People Are Equating Vaccination Status with Chronic Illness and Obesity, and I Have Some Thoughts

I’m going to be honest here—I have little patience left for those who staunchly oppose masks and vaccines. If you’ve spent the past year and a half promoting misinformation about COVID or trying to dissuade others from getting vaccinated, I’m not worried about your feelings anymore. The science is clear: the minimal risk of vaccine side effects is nothing compared to the severe risks associated with COVID. Most people dying in hospitals right now share one thing in common: they are unvaccinated.

Research has long demonstrated that masks effectively reduce disease transmission and don’t pose any health risks to healthy individuals. Anyone who claims otherwise is simply misinformed. Conspiracy theories and personal opinions are not facts, and the spread of anti-science rhetoric has led to real harm. It’s shameful.

I do empathize with individuals who experience genuine medical anxiety or have fears rooted in past trauma. For some, getting the COVID vaccine can be a complex and emotional ordeal. However, choosing not to get vaccinated is not the same as campaigning against it. I recognize that there will always be individuals who cannot receive vaccines, which highlights the necessity for eligible people to get vaccinated.

It’s frustrating that some politicians and anti-science advocates have turned vaccination status into a political issue. This mess could have been avoided, but here we are, with lives at stake that could have been saved with a couple of quick shots.

Regardless of the reasons behind someone’s decision not to get vaccinated, the outcome remains the same: unvaccinated individuals are at a significantly higher risk for severe illness, hospitalization, and death if they contract COVID-19. The highly contagious Delta variant has made it even more likely that unvaccinated individuals will become infected, leading to more serious cases—the kind that can be fatal.

Across the country, hospitals are overwhelmed with COVID patients. Intensive care units are reaching capacity, and healthcare workers are struggling to cope. The impact of COVID-19 is devastating, and most of those requiring urgent care are unvaccinated. Tragically, even veterans with treatable conditions are suffering because there isn’t enough capacity to treat them.

As the situation worsens, some have posed a provocative question: Should vaccination status factor into decisions about who receives an ICU bed? Honestly, I’m hesitant to weigh in on that. Is it ethical to deny care based on vaccination status? If it were my unvaccinated loved one in need, wouldn’t I want them to receive immediate care?

The notion of prioritizing care based on survival likelihood is a grim scenario—remember Italy?—and underscores the importance of raising vaccination rates to prevent our healthcare systems from reaching this level of strain.

Some individuals have started to compare vaccination status to other medical and body-related conditions. I’ve seen comparisons made between unvaccinated COVID patients and individuals suffering from smoking-related lung cancer, drug-induced heart damage, alcohol-related liver disease, and obesity. They argue that if those with conditions they “brought upon themselves” are still entitled to medical care, then unvaccinated individuals should be too.

Oh, dear. I have some thoughts, particularly about the obesity comparison. It’s an incredibly misguided analogy.

Firstly, and it’s quite disappointing that I even need to point this out—obesity is not contagious.

None of the conditions they reference are contagious. People with high body weight do not make you overweight simply by being nearby. Lung cancer isn’t contagious, nor is heart damage from substance abuse. Cirrhosis won’t transfer to your liver if you sit next to someone with liver disease. Any attempt to relate non-contagious medical conditions to justify anti-vaccine sentiments is a futile comparison.

Secondly, high body weight alone is not a medical illness, and individuals with larger bodies do not jeopardize the integrity of our healthcare systems. Countless people who are classified as clinically obese existed pre-pandemic without causing a crisis in ICU availability. Fat individuals do not pose a threat to anyone merely by existing.

Moreover, it can be challenging for larger individuals to receive adequate medical care, even under optimal conditions. If you think that nobody has experienced subpar COVID care due to their body size, I have a bridge to sell you. While many medical professionals are heroes during this pandemic, documented anti-fat bias in healthcare means that it likely influences pandemic-related decision-making as well.

Lastly, there is no vaccine or quick fix that can make someone thin enough to avoid judgment when they seek medical attention. Changing body size is not a simple or effortless process, and there is no universally effective solution that is quick, free, and scientifically proven to dramatically reduce the risk of future serious illness. That simply doesn’t exist.

In contrast, we have multiple vaccines available for COVID, including one that has received full FDA approval. A couple of quick injections can significantly decrease the risk of hospitalization and death due to COVID, which should make the choice to get vaccinated obvious. Everyone who is eligible and able should have gotten vaccinated months ago.

This is why discussions about using vaccination status to determine who receives priority care are surfacing. It’s not that everyone doesn’t deserve a chance to be saved; it’s that by the time a COVID patient requires a ventilator, their chances of survival are slim. A vaccine exists that could have prevented them from reaching that critical state. Hospitals are inundated with patients who chose not to safeguard themselves. It’s understandable that the idea of prioritizing vaccinated individuals or deprioritizing unvaccinated COVID patients crosses some minds.

While I remain conflicted about considering vaccination status in urgent care decisions, I cannot fault those who raise the question. When resources are limited, someone has to decide who gets a chance at life and who does not. (Do you grasp the gravity of this? When hospitals cannot handle the surge of critical patients, a healthcare professional must make life-and-death decisions, carrying that burden with them. How can anti-vaxxers not recognize their role in creating such a painful situation?)

If anti-vaxxers wish to avoid hospitals making decisions based on vaccination status, and also don’t want to face death from COVID, their best course of action is to GET VACCINATED, not rely on an already overwhelmed healthcare system to reserve a bed for them when the virus they “aren’t afraid of” threatens their lives. Demonizing others’ medical conditions and body size won’t mitigate the irresponsibility of choosing to remain unvaccinated. The comparison is simply invalid.

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Summary: This article discusses the troubling comparisons between vaccination status and chronic health conditions, particularly obesity. It emphasizes the importance of vaccination in reducing COVID-19 risks and highlights the ethical dilemmas faced by healthcare providers when resources are strained. The piece argues against the validity of comparing non-contagious medical conditions to vaccination status and calls for increased vaccination rates to alleviate the burden on healthcare systems.

Keyphrase: vaccination status and chronic illness comparisons

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