"Health care is either a human right, which means it’s a human right for the vaccinated and the unvaccinated, or it’s not a human right at all. Are are we saying that all human rights are okay to deny to unvaccinated people? Are we saying that taking a shot, the contents of which we have no idea and is scary to contemplate, is now the basis for all human worth?"
First of all, it's interesting to see you on the "health care is a human right" train. That wasn't on my bingo card, so thank you for starting off my day in a more novel way than I would have predicted.
If we follow down that line of reasoning, I think it's not a reach to say that anti-vaxxers who catch COVID are entitled to health care. However, a massive gaping hole in this reasoning is to what extent anti-vaxxers who catch COVID can deny *others* their healthcare when they overwhelm the available medical resources, and there are no beds available to the passengers in a horrific bus accident who need medical attention that is being spent on avoidable COVID cases. This is not a hypothetical, but happening now in Idaho:
"The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare on Monday activated its 'crisis standards of care' in 10 northern hospitals hard-hit by staff shortages, hospital bed shortages, and a "massive increase in patients with COVID-19 who require hospitalization," the department announced Tuesday."
"The crisis standards mean that the quality of care in those hospitals will be reduced for all patients. Resources will be rationed, and patients with the best chances of survival may be prioritized."
"In practice, that could mean that: emergency medical services may prioritize which 911 calls they respond to; some people who would normally be admitted to the hospital will instead be turned away; some admitted patients may be sent home earlier than typical or may find their hospital bed in a repurposed area of the hospital, like a conference room; and, in the worst cases, hospital staff might not be able to provide an intensive care unit bed or a ventilator to a patient who has a relatively low chance of survival."[1]
This is Sarah Palin's "death panels" being enacted not by evil technocrats in Washington DC, but hospitals and doctors on the ground who simply do not have the resources to treat everyone coming to them for medical attention. What's happening is that infected anti-vaxxers are executing a healthcare denial-of-service attack that adversely affects the rest of the population.
How do you expect the rest of the population to react? To shrug their shoulders when people in car accidents die due to a lack of resources or attention? To applaud the clot of anti-vaxxers clogging up the healthcare system for their fidelity to misguided values that led them from getting the shot, and keeps them from wasting medical resources in the first place? The people who did the responsible thing and got the shot have just as much of a right to healthcare as the snowflake anti-vaxxers, so is it really that unreasonable (especially for a self-proclaimed conservative) to prioritize and reserve resources for the portion of the population that acted responsibly, and let the irresponsible bear the consequences (reduced access to care, lower prioritization of attention, paying the full costs of an avoidable hospital stay, etc.) of the choice that they that they so proudly made? Healthcare is a very finite resource, so even if everyone has a "right" to it, would communities who shepherd and protect that limited resources by reducing its access to COVID free-riders be acting all that unreasonably?
Everyone gets the best healthcare all the time makes sense in a world where healthcare resources are infinite. Unfortunately, we (and especially northern Idaho) doesn't have the luxury of living in that alternative universe.
I like to think of myself as an average old white guy who tries to pay attention to things that matter to me. After the last two days commentary, i found myself compelled to speak out. I have never in my lifetime used Jimmy Kimmel or the Rollingstone magazine as my go to sources for information, data or news.
I get it; trying to write a column or two a day is a drag and so to make your points you are forced to use obscure and outlandish commentary. I wouldn't even mind all that much if the thrust of what you write wasn't so impactful to those reading it. Nope, you guys don't have that big a following, but i suspect big enough to influence some, especially where you live.
Here's my point: Every freaking time you write about covid19 and or vaccinations you always encourage the shot. That's a good thing. Then you shift to the alternative reality like so many others and throw in, get the shot...BUT. And let me just say, IMHO, that BUTT becomes bigger than Kim K's.
Trump urged get the shot...but. Countless others, get the shot...but. Then you've got that whole feckless bunch like American Frontline Doctors out there telling people not to get the shot. You've got hundreds of people posting horror stories of how the shot disabled them. The nonsense about chips and magnets and idiocy beyond comprehension. The preachers from the pulpit telling them to trust God and not get vaccinated.
