Source: vgajic / Getty
As of July 4, 2021, nearly 70 percent of American adults received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, says the Kaiser Family Foundation. That’s the good news.
However, while rapid dispersion of the vaccine was slowing new COVID-19 cases for a while, now there’s the new threat of the Delta variant, which Yale Medicine reports is more contagious and more dangerous than any other strain. Unvaccinated individuals are at a greater risk for contraction than vaccinated ones. Of course, you can tell this all day to individuals who won’t get the vaccine and you probably won’t change their minds. Their reasoning tends to be rooted in emotions rather than science. If you can’t make loved ones get vaccinated, how do you interact with them? And how do you talk to them about your concerns? Here are some tips for talking to friends who won’t get the vaccine.
Source: lechatnoir / Getty
Your social boundaries must be respected
It’s easy to be so concerned with not offending anybody that you actually put your own health and safety at risk. In the same way that you will not be forceful about making friends do something that makes them feel unsafe (getting the vaccine), they cannot make you do something that makes you feel unsafe. Perhaps you don’t want to have unvaccinated individuals inside of your home, and prefer to only meet for outdoor activities with them. If they try to shame or guilt you for leaving them out of your indoor party because they aren’t vaccinated, you can ask that they respect your boundaries, just as you are respecting theirs by not pressuring them to get vaccinated.
