Health insurance plans and other types of insurance are increasing their rates on those that are not vaccinated too. This is similar to what they do for people that are smokers, drive sports cars, and such. Yet, no matter the increasing costs...people still smoke and still drive dangerous cars without any government mandates to prevent such. Yet, the increased healthcare cost on those that does such...its a fair compromise. Once again, the issue for me is not the efficacy of Vaccines to prevent infection. I'm more concerned about the effectiveness of Vaccines to prevent hospitalization, ICU admission, or Death because that's where the drag on the economic recovery is problematic. So far, that drag on the economic recovery has been those not vaccinated. In addition, the timing of this government mandate occurring soon after government unemployment benefits ran out. That's clever (sneaky). wrbtrader
The majority of ER visits are not true emergencies, including Covid sufferers, so I am told. If that is true, it would suggest a more efficient ER intake system is necessary instead of using hospital capacity issues as a justification to compel people to get a vaccine for a virus of moderate risk to public health. Many, possibly most, true emergency visits to the ER involve some sort of decision by the victim accept risk related to their health issue, such as smoking, speeding, not wearing a seat belt, substance abuse, poor diet, lack of exercise, etc. Therefore, it is unfair to attribute hospital utilization rates solely on Covid sufferers. The bigger picture involves weighing the potential short term benefits of vaccines and the short and especially, long term downsides to vaccines. Long term vaccine downsides include a large population group with weakened immune systems versus other virus types, including emerging viruses than may be truly dangerous, and undefined risks related to MRNA vaccines. For all the testing that have been done on pharmaceuticals and other products intended for healthcare, subsequently FDA approved, there are numerous examples of long term adverse outcomes leading to class action lawsuits and product withdrawals from the marketplace. Our healthcare industry, their regulators, and our politicians often do not know what is best for us, especially considering the spectrum of individual circumstances or even the big picture, especially on a longer term time horizon. Covid’s hazards are not serious enough for authorities and or businesses to mandate, compel, social engineer, fine, or force frequent testing on the general public. People, including parents, should be allowed to make unencumbered vaccination decisions for themselves and their children. Speaking of children and their naturally robust immunes systems, are they not the best candidates for natural immunity? Exposing children to vaccine risks for a virus that is unlikely to cause them harm is malpractice, at best, in my opinion.
The issue is not ER visits; but where the unvaxxed are assigned ICU beds, decreasing the availability of ICU beds and other resources for traditional patients. Again, this has been all over the news lately.
Just a note on ER visits. For general medicine many ER visits are not true emergencies. People are effectively using ER as their doctors -- many times it is because they don't have insurance or a primary care doctor. For Covid this has been different -- most people showing up at hospitals seeking treatment of Covid as their primary problem have low oxygen levels and trouble breathing by the time they show up at the ER for treatment. As minimum this requires treatment with oxygen before the person is released (many times it requires much more). These Covid cases are true ER emergencies. In many instances their primary care physician forwarded these patients to the hospital because the standard primary care doctor's office does not have oxygen, etc. for treating these type of Covid conditions.
Covid is so serious and overwhelming to hospitals in Kentucky they had to call up the national guard for emergency support. What planet do you live on? https://www.kentucky.com/news/coronavirus/article254100988.html
It's a sad fact that you explained. Its the same fact that my brother (an ER Doctor, sister and ER nurse and girlfriend an ICU nurse) had explained to me why Covid infected people that go to the ER are such a burden on the healthcare system...resulting in those Covid patients preventing other patients from access to proper medical care. Just as sad of a fact...most +90% of these Covid patients are not vaccinated and I'm not talking about children that can not be vaccinated. It is the same reason why healthcare insurance companies are getting involved via increasing their rates on those seeking Covid illness care as a not vaccinated person...same with disability insurance companies now starting to do the same. I feel sorry for someone that needs medical care (e.g. car accident victim, stroke, heart attack, kid with broken leg, et cetera) and is sent to a hospital that can not give proper care due to Covid patients. All of this was discussed by healthcare professionals last year when hospitals were nearing their capacity levels. It was all over the news and if you had a friend or loved one working in the hospital...they talked about it too. Unfortunately, a minority of people didn't learn the first time around and now with this government mandate...they don't trust that we learned from last year to do the right thing on our own to protect our friends and family from the Delta Variant. Simply, as a society...we fucked up. We Reap What We Sow wrbtrader
Perhaps more effort to create temporary Covid treatment centers, such as large tents on fairground properties would effectively isolate Covid sufferers from general hospital patient populations, where nosocomial infections are a frequent problem. We could have dedicated facilities for infectious diseases as emerging viruses, natural or manmade, are likely to become an increasing threat over time. Given that it takes about 18 months to develop a vaccine, assuming an effective vaccine is possible for a particular emerging virus, preparedness demands specific facilities be dedicated to the treatment of infectious diseases. There are also notable rises in antibiotic resistant bacteria and parasite cases in the US. Assuming the idea of dedicated facilities is viable, where would the money come from? Perhaps the private sector might be interested, but facility utilization variance would be problematic for a profit oriented enterprise. Ultimately, the only way for a system to be robust, whether immune health for the general population or a political system is to be practical and be willing to accept some losses. Trying to be everything for everyone is a system’s death by a thousand cuts, or vaccinations, if you’ll allow, for a virus of only moderate impact. In nature, “Survival of the fittest” leads to populations that have strong constitutions versus population groups that are excessively catered to. Besides, in terms of the ongoing debate, survival of the fittest could include those who choose to get vaccinated and those who don’t, but survive. Either way, the choice should be their’s, not anyone else's, for viruses that only have moderate impact on society.