Some healthcare providers are refusing to treat unvaccinated Covid-19 patients. But is there really an argument for doing so? The claim is that unvaccinated patients are imposing an undue burden on the health system. However, the legitimacy of this claim fails to justify withholding treatment for unvaccinated patients. If the argument is that the negligence of unvaccinated people is straining the health system, then a similar logic must be applied to other scenarios, and failing to do so delegitimates the case for discriminating against the unvaccinated.
Obesity can aggravate other co-morbidities and research reveals that in the United States the obesity epidemic is responsible for $170 billion in surplus costs per year. Despite public education programs outlining the consequences of obesity many remain wedded to unhealthy diets and cultivate eating habits that are enabled by relatives, as TLC frequently documents on the series my 600-IB life.
Quite alarming is that this show has produced several minor celebrities who invite the sympathy of viewers. Usually, the unwillingness of characters to conform to higher health standards is attributed to mental health. So, on what basis can we entertain discrimination against the unvaccinated when people are quite hospitable to overweight patients who despite an awareness of their condition do little to avert compounding existing health challenges?
Further Covid vaccines are unable to prevent transmission and if they could proponents would have a stronger argument for mandating mandatory vaccination. Yes, vaccines reduce the severity of the disease, but individuals are responsible for their own health and since punishing people for failing to take health seriously is not a practice of the health system there is no precedent for maligning the unvaccinated.
Moreover, if doctors denying treatment to the unvaccinated were serious about maximizing resources for patients, they would refuse to nurse people suffering from smoking-related illnesses. In America, such ailments incur costs totaling $300 billion per year including over $225 billion for direct medical care for adults and $5.6 billion in lost productivity as a result of second-hand smoking.
The adverse effects of smoking are well known and governments have spent millions to dissuade people from perpetuating the habit, whereas evidence on the efficacy of Covid vaccines is highly controversial so considering this fact it actually makes greater sense to punish smokers than to deprive the unvaccinated of treatment. One could even argue that due to conflicting information the skepticism of the unvaccinated is justified, though smokers are wilfully negligent since the evidence that smoking harms health is clear.
Another issue is that denying treatment to the unvaccinated raises ethical concerns. Based on the Hippocratic Oath doctors are morally obliged to treat patients irrespective of their political beliefs and decisions. So, using vaccination status to judge a patient is unethical and counter to the goals of the medical profession. Politically, this approach is also fraught with problems. In relating to citizens, the expectation is that the government will act impartially, hence if public hospitals deprioritize the unvaccinated this suggests that the government is taking a political stance thus making the policy discriminatory and unjust.
Secondly, public health is funded by taxpayers and not all agree with mandatory vaccination, therefore privileging the vaccinated would be an insult to taxpayers. Furthermore, deprioritizing the unvaccinated is blatantly classist. Affluent people can always resort to superior treatment at private hospitals owned by their colleagues. And clearly, private providers would be less likely to discriminate since they are motivated by money, however even if they do prioritise vaccinated patients, there is a possibility that they will make concessions for rich friends.
Ed Yong in a piece for The Atlantic illustrates the inherent classism in deprioritizing the unvaccinated: “Using recent survey data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the health policy researcher Julia Raifman and the economist Aaron Sojourner have shown that unvaccinated Americans are disproportionately poor – and within the lowest income brackets, people who want or would consider a vaccine outnumber those who would never get one…That they still haven’t gotten the shots might seem inexplicable to people who can just pop into their local CVS. But people who live in poor neighborhoods might not have a local pharmacy, or public transport that would take them to one, or internet access that would allow them to book an appointment. People who earn hourly wages might not have time for a vaccination appointment, or paid sick leave for weathering any side effects.”
Shunning the unvaccinated is even contrary to the notion of positive rights often lauded by intellectual elites as John Coggon points out in The Conversation: “Just by refusing vaccines, a person cannot be deemed to have also refused consent to receive treatments for COVID. People who are unvaccinated have not waived their positive right to healthcare…A policy to deprioritise unvaccinated patients for care, or to charge them for such care, would not be about denying a privilege or preference. It would be punitively discriminatory, denying a fundamental and universal positive right.”
Like hospitals, employers have been punishing the unvaccinated, but their case is dubious. Quite often it is said that employers have greater latitude to discriminate than the state, however this is untrue, because the decisions of a corporation are constrained by contractual agreements. Other than at-will agreements employers can’t arbitrarily institute policies and expect employees to comply, especially when such policies are not pursued to increase productivity.
Mandatory vaccination in the private sector is laughable because they are many opportunities for companies to use their discretion. When space is an issue then employees can work from home and if it’s a situation where people are unable to conduct work at home mandatory vaccination is still a baseless idea. The Covid-19 vaccines are not at the level where they serve as a deterrent to contracting and transmitting the disease as yet, so corporations can’t claim to mandate vaccination on the basis of preserving public health.
Additionally, sick employees usually stay home to contain the spread of infectious diseases, so Covid patients irrespective of vaccination status are unlikely to congregate with co-workers. And it’s highly improbable that employers are going to demand that infected people who seem healthy and are vaccinated show up to work. There is a possibility that vaccination can reduce productivity losses by expediting recovery to ensure a quick return to work. However, the impact of Covid-19 on productivity is still under review and anecdotal evidence suggests that much of the decline in productivity can be attributed to lockdowns and the ravaging impact it had on contact intensive industries.
Finally, obesity negatively affects productivity and health, yet employers are hesitant to mandate dietary requirements for workers. We are not suggesting that they do so, but even when the Pandemic migrates, they will still have to grapple with the problem of obesity and its potential to amplify underlying conditions. Though popular, it’s clear that stigmatizing the unvaccinated is just inane.
