It’s sad and costly in so many ways.
It’s anecdotal, but here’s a patient I had very recently. There are unfortunately plenty of daily deaths again so it would be hard to identify them, but I’m going to purposefully anonymize some things.
Unvaccinated 50s year old comes in with worsening shortness of breath. Positive for COVID. Imaging shows COVID pneumonia and a large pleural effusion (fluid around the lungs). New kidney failure. Has one underlying medical condition which would be considered well controlled. By all measures a low risk patient.
The patient is placed on supplemental oxygen. I take off almost two liters of fluid from around one lung. There is mild transient improvement although later that day has worsening respiratory status and increased oxygen demand.
The next day their renal failure has rapidly progressed so I place a catheter for dialysis. By this time they are agitated and delirious, no longer able to make decisions and constantly taking off their oxygen and pulling at lines even with anxiolytics and antipsychotics. Later that day their next of kin makes them DNR-CC. They now won’t be intubated. They spend the next three days in further decline, agitated and downing in their own fluids. Even with palliative care on board there are limits to what can be done without crossing into euthanasia, especially when not intubated. It was pretty horrible. They passed five days after admission.
The real kicker, and something I only found out today? They were the primary care giver for their three grandchildren.
On the human side of things it’s horrible. We knew they had little to no chance upon arrival. We tried to at least improve symptoms and really weren’t able to. They suffered an unpleasant end. Three grandchildren lost their caregiver.
On the resource side you have five days of an ICU bed not available. You have procedure rooms that require terminal cleaning after each use with a COVID patient and are unavailable until that is done. You have exposure of staff to COVID. You will have medical bills which will ultimately trickle down to the living and likely vaccinated.
So in that case, the price for the “freedom” to be unvaccinated isn’t just on the unvaccinated. It’s shared by everyone. The price for the patient was a pretty horrible death. The price for everyone else is unavailable ICU beds, unavailable procedure rooms, disease exposure, medical costs and most unfortunate in this case the loss of a primary care giver to three children.
In my opinion, that’s too high of a cost for someone’s “freedom” to not be vaccinated.
