An 'Alternative Medical System' 

Editor:

More than 95 percent of the COVID-19 patients in our hospitals have not been vaccinated. The unvaccinated are putting a great deal of stress on our health care system; ICUs are overflowing and non-COVID medical procedures are having to be postponed. The flood of infectious COVID patients is causing space and staff shortages as well as staff burnout, making it difficult to carry out additional treatments such as infusing monoclonal antibodies.

Another major problem with only half the population immunized is that new variants of COVID-19 will probably be evolving. These new and potentially more dangerous variants could have an even greater impact on our hospitals. These variants will primarily come from the noses and mouths of the unvaccinated, not from China.

According to my modest proposal, anti-vaxxers would not be admitted to hospitals, (Jonathan Swift had the original modest proposal). Vaccine deniers would set up their own alternative medical system. One of the functions of this system would be to administer drugs not recommended by the mainstream medical community — hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin, for example. This alternative health care system would be funded by legacies provided in the wills of deceased vaccine deniers.

Recently, in the South, three anti-vax talk show hosts died after being infected with the COVID-19 virus. Two of them recanted their anti-vax stance as death came near. If too many vaccine deniers rescind their anti-vaccine views when they realize they are mortally ill and drop out of the alternative medical system, the program may have financial problems. However, the escalating number of vaccine deniers dying will probably keep them in the black.

Larry Schulssler, Arcata