Freedom's Just Another Word . . .

I don't know if it means "nothing left to lose," but a lot of people just use it as justification for whatever insanity or idiocy has captured their brains. We now have two people in need of organ transplants who aren't getting them because the people refuse to be vaccinated. Their only stated reason for refusal is that they are "free." As one of them told a reporter,

“No sir, I was born free. I will die free. I’m not changing my mind. I’ve had conversations with my family and everybody who is close to me and they know where I stand and there will not be a situation that occurs where I’ll change my mind on this topic.”

Now, think about the logic of this. Suppose he really believes (falsely) that the vaccine is ineffective or presents a risk of some sort, he is still better off getting it because otherwise he faces certain death. And by the way, the doctors are doing what is right in this situation -- they really have no choice. Transplant organs are scarce, more people need them than will get them. Therefore physicians have to allocate them to people who will have the best chance of a good outcome. Organ transplantation requires giving people immunosuppressive drugs, which means that without vaccination, they'll be at high risk of dying from Covid-19, which means the organ would be wasted.

And thanks, Republicans! If the U.S. had the level of vaccine coverage of European countries, our rate of hospitalization for Covid would have been halved.

 

 

These people are willing to ingest various poisons, which definitive evidence proves are completely ineffective against the virus. They are willing to be hospitalized, hooked up to ventilators, possibly receive very expensive experimental drugs, and endure thousands of dollars in medical costs, risk long term disability, and death -- but they won't take an absolutely free injection that has saved millions of lives around the world. Because  it is an infringement of their freedom. Uh huh.