Thread by @SholaHoon

Hi Twitter Unvaccinated folks and Vaccine Non-Believers,

Look, I totally understand you think I’m a moron for believing in vaccines, being vaccinated and boosted against COVID-19.

I mean, I was only following my doctor’s advice. You know I’m on strong immunosuppressives

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Given that like millions of Americans, I have an autoimmune disorder and underlying conditions that make me more susceptible to severe disease.

Since the beginning of the pandemic I’ve been reading through tweets from doctors like @ashishkjha and @DrLeanaWen

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Trying to glean out what would happen if I came down with the virus 🦠. What would happen to my family if I didn’t recover? I’d lost my job and health insurance due to the pandemic recession.

I read @Laurie_Garrett’s “The Coming Plague” and scoured @apoorva_nyc reporting.

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I closely looked over every word from virologists and epidemiologists like @angie_rasmussen and @michaelmina_lab.

I freaked out when @tomhanks got it. He’s America’s sweetheart fell into the trap when he said “you don’t want this virus.”

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So, when the Pfizer vaccine dropped, I got in line like my doctor asked me to and on faith that it would be okay even if it didn’t work, got jabbed twice.

Meanwhile my unvaccinated brother and mother both came down with it and recovered, but my aunt unfortunately succumbed.

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Worrier that I am, I worried about my kids who started hybrid school, encouraging them to keep masked, to keep all of us safe.

Delta came, we hunkered down. The stress of survival, of isolation, depression and uncertainty made my autoimmune condition worse.

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I am, we all are, part of a system, a circle of life. I did not ever want to transmit the virus, if I caught it, to anyone else. They said the vaccine might do that, so I felt being vaccinated was a little bonus if that was true.

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So, when they said get boosted, like a lab mouse 🐁 in I went despite knowing that breakthrough infections were real.

I hung on to every word of #TonyFauci interviews by @NPRKelly and @NPRinskeep, for nothing else, but hope.

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Hope is hard, more people are getting sick, even little babies like @asmamk’s which makes me sick to my stomach for a young working mother like her. I don’t know why I care, but I do. I’ve never met her, yet I think of when my kids were that young and had the flu, it sucked.

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I wish this virus would go away, I wish it were a lie, I wish none of us had to deal with it. But here we are.

I just want to survive this. The only way I know how to survive is to listen to my doctors and hope. Hope that the vaccines will work

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And hope that I’ll be okay if the vaccines don’t work. I only encourage everyone to get vaccinated based on what I’ve read, the illness I’ve seen in my family and so far, apart from mild side effects those, including me that I’ve seen take the vaccine are all okay.

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I’m still masking out of an abundance of caution so that if I’m a breakthrough case, I don’t inadvertently give it to someone like me or a little child. I couldn’t live with myself if I did.

Look, just like you I’m trying to live, survive and be happy.

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You don’t have to listen to my request to get vaccinated. I understand you are smarter than me. I’m merely a lab 🧪 mouse 🐭.

But, let me have my freedom of speech and freedom to live and freedom to breathe freely. I’m no hero, I’m just a different you.

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You don’t have to stoop to my dumbness and respond to what I say. I respect your intelligence and research, I only hope you’re right. Hope is all I have.

So, please carry on scrolling when you see a post from me. I just want to live happily, thrive and survive like you.

/Fin

For those of you who are reading this thread and supportive, I’d really appreciate it if you could retweet it.

I have heard clearly from some of you that I’m not alone. 🙏

Can we please let others like me know that they are not alone?

I really appreciate your help. 🙏