Feeling so low about this new world of vaccines

[blue12345]

Just wondering if anyone else is in the same boat as me? For many reasons, I've decided not to get the Covid vaccine. I' have all my vaccines and all my kids are vaccinated. I state this to show I'm not an anti-vaxxer, although I increasingly feel like one.

I'm feeling very isolated from my friends and family as a result of this. Everyone I meet asks me am I booked in yet, am I double-vaccinated. I don't bother getting into conversations about it , but it still causes me anxiety and has led to friction. A very close friend has asked me a few times have I got an appointment for my vaccine yet and I've tried to brush her off, as I think she will be unlikely to want to spend time around me after she finds out I'm not getting it. I've also found that lots of friends have cut back on their contact with me.

I am very comfortable with my decision, but I'm just so sad that we now live in a world where the segregation of vaccinated and unvaccinated people is allowed, in both interpersonal relations and also looking more and more likely that services like restaurants and travel will be similarly restricted.

[quote Warhertisuff]@blue12345

Having listened to the 'miserable Winter' Chris Whitty has warned us is coming, I have very little hope that there won't be further lockdowns.

Part of the reason why we'll have a miserable winter is the millions who are choosing not to be vaccinated. They'll disproportionately fill hospital beds. You won't try and be part of the solution, and yet you are concerned about lockdowns returning... I'm not surprised you're having issues with your friends. I would imagine you've lost the respect of many of them. [/quote]
OP says they feel low and anxious, and you blame them for something that has not yet happened (if it will happen at all).

Is there something in the vaccine that turns people nasty to anyone not yet jabbed? I keep seeing more and more evidence of this.

I'm just so sad that we now live in a world where the segregation of vaccinated and unvaccinated people is allowed, in both interpersonal relations ...

You don't seriously expect your friends to be forced to associate with you despite any concerns they may have about your lack of vaccination, surely?

I'm not endangering them

You don't necessarily know that, given that you say you would never ask them whether they have been vaccinated; and that some people who have been double vaccinated have still caught Covid.

Plus, surely it's obvious that you are are relying on your friends to have had something that you refuse for yourself to justify carrying on seeing them? Can you not see that that is really not a good look?

Hope OP isnt a journo looking to write an article on vaccine coercion. Cos you know nothing you ever say on the internet is anonymous right?

So here is the important missing information . How many of those in those hospitals are vaccinated and how many are not ?

The majority, which is to be expected because the vaccines are imperfect. It doesn't mean that they aren't worth having, but actually highlights how important it is for all adults to be vaccinated to protect those still at risk despite being vaccinated. www.theguardian.com/theobserver/commentisfree/2021/jun/27/why-most-people-who-now-die-with-covid-have-been-vaccinated

I've chosen not to get vaccinated as I'm pregnant and don't know the effects it could possibly have on my unborn child. I was going to get vaxxed after I had the baby and have decided against it because I'm still young and many people I know have had side effects from it. I know someone who have went numb on one side of their body, 2 people have had strokes after it, my friends uncle has went completely paralysed from it, another who has been in and out of hospital having heart palpitations and problems and numerous female friends that are not getting periods or and bleeding very heavily. Everyone can call me selfish all they want but I have a family and already suffer with heart palpitations, I might be fine having it but I also may not and I'm not taking the risk and want to be healthy for them. So the young and healthy have to put themselves at risk taking the vaccine? I know lots of people that have had the vaccine and I also know lots that aren't taking it but I don't know one person that wouldn't spend time with or be near me because of my choice not to take it, it's absolutely ridiculous.

@blue12345

I can’t believe you said you would be happy to get covid, it’s a nasty horrible thing to have, as I have friends with long covid, it’s not nice seeing them unable to breath properly after 9 months

The vaccines won’t stop us catching it , or transmitting it fully, but will offer some protection to both, but as someone who is unvaccinated you are putting yourself, and anyone who contacts you, including the double vaccinated at more risk of getting it. As I say if you want to catch it fine, but I don’t see why anyone else in your family, or friends, , colleagues etc should be subjected to that

And not being vaccinated will stop you from doing things, such as holidaying abroad

The point of vaccination is not just to protect the vulnerable, but everyone. It upsets me that your are prepared to out your kids at risk, Delta is extremely transmissible

But it’s your choice just as it’s the choice of your friends, family or whoever not to have much to do with you if you remain unvaccinated, and you have to accept that

The more people who don’t have the vaccine, the more chance there is that the virus will mutate, the vaccines we do have won’t work and we’ll be back to square one.

It’s your choice not to have a vaccine but enough of this “my decision doesn’t affect anyone but me” nonsense.

I have no judgement about anyone else's decisions at all. It's just how my own decision is making other people act towards me.

That is part and parcel of social interaction though, is it not?

@WaterBottle123

I would think of you as selfish, piggy backing on the herd immunity of others, so yes I might not want to see you.

Your life , your choice though

Yes this ^

I also agree with others who say the friends may see you in a different light now based on your decision. They may see you as selfish if you don’t appear to have a valid reason not to have it like allergy. Like someone said, it’s a bit like finding out your friend is a drink driver or has extreme views.

It’s collective responsibility which will hopefully get us through this in the end saving as many lives as we can.

I am not having the vaccine. I don't want to lie about it to people I know but I will if I have to in the end. It is your medical history. No one has a right to know your medical history except you!

Have you explained your reasons for refusing the vaccine? Are your reasons a bit wishy washy?

Could it be they think you have your tinfoil hat on and think bill gates will start tracking you or that you will start to emit a 5G signal?

