Let's make the unvaccinated pay for their care in the ICU.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

They're always saying that, "Freedom isn't free!" Let's prove them right by sending them a bill for exercising their "right" to not get vaccinated.

Almost 95% of the COVID patients in the ICU are unvaccinated.

[Maru Kitteh]

1. And let's make the unvaccinated provide their care instead of

the nurses and doctors who have done everything we can to protect ourselves, our families and our patients.

[roamer65]

2. There soon will be zero ICU beds for them to occupy.

[Mariana]

5. Not just them, unfortunately.

People who have heart attacks, strokes, accidents, etc. won't be able to occupy those ICU beds, either.

[roamer65]

7. Sad, but true.

Tragically true.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

18. That's already happening in Mississippi.

The director of the University Medical Center in Jackson said that his hospital has failed, because there are no more ICU beds. Meanwhile, a field hospital is being set up in the hospital's parking structure for the less serious cases.

The anger I feel at T**** and his unvaccinated MAGA followers grows every day.

[roamer65]

19. I feel the same.

You have company in that anger.

[LisaL]

3. They are going have to pay for their care in ICU, aren't they?

If they don't have insurance, they will get a bill.

[flying_wahini]

4. When Insurance companies quit paying for unvaccinated people they will figure it out.

Long haulers won’t be able to get insurance coverage for their pre existing Covid conditions.
It will happen.

[leftstreet]

6. What makes you think everyone has insurance?

Lots of people will be getting bills

[MiniMe]

8. And pay for their weekly tests if they choose to not vaccinate in a place where they have said,

vaccinate or take a weekly test.

[irisblue]

9. Obamacare is going to save a lot of trumper maga ass

How many trumpers could afford hospital costs like they are running up now 10 yrs ago.

The financial crisis attached to housing is a precursor to the health care financial crisis on the way.

[Windy City Charlie]

10. Further

Further I'd love for a doctor to tell them, "You thought you were smarter than us doctors throughout this and wouldn't mask up and get vaccinated. Figure it out yourself. You're the one who knows it all"

[femmedem]

11. They wouldn't be able to pay and the hospitals would have to bear the costs.

So it isn't practical.

But also: I do get the anger. I do. But watch Don Lemon's profile of the people with Covid in a Louisiana hospital. Most aren't hardcore anti-vax. They had bad information. They thought they had more time. They thought the vaccine approval had been rushed. They made a mistake and cost them their health, and the health of innocent people, including children. But they don't sound as if they were selfish. They sound as if they were confused, misinformed, afraid, thought they had more time, thought they were being careful enough. If they were evil people, they wouldn't be trying to convince others to get vaccinated now.

So I don't want to stick them with the bill, beyond what anyone is stuck with. Just like I wouldn't want to make smokers pay for their lung cancer treatments, people who drove poorly to pay for their post-accident care, people who made bad nutritional decisions to pay for their treatment for heart disease and diabetes.

We are all fallible human beings. Some mistakes are more devastating than others. But I believe in keeping an open heart towards anyone who made their mistakes without malice.

[DET]

12. Beyond Caring Any More

I saw that interview, but I just can’t muster up the same empathy. It’s hard to be blind to the fact that there is a health crisis in your state when people all around you are dropping like flies. These people knew that they needed to be vaccinated, but they chose not to do so. They probably also didn’t wear masks. You have to show some personal responsibility at some point. I hope that the Federal Government (us) does not wind up picking up the enormous tab for these irresponsible people who inevitably will not be able to pay for their own care.

[femmedem]

13. I'll admit that my rage would be boundless if someone I loved couldn't get a hospital bed.

It might be easier for me to maintain my empathy because I live in Connecticut. Our cases are spiking but because of our high vaccination rate our hospitals aren't overwhelmed.

[luv2fly]

14. Exactly, thank you

"So I don't want to stick them with the bill, beyond what anyone is stuck with. Just like I wouldn't want to make smokers pay for their lung cancer treatments, people who drove poorly to pay for their post-accident care, people who made bad nutritional decisions to pay for their treatment for heart disease and diabetes."

All are willful choices, just like being unvaxxed.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

16. I didn't mean to come across as malicious. Sarcastic, yes, but not uncaring.

We all have our own weaknesses -- God know I've made my share of mistakes.

I guess that because when I grew up polio was the pandemic of choice I don't understand anyone who wouldn't do everything they could to make it go away. I still remember standing in line in junior high school to get my Sabin treated sugar cube. I remember watching the March of Dimes telethon and Jerry Lewis sing, "You'll never walk alone." I remember handing my dime-covered card to my teacher, and the pride I felt about doing something important.

I also remember the joy we, as a nation, felt when polio had been vanquished.

Education and persuasion are the paths out of this pandemic. Like you said, a lot of vaccine hesitancy is due to fear of the unknown. Getting the information out there is important, but in the end it has been shown that people are most persuaded by the testimonies of people they know and trust.

My greatest compassion is reserved for the doctors and nurses on the front line. When the vaccines came out and the infection rate diminished substantially I could almost hear a collective exhale of relief. Now, with the Delta variant seemlingly joining forces with the anti-vaxxers, it must feel like Lucy has yanked the football away. Doctors and nurses are human beings, too, and they have been stretched almost to the breaking point. I can't imagine what if feels like to have seen the light at the end of the tunnel replaced with a never-ending black hole.

Sorry I got upset in my last post. Last month I lost a friend of 30 years to COVID. Even though he was intelligent and well-informed, he still avoided getting vaccinated for what he must have felt was a good reason, even though being 75 and diabetic put a bulls eye on his chest. I guess I'm still processing the anger and frustration I feel about a death that didn't have to happen -- especially since I had seen him in person just three weeks before I got the call out of the blue: "James has died."

I want this thing to end before I lose anyone else, and before even more families suffer the pain of losing a child or parent.

Please, God, grant people the wisdom to choose wisely and take all the precautions necessary to end this horrible scourge on mankind.

[femmedem]

17. I'm so very sorry about the loss of your friend.

I've known people that have died of covid but I haven't lost anyone close to me, at least not yet. Mr. Femmedem is currently quarantining after learning that someone he'd spent several hours with just tested positive. I hope we will both be ok. We are both vaccinated, of course, as is his friend, who so far is asymptomatic.

I'm just barely too young to have lived through the polio epidemic, but I also find it nearly incomprehensible that so many people would rather risk covid than risk a vaccine.

Like you, I also felt such relief when the vaccines were rolled out. I teared up when I got my first short. And also like you, I struggle to find compassion for the people who by refusing the vaccine have caused so much suffering and death. I wrote as if that compassion comes easily to me, but it doesn't. I have to keep stretching myself to find it.

Thank you, LastLiberalInPalm Springs, for the most thoughtful reply I've ever received in my many years at DU.

[roamer65]

15. I find it impossible to care about people who don't care about their own health...

nor the health of others.