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Dear Editor;
No one should be vaccinated against their will. No one should be prevented from expressing their animosity toward vaccination mandates - including by means of open public protest. And no one but the anti-vaxxer should suffer the consequences, i.e., bear the costs when their righteous path takes a bad turn.
Since the beginning of the COVID19 pandemic, a vast majority of those hospitalized and dying have been unvaccinated. At first this was understandable, as there existed no proven means of immunization. What's occurring today though, is harder for most of us to understand. In the face of a deadly, highly transmittable virus, an alarming number are asserting their right to reject a proven safeguard and instead, take their chances.
As a result, our healthcare system is being stretched, and in some places overwhelmed, by patients who could have easily avoided their illness. And the urgency of the COVID cases reaching our hospitals and clinics often vaults those patients to the front of the line, postponing treatments for others. Doubtless, the enormous expense of all this will translate into higher insurance and Medicare premiums for all of us.
What the anti-vaxxers may like to think of as bold risk-taking is really not so bold when there's someone else to sweep up your mess. When there are medical professionals willing to sacrifice time with their families, if not their own mental health, to make sure help is there when you need it. When other workers and employers across the country are contributing to insurance pools while the much-maligned government guarantees Medicare, Medicaid and unemployment benefits.
Those who choose the ventilator or enlist in the One Million Dead club have the right to do so. The rest of us have the right to demand that they pay cash and go to the back of the line. What a demonstration of true commitment that would be.
Michael Brandt
Arena, WI