  We carry out astrophysical inference for compact binary merger events in
LIGO-Virgo's first gravitational-wave transient catalog (GWTC-1) using a
physically motivated calibration model. We demonstrate that importance sampling
can be used to reduce the cost of what would otherwise be a computationally
challenging analysis. We show that including the physical estimate for the
calibration error distribution has negligible impact on the inference of
parameters for the events in GWTC-1. Studying a simulated signal with matched
filter signal-to-noise ratio $\text{SNR}=200$, we project that a calibration
error estimate typical of GWTC-1 is likely to be negligible for the current
generation of gravitational-wave detectors. We argue that other sources of
systematic error---from waveforms, prior distributions, and noise
modelling---are likely to be more important. Finally, using the events in
GWTC-1 as standard sirens, we infer an astrophysically-informed improvement on
the estimate of the calibration error in the LIGO interferometers.