Then we can get to the asshats showing up at school board meetings and making a mockery of a system where they are trying to get kids back in school but doing it safely. Or how about the young man who showed up to talk about his grandmother, a teacher who died of Covid19 he claimed she caught from an unmasked student? You know, the one the jackasses in the crowd mocked and laughed at him.
Sorry Steve, the simple reality is we are never going back to normal. People will continue to die in frightening numbers and our health care system is overwhelmed. And the bigger reality is this is because we as a country refused to get the shots that would have stopped it near on dead in its tracks. There's no longer a reason for adding your "but" to the argument. We've lost because for too long, so many have been half-hearted or absolutely foolish in their responses. Be nice you say? Why? Where has it gotten us?
Georgia, your home state is at 42 % vaccinated. That is pathetic. It won't get a hell of a lot better, so now we can all live with the outcomes of the anti-vaxers and anti-maskers and covid deniers who have insured we all will be losers. It's sickening, and while in the beginning you led the charge, your continued "but" has been at least as shameful as the dummies...you understood it from the beginning and somehow could justify their actions or should i say non-actions.
I'm glad i am an old man with no kids. Here's the ugly reality you all will have to face. The children will be the next horrible statistic and then the anti-maskers will be screaming about why they had to die? Here's my answer to them...look in the freaking mirror.
Medical triage is a thing and it is the moral decision to treat those who did what was right before treating those who didn't.
When I went to see the lung transplant team about prolonging my life they told me i had to maintain a certain weight, be able to walk a certain distance, and not put anything bad for my lungs into my body. They didn't care whether I agreed with the science or not. This is what was required. Treating people for COVID should be exactly the same. If you can save everyone do so, but the minute you start having to pick and choose you kick those ignorant buffoons out and treat those who actually respect the people trying to save their lives.
"Health care is either a human right, which means it’s a human right for the vaccinated and the unvaccinated, or it’s not a human right at all. Are are we saying that all human rights are okay to deny to unvaccinated people? Are we saying that taking a shot, the contents of which we have no idea and is scary to contemplate, is now the basis for all human worth?"
First of all, it's interesting to see you on the "health care is a human right" train. That wasn't on my bingo card, so thank you for starting off my day in a more novel way than I would have predicted.
If we follow down that line of reasoning, I think it's not a reach to say that anti-vaxxers who catch COVID are entitled to health care. However, a massive gaping hole in this reasoning is to what extent anti-vaxxers who catch COVID can deny *others* their healthcare when they overwhelm the available medical resources, and there are no beds available to the passengers in a horrific bus accident who need medical attention that is being spent on avoidable COVID cases. This is not a hypothetical, but happening now in Idaho:
"The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare on Monday activated its 'crisis standards of care' in 10 northern hospitals hard-hit by staff shortages, hospital bed shortages, and a "massive increase in patients with COVID-19 who require hospitalization," the department announced Tuesday."
"The crisis standards mean that the quality of care in those hospitals will be reduced for all patients. Resources will be rationed, and patients with the best chances of survival may be prioritized."
"In practice, that could mean that: emergency medical services may prioritize which 911 calls they respond to; some people who would normally be admitted to the hospital will instead be turned away; some admitted patients may be sent home earlier than typical or may find their hospital bed in a repurposed area of the hospital, like a conference room; and, in the worst cases, hospital staff might not be able to provide an intensive care unit bed or a ventilator to a patient who has a relatively low chance of survival."[1]
This is Sarah Palin's "death panels" being enacted not by evil technocrats in Washington DC, but hospitals and doctors on the ground who simply do not have the resources to treat everyone coming to them for medical attention. What's happening is that infected anti-vaxxers are executing a healthcare denial-of-service attack that adversely affects the rest of the population.
