Well, here we are, celebrating our second COVID Christmas.
It’s not exactly a repeat of last year, when no one was vaccinated and the best we could do to protect ourselves was to keep the size of social gatherings to a minimum, particularly indoors.
We’ve come a long way since then, and many of us now have not one but three doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
However, in some respects the situation seems as uncertain as ever. A more infectious variant of the virus is ripping its way around the world, and of course, not everyone has chosen to be vaccinated.
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A stubborn minority continues to refuse to get the jab, and what are we supposed to do about them this holiday season?
I’ve been speculating to myself for a while now about how the issue of unvaccinated friends and family was likely going to be the awkward elephant in the room this Christmas, and a recent news release has backed me up on that.
Rapid Test & Trace Canada, a Calgary company that sells COVID-19 test kits, says a recent survey found while 28.7 percent of arguments at holiday gathering will be about “things that happened decades ago” and 28.2 percent will be about politics, a whopping 57.2 percent of them are expected to be about COVID: 22.1 percent over “getting fully vaccinated,” 22.9 percent over “limiting visits due to COVID” and 12.2 percent over “getting a COVID test before visiting.”
The company also said only 46.5 percent of Canadians plan to ask family members and friends to get a COVID test before attending a gathering. As well, 7.7 percent of respondents said “they could never ask them to get a COVID test” and 6.3 percent said “they’d like to ask them, but can’t.”
Canadian men are much more concerned about asking potential guests for a COVID test before coming for a visit with 70.8 percent saying they “could never ask,” compared to 29.2 percent of women.
So there you have it. On the one hand, COVID vaccines have made it easier for many of us to feel a bit safer as we inch our way toward a new normal, but they have also ushered in a new level of social complexity.
Have a Merry (and safe) Christmas, everyone.
