An acquaintance I’ll call Pete was scheduled for heart surgery that was then delayed due to COVID-19 cases taking up his NH hospital’s ICU beds. He received a new date. Did the night-before prep at home, went to his hospital, where staff did additional prep (washing, shaving, blood-draw). Waited 5 1/2 hours. Was not given the surgery but sent home for another time, as yet unscheduled. No ICU beds would have been open for his post-surgical recovery, due to COVID-19 cases. His distraught wife is furious with anti-vaxxers squelching help for her husband.

Solution – when the unvaccinated, who have disdained science, then show up at our hospitals for help, a thoughtfully-assembled supplies package should be given them for at-home care. To forgo vaccination against COVID-19’s contagion and get it, then show up for our hospitals’ staff’s help, ignores the smart, old observation, “You don’t change horses in the middle of the stream.” They didn’t want science’s solution, so they shouldn’t have science’s help. They chose independence (they call it). Let them independently get themselves better. Period.