Your friends may have vulnerable family that they are trying to limit the risk for as well

OP says they feel low and anxious, and you blame them for something that has not yet happened (if it will happen at all). Is there something in the vaccine that turns people nasty to anyone not yet jabbed? I keep seeing more and more evidence of this.

If someone chooses not to get the vaccine, they need to own the consequences. Yes, we may not have a bad winter... but if hospitalisations are rising now and that's primarily due to those who haven't been vaccinated. I'm sorry the OP is feeling anxious and low, but I'm thinking her decision not to be jabbed and the impact this is having on her social is likely to be an important factor in that.

Sorry OP. It must be difficult. You're absolutely within your rights to refuse the vaccine & like you say you're comfortable with your decision.

I can understand your friends point of view though. I would struggle to understand why one of my friends would refuse a vaccine if they were able to get it. I would never be dismissive/horrible but I know deep down it would change the relationship a little.

I'm amazed OP that you didn't realise that there would be consequences to you choosing not to be vaccinated. Friendships IME endure on the basis of shared values. If I was your friend I'd be thinking long and hard about whether our friendship could endure your choice as I have a different view.

@PleaseReferToMeAsBritneySpears

According to this BBC report 2 weeks ago, Yorkshire is struggling due to non Covid issues, related to people delaying attending hospitals during Covid.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-57554517.amp

Maybe Covid hospitalisations have risen rapidly over the last few days, but I couldn't see a more recent report.

A&E staff in parts of Yorkshire are under "huge strain" following a record rise in patient numbers.
The West Yorkshire Association of Acute Trusts said there had been a 17.4% increase in the first week of June compared with the same period in 2019.
One trust said it expected to see 1,000 extra patients this month while another recorded its highest ever daily admissions figure of 828 on 7 June.

Dr Helen Law said "unmet demand" from the pandemic could be to blame.

It said the increase was not Covid-related

and that patients were attending with the more usual illnesses and injuries seen by emergency departments.
Dr Law, a consultant in emergency medicine at the Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust, said the demand was almost as high as it was "during the peaks of Covid".

This was published this afternoon

www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/health/cancer-patients-face-surgery-cancellations-as-leeds-hospitals-overwhelmed-leaked-email-reveals-3299775

[quote blue12345]@TheKeatingFive

If any of them were medically vulnerable, of course? But lots of them are already double vaccinated, none are vulnerable, so surely they are confident that the vaccine they've taken has worked?

Nothing has fundamentally changed since we spent time together in other lulls in the Pandemic, when case rates were higher and the vulnerable and elderly were unvaccinated. But it's as if now I'm making a conscious decision to be unvaccinated, versus before when everyone was unvaccinated, it's worse? [/quote]
You could just as easily pass it on to somebody else who isn't able to have the vaccine.

Now there is the chance to prevent vulnerable people from catching it, you are actively choosing to not take part in that. Which is why they think less of you, along with the realisation that you have fallen for the conspiracy theorists' and antivaxxers' schtick in much the same way as somebody who declares they've done their research and the world is actually flat/the Jews done it.

@PleaseReferToMeAsBritneySpears

"Hospitalisation rates and deaths are not rising in relation to higher cases though, which means the most vulnerable are protected."

Leeds General Infirmary is full. Covid wards full and they're having to open up a new one. Cancer operations being cancelled.

Leeds rate increased by 1000% in five weeks.

(Sorry, looking for article I read half an hour ago to link but can't find it.)

www.independent.co.uk/news/health/leeds-cancer-surgery-coronavirus-nhs-b1879646.html

Apologies if I've missed this, but why aren't you having the vaccine? If you are more at risk from vaccines due your health, people would respect that a lot more.

[quote PleaseReferToMeAsBritneySpears]

This was published this afternoon

www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/health/cancer-patients-face-surgery-cancellations-as-leeds-hospitals-overwhelmed-leaked-email-reveals-3299775[/quote]
The extent of self-isolation for Covid contacts probably has a big part to play in this too.

Everybody I know over the age of 20 has had at least one vaccine (apart from two anti-conventional-medicine holistic practitioners) and no one has had any side effects apart from, at the worst, feeling a bit rough for 24 hours (headache, muscle aches etc) and a sore arm for a few days. So I sympathise with those people who know so many people who have had serious side effects but I think they are very unlucky. Indeed, I would be tempted to wonder whether they were telling the absolute truth. But this is the internet. No one knows I am a dog.

As long as you are comfortable and happy with your decision OP thats all that matters. I have made the same decision as you not to have it and feel totally content with it. I dont expect everyone else to understand, just like I dont understand why some people have chose to have it.

I have taken other vaccines for the greater good... But I'm not willing to do that for this vaccine currently

Maybe this is where their problem lies, especially if they see vaccination as the socially responsible thing to do, the best way to protect others and our most effective strategy to avoid further waves and lockdowns.

I've decided not to have the vaccine.

I'm not uneducated, stupid, an 'anti-vaxxer', a conspiracy theorist, heartless or any one of the other things being shouted by many vaccinated people. I don't try and put anyone off having the vaccine or peddle false science.

There comes a point where self preservation takes over and I'm sick of dealing with the vicious, hysterical vitriol because of my choice tbh.

If anyone asks now in rl I tell them I'm vaccinated. They've no way to know and it saves me an awful lot of abuse.

It's a shame it was necessary to lie but I don't feel one iota of guilt about it.

@Reallybadidea

Thank you for those figures.

I will do as the government has suggested and try and risk assess any situation. At the moment I will avoid indoor crowded venues as cases in our area are increasing as well . And having seen covid first hand I don’t want to risk even a mild dose tbh.