My personal physician and bodyguard had this to say:
We should just do away with masking and social distancing and just let [Covid] run its course at this point. We just need insurers to deny payment for Covid related medical care for the unvaccinated.
Everyone should have a personal physician and bodyguard.
Let’s just pour more fuel on the fire. My comment to Rich was (semi) facetious knowing that such a scenario will never happen. Besides, just because the insurance companies won’t cover it wouldn’t stop the unvaccinated from showing up to hospitals and racking up ICU stays costing tens of thousands. The bill of which would then just get passed down to you and me. What would be even better (and will never happen) would be denying access to medical services for Covid-related illness to the willingly unvaccinated. You say “Where’s your empathy doctor?” I say, “It’s gone.” Gone after 2 years of watching the repeated cycle of seeing high-risk patients in the emergency room starving for oxygen and their utter disbelief/anger that there is little to offer for their likely preventable condition. Gone after repeatedly explaining why I won’t be giving them Hydroxychloroquine or Ivermectin and having them look at me so forlorn at their bad fortune of getting the dumbest doctor in America. Gone after the recent monoclonal antibody debacle where as supplies began to run out priority was given for those most at risk of severe illness. Guess who they were? Yep, the un-vaccinated. So by shirking personal responsibility, civic duty, or whatever you want to call doing the right thing they were instead rewarded by jumping the line. I always found it a head scratcher how someone who won’t take a vaccine synthesized in a lab to stimulate your immune system to produce your own natural antibodies because they’re convinced it’s unsafe has no problem getting an infusion of laboratory-synthesized antibodies once they get sick.
Omicron may have silver lining in that it’s super contagious but significantly less lethal than prior variants. That could potentially push us closer to some semblance of herd immunity. Which is partly what led to my comment to Rich to just let this thing run it’s course. The problem with that obviously is we don’t know how the next 15 variants are going to behave. But if the majority of the unvaccinated got Omicron now it might confer some immunity toward future variants. Kind of a back door vaccination strategy.
There’s little we can control but here’s some ideas, most which will never happen as well. Require proof of vaccination to get on a plane, to go to Walmart, gun shows, liquor stores, and Nascar events. For starters. Doesn’t hurt to dream.
“we don’t know how the next 15 variants are going to behave”
Do we know how the vax is going to behave? I don’t hold it against people who choose not to be vaccinated (I am vaxxed) and the tribalism around all this looks and feels so much like Nazi Germany’s ostracizing of the Jews then.
You have some excellent points but I do wonder about the slippery slope. Let’s say the policies you suggest could actually be implemented. Should we then deny medical care to car accident victims who weren’t wearing seatbelts? Or lung cancer patients who have a history of smoking? Or patients with heart problems that result from abusing anabolic steroids? It seems to me that a lot of times people end up needing intensive medical care partly as a result of their poor choices. So I’m curious to hear your perspective on where you’d draw the line.
They steal in chaos. Shock Doctrine. Divide and conquer. Cui Bono? I hate those fat bastards that go to Walmart, liquor stores, gun shows, Nascar events and I hate them even more when they get on airplanes. And their fat kids too. There has to be a way to get rid of them.
We’re in the middle of WWIII and we’re the enemy. We probably won’t walk away from this one.
I hear ya – both of ya. Now, help us figure out how to overcome the stupid in this country, after years of deliberate lies, manipulation, misinformation, fear mongering, now backed by super “conservative” courts that prevent logic from prevailing.
The pandemic was over and trending down until the vaccine came out.
To “Everyone is a Doc.” Yeah, and the World is Flat. I suggest you get off of Faux News and start educating yourself. Anyway, in regards to the above post by Elrichiboy’s security detail. It sounds cold, but I agree with you. Those who: Do Not believe in Vaccines. Prefer horse dewormer, or would rather take an anti-malarial drug, and end up in the Hospital. I say take them out to the parking lot or garage and put them in a portable MASAH tent and let their friends or family care for them. Vaccines have been proven to clinically effective and are FREE. Unfortunately, we are already paying for these “covidiots” who have refused a vaccine and have become hospitalized. Just look at your annual tax bill. It is under the University Medical Center surcharge. Those patients are paid for us, the El Paso City/County taxpayer. Those that have insurance will go to one of the other hospitals in El Paso. Another factor is HealthCare burnout, especially among nurses. Who are leaving in droves after seeing the same stupid behavior over and over again. Unfortunately (or fortunately), we are seeing Darwinism at work. The thinning of the herd has begun. Finally, yes one can get Covid even with a vaccine, but you won’t end up in a hospital or die from it. Unvaccinated? 76,676 Dead Texans so far, in addition to those survivors who are called “long haulers.” El Paso fits the perfect profile. People with high blood pressure, diabetics, obesity and smokers.
If you were around back then (I was) these same arguments were made in the 80s about AIDS and treating people whose behavior spread it. We got past that and Big Pharma got even richer, just like they are now.
Of course you’re right Joel. It is a slippery slope and you can’t draw lines. Decisions about things like this and those you mentioned won’t even be considered until there is complete economic collapse, whenever that will be. It’s easy to make outlandish suggestions. It’s just provocation. To let you know that there are people intimately involved in this mess who have these thoughts.
I’ll stop wearing a mask when Covid is gone. I can’t social distance because no one else ever tried to do that anyway. But anyone not wearing a mask in buildings (other than their own home) is stupid, suicidal, and homicidal.
wrtafgadfba: Good choice. However, I cringe when I see someone incorrectly wearing a mask that just covers their mouth, leaving their nose hanging over their mask. Might as well not wear anything.
Ours is the only “civilization” in the history of the world that shut down its economy because of a disease (with a less than 1% death rate). During the Black Death of the 14th century incoming ships would be forced to stay in the harbor for 40 days before landing, hence the term “quarantine.” But they did land and unload. About 1/3 to 1/2 of the world perished in that plague. They were made of tougher stuff than our Unicorn culture.