Adverse impacts of unvaccinated people on others

An opinion piece in the Washington Post makes it clear that people who refuse to get vaccinated can harm or even kill other people. The unvaccinated exercise their right to refuse to be vaccinated, but the harm they cause others and the economy, does not appear to be a major concern to most of that crowd. The WaPo writes:

This was Jan. 3, the start of an eight-month medical mystery. On Sept. 10, I was supposed to have the surgery that would finally let me breathe. Instead, a week before my doctors were scheduled to operate, my surgery was canceled because Tennessee’s hospitals have been overwhelmed by covid-19 patients.

I’m scared. I’m vaccinated, but a breakthrough case would be dangerous for me. I’m bone-deep disappointed. But mostly, I am angry. I did everything I was asked to do to avoid catching or spreading covid-19. I wanted to do my part to end this crisis. Now, I wonder: Are there any circumstances under which my neighbors would do the same to keep me safe?

It’s terrifying to experience a medical emergency during a pandemic.

That first lump made it impossible for me to breathe when I bent over. When I cleaned out the litter box or picked up a toy or put my laundry in the dryer, I held my breath. .... Psychologically, it was just easier to choose not to breathe than it was to be unable to breathe.

.... by the end of May, I felt like I was having trouble breathing again. Not in the same exact way as before — like the difference between being strangled and being smothered.

I went to another surgeon, but he said he didn’t want to operate without a clear diagnosis, because he didn’t want to crack my chest open without knowing what he was getting into or if he might be making it worse. As long as I was able to breathe, he’d hold off. It turns out that “able to breathe” is a more subjective standard than you might think.

I asked if there was a chance I could be bumped for covid-19 patients. She said yes, but that my surgery would be among the last taken off the calendar, due to the threat to my life.

And yet here I am.

Tennessee is a state where, as Hank Williams Jr. put it, “We say grace and we say ma’am. If you ain’t into that, we don’t give a damn.” Given that creed, if there’s any place where everyone should be helping their fellow Americans in a time of crisis, it should be here.

But instead, our hospitals are full of people who are very sick and dying because they couldn’t be bothered to get one of three safe and effective vaccines — or at the very least stay home as much as possible and wear masks when they had to go out. They wouldn’t do their civic duty, but they get access to hospitals in front of those of us who did. 

Intellectually, I know all the downsides to letting hospitals decide what patients they will and won’t take. I grew up through the AIDS crisis, and I witnessed the devastating evil of discriminating against patients with a particular illness. And I don’t want doctors to be deciding anyone is worthy of less care just because they have made some foolish decisions. I have and will make foolish decisions myself.

But I’m still so very angry that people who put their feelings before others’ well-being get to be first in the hospitals.  

The people who arrogantly claim that their choices not to be vaccinated and take precautions against covid-19 have no effect on anyone else need to know that isn’t true. I’m one of the people they’re hurting. What will it take to make them stop?

The moral question is should hospitals bump people who need treatment because they are full of unvaccinated patients with COVID?[1] Do the unvaccinated morally deserve equal treatment under current conditions where vaccines are available but rejected, while vaccinated people are suffering? Why is it that people who do their civic duty and are responsible tend to get this as a result of their good will and fair dealing with society?:

Questions: Is it fair and/or logical to blame (i) unvaccinated people, and (ii) politicians and propagandists who misinform, disinform, deceive and/or lie about the vaccine or COVID, for (a) the fear, harm and deaths they cause other people, and (b) the economic damage that flows from not being vaccinated? What is the morally or objectively right balance of blame, e.g., ~60% for group i and ~40% for ii, vice versa, or something else? How would Hank Williams see this, or should anyone (maybe other than Hank and his friends) not give a damn? 

Footnote: 

1. In a recent interview that NPR broadcast, a Harvard ethics professor argued that there is no moral reason to treat an unvaccinated person differently from one who is. His logic was that people often show up in hospitals after doing things they should not have done, and those people are treated no differently than ones who show up due to no fault of their own. That logic holds up under normal circumstances where there is adequate capacity to deal with both kinds of patients. But what about under current circumstances where (i) the unvaccinated people at fault have taken up all the capacity, leaving the not at fault patients to go pound sand and wait in suffering, and sometimes (ii) keep no-fault patients out of medical facilities simply to try to keep them from getting infected? IMO, the professor’s reasoning is flawed and not persuasive.