First of all, I am an enneagram 9. For those that aren’t familiar with the enneagram, nines hate conflict. I get so uncomfortable with confrontation of any kind. So this is not something I want to jump on the wagon and discuss publicly, but I’m going to brave because when I stumbled upon an old blog post coincidentally (I wasn’t looking for it and I don’t remember writing it) my husband said I should share it again. Here is some of what I wrote in March 2012 on MessyMom.com, in a blog post titled “Our Vaccine Choice“.

I took the kids in for their first well-child check up since we’ve moved. I wanted to make sure that we had a primary caregiver lined up before we actually NEEDED one. Besides that, SJ is two now, and for us that means it’s time to start immunizations. With Z this was a very positive experience and I even saved the band aid and put it in his baby book. Unfortunately this time was not as happy go lucky.
We were very open with the Doctor about our choice to delay vaccines, but that we were ready to get started with SJ and continue on with Z, and were interested in doing that at this visit. So the Doctor said that she was fine with that and that we would make up a schedule, but that it would take some time because they won’t be able to get all caught up in one day. Of course not, I said, the last thing I want is to give them a bunch of shots at once. And while I thought she was going to come back with a chart for us to discuss a schedule like I did with our previous pediatrician instead a nurse came in with a bunch of papers with information on all the different shots (7 to be exact) they were going to get.
I said “no, no, no, no, no… who are these for?” and she said “your children, they are way behind and these are the immunizations that the doctor has ordered up for me to give to them.” I tried to stay calm and explain that I was not interested in bombarding my children with a ton of shots all at once. We went back and forth for a bit, but I ended with, “I understand what you are trying to do, and I know that they are behind and it will take a long time for them to be caught up, but I am in no hurry and I feel comfortable starting with one for SJ and seeing how she handles it.”
I’ve watched a couple different Vaccine documentaries. One called Vaccines: what the CDC documents and science reveal and The Vaccine War that was featured on PBS. I read, and own, the book on Vaccines by Dr. Caves, along with countless articles from unbiased magazines. I’ve also read online articles by Dr. Miller and Dr. Sears. We’ve had several health care providers (from Texas, thank you very much) be involved in our delayed vaccine choices. I am grateful for vaccines and what they have done for society, but it also seems to be that too much of a good thing can be dangerous. I am not an expert, but J and I do try to stay current on the information that is available to us and reevaluate our decision periodically, but what the nurse I dealt with yesterday may not realize, is that it is not a choice that we have made blindly. I am grateful to live in a free country where we have the right to choose and make informed decision. This is something I will continue to fight for so that my children and grandchildren will also have these rights no matter what!
So you can see why this post from 2012 might be correlate with the situation we are in now in 2021. I know more people who are vaccinated than those who are not. I support everyone’s right to choose. My husband and I, along with our teenage son are not vaccinated. We all got Covid about a year ago.
 I would estimate at least 80% of the people I know personally, excluding young children, have had Covid at this point and no one in my close circle was hospitalized, but I do know of three people who were.  I’m just sharing a snapshot of what covid has looked like for me, it’s not a scientific study. I have a distant friend who lost her dad to Covid in April of 2020. It was heart breaking. Someone else I know in my community lost her husband to Covid recently. That was also heartbreaking. He was vaccinated by the way. No doubt we could sit and talk for hours about all the different sides of things. I still stand by what I said in 2012 though, “I am grateful to live in a free country where we have the right to choose [whether or not to vaccinate] and make informed decision. This is something I will continue to fight for so that my children and grandchildren will also have these rights no matter what!”