There is a segment of our population that believes, or at least wants to be persuaded, that the CDC, the FDA, Anthony Fauci, Nirav Shah and many other highly trained and honest health professionals are wrong about the necessity of wearing masks and getting vaccinated against COVID. Yet when these very same people get infected with COVID, as surely many of them eventually do (or will in the future), they are willing to be admitted to a hospital and be cared for by the very same health care professionals whose recommendations they would not follow just a few days previously.
If one chooses not to follow the advice of the medical community, then perhaps when that person gets sick with COVID that person should not be allowed to utilize the medical resources that might be used to save another patient. What happens to the patient who is diagnosed with colon cancer or breast cancer, a heart attack or who suffers trauma and needs medical care that, given in a timely fashion, will most likely save that patient’s life? Should that patient be denied treatment because an unvaccinated person now has COVID and is using the needed (and limited) hospital resources?
Also, that unvaccinated COVID patient is putting other people at risk. Unlike smoking or drinking to excess, which in the main only harms oneself, an unvaccinated unmasked COVID patient is potentially killing others. It is not unlike a drunk driver. It has gone from harming oneself to endangering others.
If one chooses to disregard medical recommendations in the beginning and follow the advice of those who disregard science, then that person should be responsible for their own actions and exercise the freedom of choice and seek medical treatment for their COVID related illness from the “experts” who told them not to get vaccinated or wear masks in the first place.
Let the hospitals treat the patients who trusted them all along.
Dr. John Van Orden,
West Bath
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