The global pandemic and the divisive discourse around vaccination are topics that won’t be going away any time soon. As you and your eligible immediate family become fully vaccinated, deciding how to navigate which family members you feel comfortable seeing and in what capacity, there might be strain with your vaxx hesitant and anti-vaxxer relatives. In an interview with Dr. Anthony Fauci on CBS This Morning on Monday, Gayle King opened up about her own tough family decisions she’s anticipating making in the upcoming holiday season: She won’t be having unvaccinated family members join her for thanksgiving. 

Fauci was on the show discussing the importance of getting fully vaccinated (meaning both doses of a Moderna or Pfizer vaccine or the single Johnson & Johnson shot) to protect oneself and others from the highly contagious Delta variant that’s on the rise — and the message really resonated with King.

“I don’t know how many more times you can say to people, ‘Listen, it will save your life,’” King said about the COVID-19 vaccines available right now. “I have this problem with some members of my own family, which I’m now going to ban for Thanksgiving vacation. That’s how strongly I’m taking what you’re saying.”

Setting boundaries with family for any reason can be difficult — particularly around the holiday season when the pressure to prioritize one kind of “togetherness” over all else is high and when we’ve had such a challenger year and half of extreme isolation.

But when it comes to the health decisions for you and your family, sometimes you have to make a call like King intends to make: Set a clear expectation of the rules of your gathering, household and what conditions need to be met if you are to feel safe. And then follow through!

King has been a huge advocate for the coronavirus vaccination effort in the United States and has said that, since being vaccinated, it’s done so much to alleviate the fears she’s developed since the pandemic began:”I was so afraid to leave the house, you’re right. We were broadcasting from here, so I’d literally go from my bedroom to the TV room to the kitchen to the bedroom to the TV room. For excitement I’d go stand in the living room and wave at the birds! ‘Hi, birds! Hi!’ I was so afraid,” she said in a conversation with Stephen Colbert back in May.”But now,, I am vaccinated… It is my superpower. I am vaccinated. … I’m taking little baby steps [back into the world].”

Here are some more great ideas to keep kids busy at home this season. 

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