Quit your freeloading

Many people have written letters to the editor on benefits of being covid-vaccinated, and I commend them all. A recent letter commented on parasitic freeloaders of our government. There is a new set of freeloaders here in our state, and I will give numbers to back my side.

The vaccine is essentially free, zero dollars. We know that vaccinated people are 99 percent assured of not being hospitalized. As of Aug. 2, 250 of our Arkansas ICU beds were covid patients on ventilators at a cost of $10,000-$15,000/day, averaged to $12,500, a daily cost of $3.1 million. Another 150 patients were in the ICU but not on a ventilator (cov+) at a cost of $4,000/day, a daily cost of $0.6 million. Another 800 cov+ fill our hospitals at a cost of $2,000/day, a daily cost of $1.6 million. Just adding those numbers we are spending $5.3 million/day on covid. Arkansas’ population is 3 million and there are 365 days in a year, and if this trend continues, the cost to the average Arkansan is $645/year. I don’t want my insurance to increase, but thanks to the anti-vaccine freeloaders there will be no other choice.

The only solution is to have them pay out-of-pocket for testing, higher insurance premiums if vaccine negative, segregated indoor events with proof of vaccine required (we did it for cigarettes), and all medical personnel should have vaccine and documentation worn on uniform or at least twice-weekly testing and be masked, and all other businesses should have their covid policy posted on the entry.

The vaccine is free; quit your freeloading and get vaccinated!

ANDY CONNAUGHTON

Vilonia