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Hospital Capacity. I live in North Texas, our Trauma Service region has 4m people in it, at one point during the Delta wave we had less than 70 free ICU beds -
by Aloha 5y ago
Hospital Capacity.
I live in North Texas, our Trauma Service region has 4m people in it, at one point during the Delta wave we had less than 70 free ICU beds - and we have more hospital capacity than much (if not all) of the state per capita (and indeed, much of the country as well). During the Delta wave, the hospitals here were full of unvaccinated 20 and 30 somethings without complicating health issues, with serious COVID, most of which would have been prevented had they been vaccinated.
Unless the social contract is changed so those who are unvaccinated can be denied treatment (meaning limited to palliative care) during periods of capacity required rationing for serious (read, requires an ICU bed) cases of COVID, mandatory vaccinations are effectively a requirement.
Is it fair to the person who was vaccinated, then gets in a car accident (or has a stroke, or some other issue) and dies waiting for an ICU bed, because all the beds are full of folks who could have been vaccinated (and probably wouldn't have needed an ICU bed if they had) but decided not to be?
I'm pretty libertarian, and I loathe making these choices - but as long as hospital capacity is a shared resource, your choice as an individual effects others, and in times of crisis society sometimes has a right to decide some things for you, whether you like it or not, remove that linkage, and then folks should be able to do as they please.
- thenewnormal 5y agoI thought that mandating that a person's access to healthcare being based on their personal life choices was a horror from the bad old days of US-style insurance-based private healthcare? Personally, I'm tired of old smokers and unhealthy overweight people taking up healthcare resources that I should have! (sarcasm, of course).
- jrs235 5y agoI think the better solution is allowing denial of treatment over mandatory COVID vaccinations.
- dangoor 5y ago"Mandatory COVID vaccinations" has other aspects to it. Who makes it mandatory? Employers who may have a reason beyond public health for mandating, namely that they don't want a bunch of employees falling seriously ill at roughly the same time.
- jrs235 5y agoTouche. *I think the better solution is allowing denial of treatment over government mandated COVID vaccinations.
- themaninthedark 5y ago>I think the better solution is allowing denial of treatment over government mandated COVID vaccinations. I hope you are being sarcastic, that is a horrible policy because it can easily lead to: *I think it is better to allow denial of treatment to drug addicts because they knew what they were signing up for when they started using. or worse.
- jrs235 5y agoThere is no mandatory denial of treatment. Those that want to treat drug addicts are still allowed and free to do so. Edit: Just like those that want to treat unvaccinated COVID patients are still allowed and free to do so. And if they want to charge more money (due to shortage of supply or high demand) so be it.
- pbak 5y agoThat argument is a very slippery slope. There are a lot of other health issues which stem from either active at-risk behavior or lifestyle choices. I don't believe medical ethics should be reformed in a way to open such a door. It might be Pandora's.
- qqqwerty 5y agoIt is frustrating that anti-mandate crowd ignores this comment, in my mind this is the singular reason that strict measures should still be required. A functioning health care system is a cornerstone of any modern society. Until we get to a point where subsequent covid waves aren't overloading the healthcare system, then we need to keep fighting this thing.
- charbonneau2 5y ago> During the Delta wave, the hospitals here were full of unvaccinated 20 and 30 somethings without complicating health issues, with serious COVID, most of which would have been prevented had they been vaccinated Source?
- Aloha 5y agohttps://tulsaworld.com/news/local/new-surge-of-covid-patients-young-and-unvaccinated-very-scary-for-saint-francis-physicians/article_b7c798e4-ef0d-11eb-af06-37c0632f5826.html https://tulsaworld.com/news/local/new-surge-of-covid-patient... https://www.utsouthwestern.edu/covid-19/assets/modeling.pdf https://www.utsouthwestern.edu/covid-19/assets/modeling.pdf See the graphs on Slide 11.
- charbonneau2 5y agoThank you! I've seen the current state analysis before, but imo, it's hard to tell how many unvaccinated 20-30 year olds (with/without comorbidities) were affected (slide 11 combines ages 18-49). The article mentions that "it’s now commonplace for previously healthy, younger adults with decades of life expectancy on the line to be among the sickest of the sick" but shows no data.
- Aloha 5y agoI've seen it enough from enough from enough different diverse sources for it to count as something resembling data - the thing is, the two crunch periods for COVID, are the times the data gets the blurriest, because the people who collect it are so busy.