General Discussion

"Paying attention to science" is such a weird barrier thought. People can "pay attention to science" without acting on it. People can take action without "paying attention to science." People can take action without having it keep them out of the hospital.

As I say, I don't know. I do know that drawing a line invariably means that at some point, someone you were trying to include at the expense of someone else will still get excluded. No matter the line -- whether it's based on someone's attitude or the simple numbers of available capacity -- the decision will perpetuate trauma on patients, families and healthcare providers alike.

But creating that line around someone's attitude toward a specific mitigation of a specific disease is especially reprehensible, because when it doesn't work -- when hospitals are still burning out, even when we put the unvaccinated at the end of the line -- we start looking for other people to put at the end of the line. Those who didn't listen to the "science" around controlling their diabetes better, for example, or those who took a risk when they *knew* they were immunocompromised. It's bullshit and plays into people's weird desire for determining who "deserves" things or services and who doesn't.