3G -> 2.5G -> 2G

[schneefink]

COVID-numbers in Austria are back to "very bad," what a surprise considering almost a third of the population is not fully vaccinated yet. Some stricter rules were introduced recently, people are encouraged to get booster shots after 6 months, and the mayor of Vienna has now said that there will be "2G" (genesen oder geimpft, recovered or vaccinated) rules in many places starting soon.

Several of my co-workers are not vaccinated. To be fair, two of them had COVID over half a year ago and recently had a test done that they still have antibodies and now don't understand why they should get vaccinated regardless. Another one has a chronic illness so I understood her initial hesitation half a year ago, but she refuses to even talk to her doctor about what they would advise. And it is so frustrating how they keep saying things that are just wrong. "It is everyone's personal decision that doesn't affect anyone else," that is not how it works. Or "a friend of a friend was fully vaccinated and still got COVID and had to go to the hospital, so clearly getting vaccinated doesn't really make a difference," uuugh. "These new restrictions are so outrageous, I'm amazed that there haven't been demonstrations," uh there have been many demonstrations how did you miss that. (That last one I don't really care about except to wonder where they get their news.) They keep reinforcing each other's views and I sometimes interrupt when it's something obviously wrong (and when they're speaking German) but I'm trying hard to hold back and be polite because I have to work with them every day. But. It is so frustrating. Arrrgh.
(I'm just glad there aren't any anti-vaxers in my family.)

Comments

[yuuago]

That sounds immensely frustrating. Sorry to hear you're dealing with that.

[schneefink]

Today one of them complained about how confusing it is that the rules are changing so quickly (more than fair) and then declared that she was moving to Sweden because Sweden is much more sensible, there was not a single lockdown there.
Me: "More people died in Sweden."
Her: "...so what? In Afghanistan children are starving, but nobody cares about that."
I had no idea what to even say to that *sighs*

[out_there]

I'm just glad there aren't any anti-vaxers in my family.

That is something to be thankful for.

[schneefink]

Indeed. And only one bad case of COVID so far and she is okay now. We are lucky.

[amalthia]

For some reason I thought Europeans were smarter than Americans. I think this proves humans are stupid everywhere....

I'm glad my husband was on board with getting the vaccine. One of my co-workers and his wife refused to vaccinate. Went on vacation, caught covid, and spent 10 days of their vacation really sick and probably infected half of his family too. I'm just glad he and his family survived but really he could have avoided all that if he'd just taken the vaccine.

[schneefink]

Some of them! Denmark e.g. is doing quite well.

Sorry to hear you have those co-workers too. So much could have been avoided if more people had just taken the vaccine.

[lilysea]

Argh!

People with chronic illness

a) desperately need to get vaccinated

b) should talk to their doctor about which vaccine is likely to be best for them - Moderna; Pfizer; Astra Zeneca - for some people with complex health issues, the choice of vaccine makes a difference

[schneefink]

I too would have thought that people with chronic illnesses would be more worried about getting COVID but apparently not in her case.

[jae]

WOW, your coworkers. Does it really not matter to them that they could pass it on to someone else? I just don't understand people like that at all. I would lose my mind with guilt if I infected someone who then went on to have a bad case.

[schneefink]

Apparently not? All of them know someone who had a mild case so clearly it's not that serious a disease. *eyeroll*

[lilly_the_kid]

Ugh, I'm sorry you have to deal with that.

There are some people I know (thankfully only very few) who talk nonsense like 'I'm not anti vax, but' and then some bullshit about not enough research or whatever and I don't understand why they keep bringing it up. It's like they want my approval or something. I only say that vaccines are one of the most important inventions ever and that I don't have anything else to say about it. One of those people got vaccinated lately and her husband as well, so at least there's that. But it's exhausting.

[schneefink]

Yes, it's exhausting. Sorry to hear you have to deal with those people too.

[dancing_serpent]

Wow, that must be super frustrating!

(I'm just glad there aren't any anti-vaxers in my family.)

One of my cousins and her husband fell down the conspiracy hole and refuse to get the whole family vaxxed. They get no sympathy or understanding from the rest of the relatives, but they don't care. What's worse: Her work means she needs to enter other people's homes and come in close contact to them. I'd cancel my contract with her in a moment if I were one of her customers!

[schneefink]

Her work means she needs to enter other people's homes and come in close contact to them.
Wow. That sucks for her customers, who probably have no idea.

[dancing_serpent]

Yeah, it's absolutely irresponsible! She and her family also live in the same house as her mother, and on the same property as her father, her sister and their family. (Two houses close together, sharing a garden.) There are five children under ten years old running around. I really don't understand it.

[sheron]

I'm sorry to hear this, and I hope things improve.

I thankfully don't know anyone who isn't vaxxed which is a big relief.

[schneefink]

I still have some degree of hope that they will get vaccinated because they will get tired of having to do PCR tests every three days for work, but so far no luck...

[myrdschaem]

That has to be frustrating as hell, I am so sorry.

[schneefink]

I keep telling myself that it would be a bad idea to make my coworkers mad at me *sighs*

[michelel72]

I had the same reaction as amalthia -- your coworkers sound so surprisingly American to me. I'm sorry you're dealing with that same sort of nonsense.

[schneefink]

It would be nice (for us) if such stupidity were restricted to Americans but nope, there are plenty of people like that here. (Though, at least I hope, still fewer full-blown conspiracy theorists.) A new party catering mostly to vaccine and mask skeptics just recently reached 6% at a local county election.

[nonesensed]

It's frightening how such a large number of people have decided that vaccines are Bad Now based on misinformation on social media and their own gut feelings. It'd be one thing if not getting vaccinated truly was a risk you only took on yourself, buuuuut the whole "spreading a virus that can kill people"-part seems to have gone over a lot of people's heads - or they're just refusing to admit they're risking other people's lives. I get it up to a point, but when a vaccine is _popular with rich people_ who generally don't need to do anything unless they want to, for the common good or no, you'd assume people'd realize the vaccine isn't a hoax (then again, some people can spin conspiracies out of anything...)

I sympathize with your dilemma. Fighting with/lecturing coworkers rarely leads to good things, even when they definitely deserve to get an earful.

[schneefink]

they're just refusing to admit they're risking other people's lives
That's the impression I'm getting. It just doesn't seem to occur to them as an actual real possibility. *headdesk*