Hello all, just a quick update for those of you who may have seen my post a few days ago on here. I’m not sure if there’s an easier way to do this but here goes:

I was able to get through to my mother (who happens to be a medical assistant) and she’s told me that at her yearly checkup which is coming up soon that she’ll ask about the TDAP shot. She also told me that she’s going to “handle it”, and she’s made an appointment for my father to speak to a doctor about getting vaxxed, too.

My sister seems like a lost cause still, but she’s told me she’s “working on it”.

As for the rest of my family, my aunt in particular has took it upon herself to tell my whole family (many of which are resistant or st least ambivalent to vaccines), and she called me the other day to ask if I’m “still retarded”, aka still asking people to get updated shots. I said yes, and she basically went off on me saying that I’m “anti-love”, “anti-family”, and an asshole for stopping my dad from seeing his first grandson. I didn’t really react in any kind of way except to say that “this talk doesn’t work on me”, and I called her “retarded” when she told me that when her youngest was born, his paternal grandparents were sick but she still let them come see him with masks on and nothing happened. So I’m basically enemy #1 in the family drama right now. But that’s ok.

Thank you all for your responses on my previous post.

—— Original text:

Hi all, I’m 29F and currently 34weeks pregnant. I just left my OB appointment for a routine check and to get the TDAP vaccine for whooping cough. My doctor and pharmacist told me that anyone who plans to hold the baby or spend a significant amount of time around the baby should also get the TDAP shot, as whooping cough is often asymptomatic. I called my family to let them know, and my sister called me afterward to discuss it and basically plead her case for why she won’t get it.

For background, my sister (23f) lives at home with my parents and the three of them are basically anti-vaxxers since covid. My parents are 100% repulsed by vaccines (despite my dad being hospitalized for COVID once) and my sister claims that “some” vaccines are ok, but when push comes to shove she refuses all vaccines, citing that “people still got covid after the vaccine” and “I don’t want to get sick after a vaccine because the vaccine gives you the sickness”. If you ask me, she’s also scared of needles.

My sister only works 3 days a week, and the plan was that starting one month after the baby is born, she would care for him 2 days a week so I can work on those days. So her getting any recommended vaccine, in my view, is extremely important.

I tried to explain to her that 1) vaccines don’t necessarily prevent spread, they prevent the worst symptoms, and 2) live vaccines contain a tiny amount of the virus but not enough to actually give you the full blown illness. She stood firm on “no. I’m not doing it.”

At this point I got triggered because the whole antivax rhetoric is so anti-scientific and self-absorbed. I told her “do you think you know better than a doctor and a pharmacist who works with babies every day and went to school for 8+ years??” To which she replied “I know that our dad didn’t get the [covid] vaccine and he’s fine”

That comment was so unrelated and nonsensical to me that I said “the reason I’m getting heated is because you and our parents are so full of yourselves that you think that you’re smarter than the thousands of doctors who recommend these medications, and that makes you not a smart person” and then she hung up.

I then got a call from my mom (antivax) who said my sister was crying and “you can’t force someone to do something with their body”, and I said “I know, but there will be consequences to her choice and she’ll regret her choice. I think her choice is stupid.”

AITAH?