Not All Covid Deaths Are the Same

The missing variable in our risk-reward calculus

The societal norm against speaking ill of the dead is definitely a good one. No matter what a person’s shortcomings, their flaws shouldn’t be publicly rehashed the minute that they’re too dead to respond. When I die, I like to imagine that there will be a polite cooling off period before someone utters the phrase “poor man’s Mark Russell but without the musical talent.”

This taboo might be one of the reasons why we seem to be mostly dodging one of the central questions of the pandemic: What steps should we take to protect people who could greatly reduce their risk from Covid by getting vaccinated, but who choose not to? As David Leonhardt notes, we seem to be keeping some restrictions in place at least partly to protect people who make this choice.

David Leonhardt @DLeonhardt

The widespread availability of vaccines also raises an ethical question: Should children suffer to protect unvaccinated adults — who are voluntarily accepting Covid risk for themselves and increasing everybody else’s risk, too? Right now, the U.S. is effectively saying yes.

There’s a lot of invective being directed against the unvaccinated; I’m not going to take part in that. Unvaccinated people frustrate the hell out of me, but I don’t think that railing against them gets us anywhere. And it should go without saying that I don’t want anyone to die; the only people who I want to die are terrorists and a few singers from ‘90s bands, and I know that the second category isn’t ethical (even though it remains very real). Still, I think that there’s a simple answer to the question: “What steps should we take to protect people who choose not to protect themselves?” I think the answer is “none”.