Do you have friends who have declined to be vaccinated.........h ow do you deal with this (stay polite!)

My SIL won’t have it and he is totally convinced that in 10 years everyone will regret it. I said,well that would be millions of people then and if you get Covid you might not even be there in 10 years . Our grandson is a medical student who lives at home with him (he is fully vaccinated) so I said that it could be that he will bring Covid home from his patients. No response.

Unless they have a very good health reason not to be vaccinated these people are being selfish. If they become ill they will still expect 100% attention from those that have, to help them recover - if they do!

Anyone who lets something like a vaccine come between them aren't friends.

Just because someone doesn't want the vaccine, they aren't relying on anyone else to protect them, it's a personal choice and nobody else's business.

There is no difference ito results between those who are medically unable or those who choose not to.
You could just as easily be affected by either.

My 19yrs old grandson won't have it and he was reluctant to even wear a mask. His mum and I have badgered him constantly but he says he won't have it till he's forced. I think Covid passports to travel abroad will eventually make him.

I’m glad your friend is a minority if we all refused the vaccine what an awful state we’d be in and so many more dying

If everyone is vaccinated we can get back to normal.
That's what I tell people I know who are unvaccinated. We will always have the virus but the vaccine will get us back to full normality.

romaroot

Anyone who lets something like a vaccine come between them aren't friends.

Just because someone doesn't want the vaccine, they aren't relying on anyone else to protect them, it's a personal choice and nobody else's business.

There is no difference ito results between those who are medically unable or those who choose not to.
You could just as easily be affected by either.

Yes you could just as easily be affected by either. But in the case of someone who is medically unable to have it they aren't being selfish and that has to be taken into consideration. I really wouldn't want to continue a friendship with someone who did not think of others. As a group my friends and I have protected a clinically vulnerable person as much as we can during the pandemic and continue to move at the pace she feels happy with. We have all been vaccinated.

Anyone who lets something like a vaccine come between them aren't friends.

Similarly, anyone who doesn't care enough about their friends to want to protect them by getting vaccinated, isn't really a friend either.

No one I know or am friends with has not had or is not going to have the vaccinations, which is good as it would certainly change my opinion of them. The people who work in care homes that I know, have to have the vaccinations, or they are not allowed to work, this differs considerably with the NHS staff, who are not required to have the jabs, and in Hampshire the uptake of the jab within the NHS is only 90%. It should be compulsory, many things are, for instance I cannot get the licence I need to do my job without a full medical, eye tests and back ground checks every other year, and neither can my husband who is a courier. People accept that there are qualifications required for most activities, having a vaccination should be part of those qualifications

A friend and her middle aged daughter are both refusing to have it. This has upset me a great deal as I feel they are being selfish; they are relying on herd immunity - not to mention everyone else who has taken the small risk of having the vaccine. They want to visit us, but when they try to make a date I fear they are going to be disappointed. I will take no pleasure in refusing them, but there is a vulnerable adult in our immediate family who has had the first jab, been quite unwell with side effects, but has willingly gone on to have the second. We can't take risks, however small, and two unvaccinated guests staying for a week is a risk too far. Am I being harsh and unreasonable?

Classic it must still vary across the UK. I’ve just checked, and 95.5% of healthcare staff have now been vaccinated in Wales, compared with 92% of care home staff. The percentages are creeping up for both groups though, presumably at least partly due to pressure being put on staff by employers short of a change on the law that would be required to enforce it. 95.5% is in line with the vaccination rate in the rest of the population though anyway, and there will be some people who can’t be vaccinated for medical reasons.

Well-said!

Luckily I don't know anyone in our circle refusing the vaccine, quite the opposite in fact.
Have no idea how I would react if that were the case but imagine I would be totally pissed off with such selfishness.
Years ago a few parents in our area decided not to give their kids the MMR jab reading total rubbish from a doctor in America stating it would lead to autism. Remember that ?
Upshot being two children died from measles that I knew. So sad.

