Unvaccinated friends and vulnerable dh

[Jennybeans401]

Both myself and dh and double vax, dh is still very vulnerable following treatment last year.

I have a very good friend who refuses to vaccinate and her dh feels the same way. Her friends also see Covid as a massive conspiracy (they are all unvaccinated too) and she talks about a book she's bought about it, her mind is made up.

Our dcs are close friends and I've tried to stay away from any Covid conversations because I have very different feelings about it to my df. I try to meet her and her dcs outdoors to minimise any risks to dh. Occasionally we have met indoors but I have worried about carrying Covid back to dh.

I just wondered what other people think. Would you still mix with someone who refuses to vax? I feel like a bad friend for feeling like this bit as time goes on I'm more concerned that we might catch Covid. The vaccine is not 100% effective.

@Knittingupastorm

I’d struggle to be friends with someone who thought covid was a conspiracy, because I don’t have a huge tolerance for crap like that.

But purely on the risk of her being unvaccinated, your kids are unvaccinated and will be mixing with unvaccinated kids at school in a week or two, so I’m not sure how much additional risk your friend adds.

I agree with this.

Health wise I imagine it would be ok. But if they're gunna sit there and bang on about how the government are trying to control us and all the other 'phrases' that's worse.

Incidentally one of my anti vax family members got 'severe flu' in April and still has issues now

I don't care if someone isn't vaccinated - their choice and people do assume that if you are not vaccinated you have the disease in question which is clearly nonsense. I was never vaccinated against whooping cough and to my knowledge have never had it.

But I do care if people bang on about it. Why is it even a topic of conversation, other than if eg you're asked to go somewhere and you've had your vaccination and feel a bit grotty and don't want to go? Other people's medical choices are nothing to do with me and vice versa.

@Cattaxi

This has been an issue in our friendship group recently. One friend had been increasingly loud in her anti-vax stance. So loud that a few of us have been put off hanging out with her and the kids. No one wants to listen to her bullshit. Evidence is pretty clear that you are less likely to catch and pass it on when you are fully vaxxed. I have avoided her all summer as I don’t want our plans ruined. Her whole family are now all pretty rough with covid and they have passed it on to loads of people as they didn’t think they could possibly have it and didn’t correctly follow rules regarding testing & isolation. The families they’ve infected include a mum who is ECV. She is double vaxxed, but very afraid of ending up very ill or worse. Most of the group have had holidays / days out / birthdays ruined are now wishing they’d stopped socialising with the anti vax family. I’m sure we aren’t alone in this experience. Right to chose goes both ways and I think more and more people will chose to only mix with vaccinated people. Risk assessment isn’t just about eliminating, it’s about mitigating. Vaccines are mitigators.

I caught it from a fully vaxxed person. You could catch it from anyone.

@Waxonwaxoff0 Dies probability not happen in your world?

Does

[quote Porcupineintherough]@Waxonwaxoff0 Dies probability not happen in your world?[/quote]
Yep. And I caught Covid from a double vaxxed person. So unless you avoid everyone forever, odds are we're all going to catch it at some point.

I know it’s not what the OP is about but I would struggle being friends with people like that. I think hospital staff must be running out of patience with these people. Aren’t they the ones filling up hospitals at the moment?

Even your vaccinated contacts could still transmit, I'm afraid, so if you really want to protect your DH you'll need to effectively shield as much as possible until case numbers are much lower. It's crap, but not much anybody can do about that.
That said, if I had friends who were thick enough to believe the conspiracies and selfish enough not get vaccinated I'm not sure I could consider them friends any more anyway, and would just quietly withdraw from the 'friendship'. ...

Goady thread

Someone who believes covid is some kind of conspiracy isn't safe to have at only a couple of degrees of separation from a CEV person.

How likely are they to isolate or test if they have any likely symptoms?

How likely are they to even recognise covid symptoms?

I disagree with everyone I know on at least something, but I don't have any covid minimisers or deniers.

I have a very low tolerance for bullshit. I couldn't be friends with someone who was that detached from reality.

Vaccinated people can still pass Delta on, but generally the vaccinated are less infectious for less time. A vaccinated immune system responds effectively more quickly because it was trained to do so by the vaccine.

On day one of infection you can't tell the difference in the nose and throat between vaxxed and unvaxxed. After that the vaxxed are less infectious to others.

And probably more likely to isolate and avoid infecting others than someone who minimises or denies covid.