Choices. The person who follows all the coronavirus rules vs the denier who refuses to wear a mask.
Hospitals ,too, have to make choices or soon will in making triage decisions determining who gets care and who doesn’t. At this point survivability seems the key factor. But suppose two equally survivable cases, ages and sex the same but only one bed available. One of the patients has done all the correct things to try to avoid contracting the virus, the other willfully and with knowledge of the potential consequences ignores precautions and also contracts covid 19.
Does behavior ever become a determinate factor in this pandemic? Does personal responsibility ever become a factor. If the only one distinction exits between the two cases, such as race, wealth or gender, who gets the last bed?
There are certainly more ethical questions than the simplistic ones I’ve presented. Like: should a scofflaw be allowed a bed in another community or state, taking a possible spot from a local resident? Will we need to create a covid 19 data base that reflects personal behavior and choices? Should states and communities be allowed to deny access to their entire area to persons from states or communities which, for lack of a better term are covid deniers? What about businesses that are requiring employees to return to on-site jobs or be fired and lose unemployment benefits as a result.
Of course if we had competent federal leadership on this maybe these questions and many others would be answered and provide effective solutions.
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