Is It Time to Show Anti-Vaxxers the Door?

 


The British Columbia government's Covid update page has some powerful data.

To date, 89.2 per cent of eligible adults have received two vaccine shots. 16 per cent also have had the booster.

For the first half of November, 43 per cent of new cases were people not fully vaccinated. In other words the 10 per cent not fully vaccinated represented 43 per cent of new cases. That's pretty bad. Makes you wonder.

There's more. This same 10 per cent accounted for nearly 72 per cent of hospitalizations. In other words they're what is clogging our healthcare system. 

Is it time to show them the door? I'm glad I don't have to make that call because I know what I would do.

I lost my younger brother last month. He died of cancer that went undiagnosed and untreated until it was too late. The waiting lists for diagnostics and for treatment were/are blocked by the understandable focus on containing and treating Covid cases.

My brother's cancer was considered highly survivable "if detected in time." The clock ran out on him. After an early misdiagnosis he was put on the list for tests. When the tests were conducted they showed the cancer had metastasized into his lungs and liver. Aggressive chemotherapy was tried and, briefly, showed promising results but not for long. The cancer spread to his brain.

My brother's doctor said that in pre-Covid conditions the outcome probably would have been much better. My brother probably would be alive today. But, like other patients with life-threatening conditions and diseases, today's system, with its long delays and shortage of staff and facilities, often fails them.

When I hear anti-vaxxers whining about their rights and freedoms I get a bit angry. If they don't want to be vaccinated, they refuse mask mandates and other preventative measures, that's fine. But let's be honest. They are withdrawing from society. They want society's benefits and privileges but reject society's norms. 

In British Columbia our vaccination rates define our society's norms. We do it to protect ourselves and to protect our families, our loved ones and everyone else. Our hospitalization rates define our predicament - defending ourselves from these anti-vaxxers, the 10 per cent who account for 72 per cent of hospitalizations.

People who need treatment for cancer or heart problems or other life-threatening conditions should not be sacrificed to the selfish, high-risk behaviour of those who refuse vaccination. Get them out of our hospitals. Those who need those hospital beds and the attention of our medical professionals have waited long enough. They should not be dying in order to indulge miscreants.

Comments

  1. RuralDecember 19, 2021 at 2:27 PM

    Sorry for your loss.... I regret to say that I agree with your point of view regarding those who choose to not get protected but then expect to get the full support of our hospital services. Pay for services perhaps?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Disaffected LibDecember 19, 2021 at 4:53 PM

      That's one option, Rural.

      Covid demonstrates how reluctant our political caste is to make the hard calls. Cancer deaths, cardiac deaths, that sort of thing have not, as yet, produced a public outcry. Absent that, they're effectively inconsequential. The pols can sidestep a controversy and we let them get away with it.

      Thank you for your condolence. My late brother specialized in mental health law and loved nothing better than to go to bat for people consigned to institutions and written off. I never knew how passionate he was about that until the funeral when a number of his colleagues attended. We lost a good one.

      Delete

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