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Thursday, January 28, 2021

What is the value of a life?--it all depends

 


    What we are seeing played out with the vaccine distribution reminds me of an exercise that I had in a philosophy course that had a section on ethics.  The exercise would be familiar to anyone who has an ethics course.  The excise is designed to have you place a value on the lives of a diverse group of people who find themselves in a boat that is sinking and there is only one lifeboat.  Who do you put in the lifeboat and who do you sacrifice on the sinking boat.  Replace the sinking lifeboat for the COVID virus and the vaccine as the lifeboat and you have the decisions that states and localities are making with the vaccine distribution.  Florida prioritized people 65+ over almost every other group.  Here in Maryland we now see healthy 25-year-old teachers getting the vaccine through their school while senior citizens spend frustrating hours trying to find an appointment online and getting the message that no shots are available that day.  Wealthy people are traveling in their private jets to states where they have a greater chance to get a vaccine shot.  Donors to hospitals are trying to see if they can bribe the hospital for a shot by making a large donation.  We saw a similar situation last year when the National Basketball Association was able to purchase the rapid test strips for COVID when they were very difficult to get for the general public.  We shouldn't be surprised that this exists in our health care system that relies on private health care providers who have to look at their bottom line. Having said all of that we should remember that living in the United States or in any other developed country puts us months ahead of people in the undeveloped world who may be even more at risk of dying from COVID.  Even within the United States we in Howard County are better positioned to get a shot than some of the poorer parts of this country.  We are the wealthy people in many regards that I was referring to earlier even if we don't have a private jet.

P.S.

        Another aspect of our health care system was shown in a sign I saw along the road the other day.  There are companies that buy surplus diabetic test strips from people to resell to people who have to pay for the strips with our health insurance.  People without health insurance are pushed into a black market to buy needed health care products.  I saw this first hand when I started a Type 1 diabetes support group after my daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.  Being fortunate to work for Howard County Government and having excellent health coverage my experience with obtaining all the needed medical supplies that my daughter needed was not the situation other families faced.  I remember a family using this black market to buy their test strips.  When I told about my daughter being the youngest patient in the country to be fitted with an insulin pump that was obtained because our pediatric endocrinologist was working with the developer of the pump model I was asked how much it cost.  When I said my insurance covered the entire cost is was surprising to most everyone in the group.  I felt guilty even talking about our situation after hearing of the struggles of the other families who had harrowing stories of frequent visits to the ER and other medical issues that were stressful in managing a scary childhood disease.  Cost was a factor they had to consider in trying to manage an important medical situation with their child.  Anyone with a social conscience should be troubled with the situation of healthcare in the United States.
     

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