🚨I've had a frankly worrying number of messages from people who think the answer to the hospital crisis is simple: deny care to unvaccinated people. I talked to ethicists and health-care workers about why this is a terrible, unconscionable idea. 1/ theatlantic.com/health/archive…
I've given the sentiment a fair hearing, and the people I spoke to sympathized with the exasperation and fear behind it. But they also said it was immoral, illogical, unfeasible, and completely against the tenets of medical ethics. 2/ theatlantic.com/health/archive…
The principle is really simple: "Everyone has an equal claim to relief from suffering, no matter what they’ve done or haven’t done." The medical system shouldn't be a means of punishing people for social choices. 3/ theatlantic.com/health/archive…
Also, a person’s choices are always constrained by their circumstances. Access still matters. Unvaxxed people are disproportionately poor, rural, and uninsured. To a degree, medical care is *already* denied to them. 4/ theatlantic.com/health/archive…
And while unvaccinated people make up the bulk of hospitalized COVID patients, they are also far from the only reason that hospitals are now struggling. 5/ theatlantic.com/health/archive…
Many health-care workers have been harassed & threatened on the false grounds that they're already withholding care (by not prescribing ineffective drugs). No one I talked to would countenance that. They're still doing their jobs, in awful conditions. 6/ theatlantic.com/health/archive…
One of the most persistent misconceptions about the pandemic is that it's a crisis of personal irresponsibility rather than political inaction. The instinct to punish individuals instead of holding leaders accountable is another manifestation of that 7/ theatlantic.com/health/archive…
@edyong209 Who is asking for the unvaccinated not to get care? I see it on Twitter but I don’t take it seriously.
@TerryBr83767123 @edyong209 I don’t know what the solution is, but my family members with serious medical conditions cannot get needed medical care because unvaxxed Covid patients have consumed all of the hospital resources in my area. IV meds are no longer available to us.
@javamom66 @TerryBr83767123 @edyong209 That is a resourcing problem; do you see how your justified anguish at this situation is being deflected toward individuals, not toward whatever health care policy has caused your hospitals to be under-resourced?
@Haven_stx @javamom66 @TerryBr83767123 @edyong209 There has ALWAYS been a Healthcare worker shortage. Well before covid. And it isn't expected to let it until 2030
@Haven_stx @TerryBr83767123 @edyong209 There are many to blame and my anguish is directed at all of them. Healthcare shouldn’t be a profit center but people also shouldn’t disregard personal responsibility for their role in public health. Their choice directly impacts our bodies.
@Haven_stx @javamom66 @edyong209 I don’t know what state you live in but in my state ambulances are waiting 4 to 6 hours at the emergency room to get their patients in. That’s a pandemic problem not a healthcare problem!
@Haven_stx @javamom66 @edyong209 No, I have to say I don’t see that at all. I don’t agree with one thing you just said.