1/ We need to have a talk.. I’m seeing a lot of y’all coming dangerously close to shaming folks, even other nurses... for not deciding to get vaccinated as quickly as YOU feel they should. Now, I’m NOT talking about Anti-vaxx/science Nurses... Let me make something clear y’all!

2/ Autonomy is one of the core tenets I learned in fundamentals of nursing at 18 years old.. & not every nurse or otherwise who remains hesitant is doing so for anti-vaxx reasons nor or all necessarily anti-science.

3/ Do I wish more would consider getting vaccinated sooner? OF COURSE! but I also want to address the fact that being in a scientific field, like nursing, doesn’t negate folks other social identities & experiences that impact with how they interact science in some circumstances.

4/ I got vaccinated fairly early on, end of December, always knew I would take it if offered... but I also waited until the end of December.. bc I wanted to see how folks and my local area faired... expected they would fair well.. but bc it’s something going in my body, I watched

5/ Even though and a believer in science.. I am a Black Man who has to calculate and filter most all information in life through that lens as well. Science is not perfect and is often NOT absolute... and like Dr. Prescod-Weinstein mention.. even science involves faith..

6/ not necessarily requiring faith in a cosmic deity, but faith that the science and statistics will work out as you hope they will. So we need to becareful about painting folks who are still making decisions about this as inherently all being anti-science or not caring.

7/ Of course, there are some folks whom are perpetuating false information and ideas.. and they needed to be called and dragged accordingly..

8/ Our convincing folks to get vaccinated will NOT come about by creating a rhetoric of shame as a blanket for every single person or colleague who hasn’t decided to get vaccinated on the schedule that WE feel they should.. especially if they are folks who are complying w/masking

9/ and social distancing and such in the meantime..

We can’t get frustrated because people, who otherwise believe in vaccines and science, are still in need of decision support. There’s no magic point or trick that will hasten any of this, folks will come to you when they will, hopefully sooner than later.. but we can’t force this

11/ More thoughts on all of this... we need to reckon with this deeper idea that our positionality as scientists and clinicians gives us the right or authority to stand in judgement of folks exercising agency over their own bodies. This goes beyond just vaccine uptake talk.