@Biscuitmuncher. I too know several people who were unwell after the vaccine, including myself and my partner, but having had Covid in February I can 100% assure you that the side effects of the vaccine don’t compare to how the Covid virus can make you feel. It was THE most unwell I have ever felt and we both have ongoing symptoms of Long Covid, which are debilitating. In addition, whatever fear you have about the vaccine, the fear you feel during the first days of the Covid infection is much, much worse as the infection can turn very serious in a very short space of time and it’s not until around days 10-14 when you start to feel better, that you can start to relax a little and hope that you’ll be OK. To those of you out there who still think it’s ‘the flu’ I can assure you that it most certainly is not. Please just stop and think where we would be without the vaccines for smallpox or polio, and even the sometime controversial MMR vaccine. Vaccination is a choice up to a point, but in a pandemic I think any choice other than to have it is very selfish as you’re relying on the people who HAVE taken the risk, to keep you safe.

I disgraced myself yesterday by laughing in someone's face as she explained all the reasons she won't be getting vaccinated. I wasn't aware before we met up that she wasn't being vaccinated as we haven't been in touch for some time.

After telling me I was ignorant and had no understanding of what was happening I pointed out that I was the one with the science degrees and had more knowledge in my little finger of molecular biology, genetics, physiology, epidemiology, microbiology and nutrition than she had in her whole body and she told me 'Oh yes, you may be clever enough for a degree but your're too stupid to understand that there's a government conspiracy' and left abruptly.

I had my second vaccination this morning so I fully expect the chip they've implanted to be activated soon and I'll get called away to the mothership. If I don't post again you'll know the theories are true.

Wonder if they’ll change their mind if turned away at the airport when hoping to go on their overseas holiday.

@hazel93. I remember the measles outbreak - in particular I remember one distraught mother being interviewed on TV after being told that her son had been blinded by measles. She was pleading with other parents to rethink things and have their children vaccinated. She had refused the MMR vaccine after reading this nonsense and said she would never be able to forgive herself because her son had paid for her decision with his sight. When I listen to the arguments anti Vaxxers put forward as justification, I do often wonder if it crosses their minds that they could be responsible for passing on the virus to one of their family or friends, making them seriously ill, or even killing them. We all share the responsibility and we all have a duty to keep each other safe and take the strain off the NHS. Am watching the BBC series ‘Hospital’ at the moment, and it’s frightening to see the effect that Covid has had, and how long it will take just to catch up to where we were before it all started. It’s not just the virus itself, it’s the effect on everything else too.

greenlady102

maddyone

whose not who’s
I’m being a pendant, but don’t like the mistake. Apologies.

hahahahahah a pedant who mistypes pedant

she was just hanging around to see who would notice !

It is such a sad shame that something which is meant to bring us all back together has caused such division and judgemental behaviour.

My OH had a friend who is spouting forth about all the different conspiracy theories including that the vaccine is a government tool for culling the population. He does this most days on Facebook. My OH asked him , straight out, if he’s had his vaccinations. He replied that he’d had his some time ago because of an underlying health condition which made it imperative to do so. WTF ?

I know someone who is not having thw vaccination, he says it is only a cold! I have had Covid, caught in hospital while i was having tests. It was really dreadful and 3 months on i still have very little memory of the 3 weeks i spent in hospital and still get tired easily. I just wish that anyone who doesn't want the vaccination could experience just one day of what it actually feels like not to be able to get your breath and have hallucinations, they would be begging for the jab. I hope that these people face restrictions on their freedoms when we open up again.

I am one of the people at risk, I have had my jabs, both of them. I have a cleaner to help me, she comes once every 2 weeks for 2 hours, or she did, she decided last week to tell me that she hasn't had her jab and is not going to. I said but you go into quite a few peoples houses each week and many are venerable, she said it was up to her if she had it or not and yes she is quite right, but it is up to me whether I employ her, now I don't.

It’s about the greater good. We should all be vaccinated and be grateful for it.

I think that anyone admitting to not being vaccinated is very brave, as they tend to be very misunderstood. I have been fully vaccinated but it was a decision that I only decided upon when my appointment was just minutes away. I was seriously concerned that there was no available data in respect of reactions with other medications and medical conditions. I appear to have ended up one of the lucky ones with really minimal side effects, but I still have doubts on safety.

I was also very disappointed to hear that the AZ vaccine only offers 60% cover.

Those of you with friends who refuse to be vaccinated - send them to me. I have Long Covid. Today the fatigue means I am dragging myself around the house. I can't walk down to the end of our short road because I can't breathe when I exert myself. I am 55 kilos, don't look my age, was involved with musicals and am dram and lots of other activities before the pandemic and was healthy before Covid struck. Having the vaccine might make you feel ill for a few days afterwards. I have been ill since the middle of January.