you do, hold the same views on the EU, China and the Uighurs, BLM? Must they like the same food, music, films, perfume? No? Do you require your friends to have had the flu vaccine each year (remembering that many thousands of people die of flu each year). No? Well, why is this difference of opinion casting a cloud over your friendship?

I have a friend who has had the 1st jab but got a headache for a day or so afterwards. She is now saying she won't have the 2nd one.
Finding it hard to be polite to her, just seems childish to me and nothing I say can change her mind.
I think it will ultimately affect our friendship

Since when did choice trump killing other people?

"I think anyone making the choice to not have the vaccine should sign a disclaimer stating that they will not have any health care if they catch COVID. Why should they be a burden on NHS?"

Hmm.. I get what you mean but would you also apply this kind of condition to anyone who smokes or plays rugby and risks injury?

Rosina When I was a lot younger I didn't like to take medication for my asthma and tried other means to control. I occasionally saw a chest specialist and on my last visit he told my OH that if I didn't take my meds I'd end up in the ground.

Now I wish that I had taken them properly in the beginning and then maybe my condition wouldn't be so bad now. (I'm not as bad as some).

We haven't been in lockdown for several months where I live in France and we are meeting up with friends very occasionally. Two couples at the most and they think the same as us and haven't been meeting lots of other people.

One French friend broke the rules over Christmas and the New Year meeting up with all his children and their children and also joining a large celebration with 8 other adults plus children. He also agreed with a doctor in Marseille who was opposed to the various constrictions and believed in a different form of treatment (this friend is a retired gynae). Much as we like him we made the decision not to see him because we didn't know any of the people he'd seen and also who they had seen.

Perhaps we should just not meet up with friends, without making a big deal of it, if they haven't had a jab and/or you don't know who else they've seen.

Most people make some sort of decisions that are a burden on the NHS. Smoking, drinking, obesity, sport, etc.

Id be tempted to avoid her until the pandemic is over. If she chooses not to have the jab, she risks picking up the virus and spreading it to others. We will.only be free of this os ndenic when the majority of people are vaccinated. We have a friend like this, he's got sucked in by the conspiracy theories. We'll wait for him to come to his senses before resuming the friendship as he's become obsessed and argumentative and rants if we ring him. I bet she'll change her tune when others are able to go on holiday with a vaccine passport and maybe some pubs and restaurants start asking for a vaccine passport.

I also have a friend who doesn't want it. I find this difficult to understand,. Although I haven't said anything, she can see by my expression when we've been facetiming, that I don't agree, also knows I've had my first jab. Although she and her family all had COVID, n non of them were very ill with it. Unlike my son who is still suffering 2 month later. Although I agree its a choice. I also think its a little selfish,as she also visits elderly parents.

My dd had said she wouldn't have the vaccine.
I made it very clear I would not have her in the house if she refused. I haven't spent a year sheilding for nothing....
She's aware I mean what I say.
All because she's been listening to her friends conspiracy nonsense ?

I'm lucky all my friends are like myself, we are all eagerly waiting our turn. I don't think I could lose the friendship over one not having it though, but I would tell her how I feel about it all. I'm wondering would I even want to her to come in my home then to visit me when we are allowed, I really don't think so you know. I'll still be social distancing with that friend, so that means we wouldn't be doing our "normal" things together ever again, so where would our friendship end up.....

Its her choice at the end of the day.l would not lose a friend over it.
I am reluctant to have it but feel l must if l am to have a covid passport life.

If the friend wants to visit not having had the vac your health and others you will come in contact with come first. Lives before friendship. No vac no visit.

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

It’s the people who refuse to be vaccinated who will keep this virus going . And frighteningly it may have mutated to something even deadlier.
As Dolly Parton says Don’t be chicken ?!!

You say you ahve completely opposing views on many things - that makes me feel this is just one more such thing you disagree on. I have many friends/ex colleagues like this, and I very much feel that seeing them only occasionally works best.

I was talking to 3 of my neighbours the other day who are nurses and also members of the BAME community and I was shocked and horrified when they said that they won't be having the C19 vaccination.

I said that I understand it's their choice but why aren't they prepared to protect themselves? They would say no more than 'everyone else is having the vaccine, that will keep us safe'.

My response was a very shocked 'but you're nurses, what happened to you protecting other people, isn't there some ethical thing about doing no harm to your patients?', to which I got the response of 'well they're having the vaccine to protect themselves, so why should we worry about them!'.

I used to work in the NHS over a decade ago and I recall hearing something about all staff who have 'patient contact' having to have a Hep C vaccination, so now I'm wondering whether/why the C19 jab isn't being treated in the same way?

On a further, related point, I'm all for having C19 visa-type notations being added to passports (worldwide) so that we can prove, in a similar way to having to prove you've had other vaccines for entering certain countries for things like yellow fever etc, which would (in my world) prevent you from leaving/entering any country without the C19 vaccination, then I'm sure that all these anti-vaxers would be lining up to get jabbed if they realised they'd never be allowed to go away for their beloved foreign holidays!

I think the real problem here, whether it’s discovering major differences of opinion (e.g. Brexit and vaccination) is that where once we felt secure in friendships because of shared values, that certainty has gone. And that may need re-evaluation. This issue is in no way comparable to disagreeing about other matters - it’s highly dangerous and is stopping the NHS from dealing with now-huge waiting lists.
I’m pretty sure some of the anti-vac brigade would be the first to complain if cancer treatment for them or a family member was delayed or the hip replacement they were desperate for never happened.
I often think of my grandmother who lost her five year old son, the uncle I never had, to diptheria in the early 1920s. She’d have been in favour of anything that would have saved him.
Memories appear to be very short. We don’t know how lucky we are today.

There are always Mary Contrarys. Those who will challenge everything just for the sake of it. That's OK but if you and your friends values differ on lots of issues, it must be hard.

My concern about the unvaccinated is that they will continue to spread the virus at a much greater rate than the vaccinated and as a consequence of their behaviour in spreading the virus, mutations are more likely to arise. Any one of those mutations could be resistant to the vaccines or make it less effective. For that reason, I view their behaviour as extremely selfish and likely to result in further lockdowns as well as posing a threat to my health as I’d rather not get Covid at all, even if relatively mild. I wouldn’t want to sit indoors anywhere with a load of unvaccinated people - roll on the passports! Ps I do not include in this those who genuinely, but extremely rarely for purely medical reasons, can’t have the vaccine.

I would feel the same, if everyone refused the vaccine we would be in lockdown for years and hundreds of thousands would die especially the older or those with medical problems because of those refusing the vaccine ..
Very selfish!
I wouldn’t want a irresponsible friend like that.

Counter anti vaxxers with argument ie small pox..polio..cholera typhoid yellow fever and various hepatitis jabs...

Sadly you can't fix stupid but I've decided not to have contact with people who refuse to be vaccinated but not until I have shared some of the stories of the people my daughter has seen die in intensive care (she's a doctor). They are not all old and infirm and it's really not a pleasant way to die, it's pretty vile for the people caring for them too and horribly expensive for the NHS. I'm all for personal choice but not when that choice affects others negatively.

Well said.

Nan0

Counter anti vaxxers with argument ie small pox..polio..cholera typhoid yellow fever and various hepatitis jabs...

This, and add in the MMR vaccinations we had.