What of the Unvaccinated?

Reading through the news, a question came to me this morning.

Do we have a Right to die?

My short answer is Yes.

When my LGBTQ+ community tells this nation that the correlation between their actions against us and our suicide rates are so strong as to be contemplated as causation — we hear statements like, “suicide is a choice.”

Cold.

If you’ve been a queer adult longer than 15 minutes, I’d wager you personally know of someone who took their own life.

Maybe, like me, you’ve known several.

And if you came of age in the early 80’s or before, chances are very good you lost countless gorgeous young humans during a pandemic that went largely ignored by “our” nation at large for far, far too long.

Our pandemic lasted 15 years.

Still no vaccine, per se.

This nation blamed us, then and now, for contracting that virus.

These folks certainly didn’t choose to die. Most fought tooth and nail.

But they were allowed to die for years before St Reagan even uttered the word AIDS.

Here we are in 2021, more politically polarized than ever, an insurrection barely in the rear view, and only slowly are some catching on to having been sold a huge pack of lies thinly disguised as “values.”

Many of us have endured this pandemic. Most, even.

And we waited in our homes and behind our masks for effective vaccines that came to us at truly lightning speeds.

And they are proving to be enormously effective.

Yet, there are still far too many who Choose not to partake.

So what is happening is that a (non-political) virus that affected all of us to one degree or another is becoming a largely Republican threat.

(The immunocompromised -even if fully vaccinated — are also still at risk, which I fully and sadly acknowledge.)

So, what is the moral stance here?

I gotta be honest and say that for every time I’ve heard, “let ‘em die!” these many years, it wasn’t until now that I find myself with similar sentiment toward those who absolutely refuse to help themselves, let alone the rest of us.

Whatever happened to the patriotism of collective “sacrifice?” (Getting the vaccine hardly qualifies as a sacrifice in my book.)

What’s their endgame?

And is our beleaguered healthcare system responsible to take all measures for those who insisted they were smarter than all the doctors and scientists and researchers who’ve dedicated their lives to having viable answers?

It’s a real conundrum, especially when I walk around knowing a good portion (lots of overlap here) of this nation would just as soon see me dead as see me out OR proud.

When we began the enormous task of cleaning out my mother’s house after her death in 2017, we found a big stack of yellow waiver forms.

More than 30 of them.

Each time she’d fall and require EMT assistance to get up, then send them away against their advice — she signed a waiver.

Basically, “I know you think I should go to the hospital, but I don’t want to, and I acknowledge it’s my decision against medical advice.”

Three dozen times, at least, in the last two years of her life.

I never knew this was even happening.

She never told any of us.

Toots (my mother) essentially chose her death date. Again, by refusing immediate medical attention as her kidneys failed. She was determined to be in her home for Thanksgiving.

By Friday, it was too late.

And she’d been warned.

But Toots was Toots.

Stubborn to the last.

(I am also 100% certain she’d have gotten vaccinated immediately.)

So.

I am truly perplexed as to our collective responsibility here and now.

We’ve been trying carrots.

Do we bother with sticks — for the collective good?

Many say Yes.

I’m inclined to agree.

“Your rights (freedoms???) end where mine begin…”

Fulfilling your desire to punch me in the face is superseded by my right to remain unscathed. There’s (allegedly) consequences.

And so on.

And as draconian as it may sound, I’m not sure I can muster the energy to value your intentionally unvaccinated life when you don’t.

And I suppose it’s a good thing I’m not the one making public health decisions here, because I admit, your choices would be stark.

We’ve exhausted the questions and hesitations, and we didn’t eradicate polio or small pox or any number of diseases, with nonsensical circular discussions.

We did it with vaccines.

More than once, I’ve imagined Orwell and Darwin sitting somewhere over a coffee in fits of laughter. (That should be a stage play.)

Look, I’m also not a huge fan of Smug.

But I am a huge fan of educated people, dedicating their lives to improving and extending mine.

So I’m sitting here, frustrated with a good portion of this country, thinking that if they have a right to eschew the vaccine, there should be a big fat waiver involved.

And maybe they can go form their own “hospitals” more in line with their beliefs, and leave science and medicine out of it entirely.

As they’re already doing.

I’m tired.

Peace, Lovelies

-MM