A young Missouri man, a grandfather, now wishes he had gotten the vaccine. Of course, he only now wishes he used some common sense because he nearly died, peering over death’s cliff. He is at home resting and we’re all happy about that. Everyone reading this retains their humanity, even when the other side doesn’t.

But there is now talk on Twitter, about whether unvaccinated patients that are critically ill should be in the back of the line at ERs if there are accident victims, or heart issues, stroke, etcetera. It is tempting, in many ways they chose their plight. But then one is engaging in triage based on what we consider common sense. Dicey.

But here is what could work. The federal government could withhold all federal funds from states without a hardcore mandatory mask mandate. We mean police tickets. If someone is seen at the store without a mask, a person calls the police 311 or whatever (to distinguish from robbery, accident) and $225 tickets are handed out. COVID rates would dive to the point it might be stamped out when combined with vaccination, which is next. The federal government tells states that there will be no federal money going into a state that doesn’t meet certain goals in vaccination rates by October 31 (for example). It pushes states to get real information out to people, pushes them to set up vaccination stations in front of grocery stores, schools, high school football games. It gets this country to 80-90% by Christmas season where heard immunity hits hard.

That is how one fights stories like this, not so much through the triage of a person’s decision based on “misinformation,” but beforehand, with states that aren’t doing enough. We all know the difference.

Now here’s the story we’ve all heard too many times now, damn it. Link:

A grandfather’s fight with COVID featured on a hospital’s Facebook page is going viral. Mercy Hospital says Mike Prinzi was reluctant to get the vaccine because of what he now calls, “misinformation.” He ended up fighting for his life at the hospital’s intensive care unit.

“We had doubts in the beginning, with all the different stories from the media making decisions about getting vaccinated difficult. But wish I had known then what I have learned now,” writes his wife on Facebook.

Prinzi is at home now and is still under treatment and feels lucky to be alive. He shared this Facebook post about how medical workers at the hospital are dealing with COVID with no end in sight.

Glad he did well. Sick of this.

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