Get your vaccine

After reading “Paying for ignorance of other Americans” in Saturday’s newspaper by Fred McKinney, I’m reminded of one of my favorite quotes: “In the age of information, ignorance is a choice,” by author Donny Miller.

In his commentary, Mr. McKinney makes a thought-provoking argument that, with respect to the COVID crisis, the critically scarce health care resources should be reserved for those Americans who choose to behave in a way that prevents them from becoming critically sick, namely those who take advantage of the widely available and very effective vaccines and boosters, at no cost to them. His poignant argument is supported by several factual observations, one of which is that 95 percent of Americans in ICUs are unvaccinated. These patients chose not to be vaccinated and, therefore, he argues, “should bear the consequences of their actions.” One of the suggested consequences is for them to pay a much higher premium for their health care coverage.

By extension, the “ignorance is a choice” argument can be applied to those who choose to ignore easily accessible information that can help prevent, or even reverse, most chronic diseases affecting Americans today, which cause our national health care cost to increase at an alarming rate.

Pasquale Guarino Norwalk