cardinalkarp wrote: ↑July 1 21, 9:27 am
I’m tired of paying for the obesity pandemic and lifestyle diseases that are completely within people’s control as well, but I guess
those problems are something we all have to pay for.
And blaming these variants on the unvaccinated is complete BS. Maybe it’s the virus that’s able to mutate to a variant that renders the vaccine useless, but oh wait....just get a booster!!!
There’s plenty of evidence out there that show HIGH risk people should get the vaccine, and I agree with that. But for healthy individuals, or those who may potentially have risks associated w/ getting the vaccine should have the choice and NOT forced to pay the medical bills if they get COVID as our sick care system hemorrhages money from people willingly doing themselves in on a daily basis.
Oh and don’t forget your free donut or case of beer if you get your vaccine!!!
I hear exactly what you are saying. I almost included obesity in my original post, almost included the screwed up healthcare system we currently have in place in my original post; it was written and deleted because this thread is about covid, not the american healthcare system, which assuredly we can agree belongs in a different thread?
You are correct, obesity is a drain on the healthcare system, and so is Covid. Because we are failing with obesity doesn't mean we have to fail with covid as well. They are separate issues, and I'd argue Covid is the bigger issue, at the moment. If we can't agree on that, it's okay, we don't have to to continue.
Blaming the variants on unvaccinated was not my intention if it came of that way. It's pretty well established the delta variant, that we're talking about originated in India, not America. I would say the unvaxxed are largely responsible for the rise in hospitalizations, at least in Arkansas, given the statistics that more than 98% of hospitalized patients are unvaxxed, and I think that stat was from March of 2021 - present day. I would imagine those stats probably hold close for the rest of the country as well but can't say for certain.
Regarding being healthy and being forced to get vaccinated, that's precisely the point, though. No one is forcing anyone to get vaccinated. The 'safety net' of insurance is irrelevant if an unvaxxed person doesn't go to the hospital. If someone is worried about being hospitalized from covid, is there a justification to not get vaxxed? If the argument is, unvaxxed should be able to stay unvaxxed because odds are they won't go to the hospital and even if they do, the fed govt should just pay for it then I think we have to disagree. The statistics are clear in this regard; unvaxxed people are going to the hospital to the point hospitals, in Arkansas at least, are having to re-open covid wings which puts pressure on the system (and costs money). Perhaps I'm misunderstanding the point. It's not really relevant to obesity in this regards either because there is no free shot available to the obese that would make them not obese. There's also confounding factors such as quality of food working against impoverished areas that relates to obesity...we're way off track here.
And, certainly, if there is a medical reason to not get the vaccine, that shouldn't apply either. I'm not aware of them but am rather ignorant on this topic, so I'd defer to someone else.