How do you expect the rest of the population to react? To shrug their shoulders when people in car accidents die due to a lack of resources or attention? To applaud the clot of anti-vaxxers clogging up the healthcare system for their fidelity to misguided values that led them from getting the shot, and keeps them from wasting medical resources in the first place? The people who did the responsible thing and got the shot have just as much of a right to healthcare as the snowflake anti-vaxxers, so is it really that unreasonable (especially for a self-proclaimed conservative) to prioritize and reserve resources for the portion of the population that acted responsibly, and let the irresponsible bear the consequences (reduced access to care, lower prioritization of attention, paying the full costs of an avoidable hospital stay, etc.) of the choice that they that they so proudly made? Healthcare is a very finite resource, so even if everyone has a "right" to it, would communities who shepherd and protect that limited resources by reducing its access to COVID free-riders be acting all that unreasonably?
Everyone gets the best healthcare all the time makes sense in a world where healthcare resources are infinite. Unfortunately, we (and especially northern Idaho) doesn't have the luxury of living in that alternative universe.
[1] https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/09/idaho-begins-rationing-care-as-hospitals-crumple-under-covid-load/
I like to think of myself as an average old white guy who tries to pay attention to things that matter to me. After the last two days commentary, i found myself compelled to speak out. I have never in my lifetime used Jimmy Kimmel or the Rollingstone magazine as my go to sources for information, data or news.
I get it; trying to write a column or two a day is a drag and so to make your points you are forced to use obscure and outlandish commentary. I wouldn't even mind all that much if the thrust of what you write wasn't so impactful to those reading it. Nope, you guys don't have that big a following, but i suspect big enough to influence some, especially where you live.
Here's my point: Every freaking time you write about covid19 and or vaccinations you always encourage the shot. That's a good thing. Then you shift to the alternative reality like so many others and throw in, get the shot...BUT. And let me just say, IMHO, that BUTT becomes bigger than Kim K's.
Trump urged get the shot...but. Countless others, get the shot...but. Then you've got that whole feckless bunch like American Frontline Doctors out there telling people not to get the shot. You've got hundreds of people posting horror stories of how the shot disabled them. The nonsense about chips and magnets and idiocy beyond comprehension. The preachers from the pulpit telling them to trust God and not get vaccinated.
Then we can get to the asshats showing up at school board meetings and making a mockery of a system where they are trying to get kids back in school but doing it safely. Or how about the young man who showed up to talk about his grandmother, a teacher who died of Covid19 he claimed she caught from an unmasked student? You know, the one the jackasses in the crowd mocked and laughed at him.
Sorry Steve, the simple reality is we are never going back to normal. People will continue to die in frightening numbers and our health care system is overwhelmed. And the bigger reality is this is because we as a country refused to get the shots that would have stopped it near on dead in its tracks. There's no longer a reason for adding your "but" to the argument. We've lost because for too long, so many have been half-hearted or absolutely foolish in their responses. Be nice you say? Why? Where has it gotten us?
Georgia, your home state is at 42 % vaccinated. That is pathetic. It won't get a hell of a lot better, so now we can all live with the outcomes of the anti-vaxers and anti-maskers and covid deniers who have insured we all will be losers. It's sickening, and while in the beginning you led the charge, your continued "but" has been at least as shameful as the dummies...you understood it from the beginning and somehow could justify their actions or should i say non-actions.
I'm glad i am an old man with no kids. Here's the ugly reality you all will have to face. The children will be the next horrible statistic and then the anti-maskers will be screaming about why they had to die? Here's my answer to them...look in the freaking mirror.
Medical triage is a thing and it is the moral decision to treat those who did what was right before treating those who didn't.
When I went to see the lung transplant team about prolonging my life they told me i had to maintain a certain weight, be able to walk a certain distance, and not put anything bad for my lungs into my body. They didn't care whether I agreed with the science or not. This is what was required. Treating people for COVID should be exactly the same. If you can save everyone do so, but the minute you start having to pick and choose you kick those ignorant buffoons out and treat those who actually respect the people trying to save their lives.