vaccines: envy and etiquette

[redbird]

Captain Awkward just posted an article on "Vaccines: Envy and Etiquette": suggestions of what to say and do, and what not to say, if you have already been vaccinated against Covid, as well as suggestions for people who are still trying to schedule an appointment.

If you're reading this, you'll probably be nodding or thinking "I know that already" about some of it, but maybe not all, and Jennifer is a good writer.

Comments

[ambyr]

The main thing I would like is for people to stop helpfully suggesting ways I can get vaccinated. I am not eligible. Yes, there are ways I could get vaccinated anyway! Yes, I too have heard that [small town several hours away] has excess vaccine and that if I just showed up I could get a shot, no questions asked! But I am not eligible, and until such a time as I am, I am not going to go chasing a vaccine hither and yon (never mind that I cannot drive anyway).

...sorry. Not to imply you’re doing this! But there’s been a lot of it lately, and it’s something the CA article doesn’t really address.

[redbird]

Yes, "I'm waiting until it's my turn" ought to be a sufficient answer, and I'm sorry people are being hlepy at you.

[moem]

I wish I were already trying to schedule an appointment! It will be months before it's my turn.

[cmcmck]

How it works varies country to country of course. Our scheme is centralised and people have at least some idea of when they'll get their shots.

[sabotabby]

I wish I was in the position of trying to schedule an appointment! That seems so far off. I'm a frontline worker with underlying health conditions, but our government has bungled the rollout so badly that it'll likely be June for me, unless the waiting list I'm on comes through or the federal government intervenes. It's frustrating as fuck to see people younger and healthier than me who can work from home who are getting it, but they absolutely should get it—I blame government and the pharmaceutical companies for not making it open source and available to everyone right away.

[kylinn]

The thing that stymies me is when casually chatting with co-workers. ("You're getting your second shot this week? That's wonderful!") is to run into someone who say "I'm not planning to get it. I don't do doctors; I don't get shots." Just... uh.. pardon me? My response was "I see." because I'm sure they already know about herd immunity and all that and they don't strike me as one of the loonies who think the vaccines will be injecting nanobots in their blood or something, and I had no idea how else to react.

To my mind it is utterly immoral to be able to get a shot and choose not do so just because. This is not the equivalent of saying "if I want to risk getting sick it's my choice"; it's the equivalent of saying "I don't mind if I get this thing and go around like Typhoid Mary, spreading it wherever I go." How does one deal with something like this? *throws up hands in the air*

[redbird]

Yeah. I might ask "why not?" if it was someone I knew moderately well, but in that context, I'm not sure I could think of anything useful to say, if there even is something that would help.

[sine_nomine]

The thing that is bothering me most of all (disclaimer:haven't read CA yet) is how many people think "Have you gotten your vaccine yet?" and similarly related questions are now okay small talk. The number of folks who have asked (and who don't have to know) is astounding and ranges from close friends to total strangers. Whatever happened to personal medical information?

I have to make time to read CA, because I am sure she's come up with a modern-day version of Ann Landers' classic MYOB that I can deploy

[ethelmay]

That honestly never occurred to me. I guess I think of immunizations as one of the least personal/private kinds of health care, especially when it's an all-hands-on-deck kind of emergency situation. I think of it as a subject to avoid with strangers for political reasons, not privacy.

[bibliofile]

Yes, thanks, good article. And reading it also led to the articles on staying in touch, and thinking about the various sets of interrelated issues. Don't yet know how I'll deal with all the situations, but as usual CA's a good starting place.

[switterbeet]

A friend recently expressed some sentiments about not wanting to make me feel envious because she got her shot and mine is realistically, coming sometime in June at the earliest. I was a bit baffled by this, but I guess it kinda makes sense. I tried to let her know that I'm /relieved/ because she's one less person who could be a vector and one less person I need to be seriously worried for.