Thread by @mkhammer

For the life of me, I don’t know why the public health messaging is to talk down very effective vaccines with “probably shouldn’t change anything you’re doing after you’re vaccinated.”

Be a person who does things, *especially* after vaccination.
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Many, many people have heard me preach on this in real life, & now y’all will, too. We can do better risk analysis than this. When facts on the ground change, our behavior can adjust without being jerks or menaces! We know more than we did in spring of 2020 about how to do that.

A lot of people (and I’m talking low-risk, healthy folks, not high-risk, whose calculations are necessarily different) have been convinced that they must reach an impossibly low risk threshold to do things, even post-vaccination.

Now, here’s my frustration, & indulge me in a personal story many of you know. A one-in-a-million very bad thing happened to me in 2015. My young, healthy husband died at 34 years old in an organized cycling race, despite his skill and precautions.

That was an extremely low-probability event. But there was nonetheless a temptation to organize my life around fear of another such event. It’s not totally irrational! The one-in-a-million thing happened to me. But if I lived trying to avoid that level of risk, I’d live no life.

I knew that was the fight I was up against, in my own head. I knew it was the thing that would keep my kids from doing normal kid things. I asked my friends & family to hold me accountable for living boldly. Not recklessly, but boldly.

Coming back from trauma is not easy, & this year has held some form of trauma for everyone. I worked hard, w professional help, to train myself to calculate risks and take tiny steps through, say, getting on a plane, when my brain told me it was more scary & dangerous than it was

“Can I pack my suitcase?” Yes. “Can I get in the car and drive to the airport?” Yes. “Can I make it to the gate?” Yes. Tiny steps, fighting through, getting easier and easier.

And still sometimes I’m really bad at assessing my risk accurately! Most humans are! But the facts are truly a gift on the question of vaccinations. They can and should change your life. You have less risk and you *pose* less risk! Vanishingly, blessedly small levels of risk.

Assess your risk, get a vaccine when you can, and go get your life! This is not some loony, reckless idea. It’s not disrespectful or menacing. It is pro-vax and pro-reason. We’re all gonna have issues coming out of this season, but every single day you have here is a gift.

Use every gift you have at your disposal to go live all of them.