The price we pay for the anti-vaxxers....

THE anti-vaxxers are now costing us taxpayers an absolute fortune and risking the destruction of our NHS. Bit strong? Well probably not.

It is now said that over 75% of those with Covid-19 needing hospital care are anti-vaxxers. And if you look at current infection rates it certainly looks to be true.

Total numbers infected are at last falling but numbers entering hospital are soaring. And that means it is those without the benefit of the vaccine who are getting seriously ill and needing hospital care. In their thousands it seems.

This interpretation is also borne out by the falling death rate. It is the aged and those with pre-existing conditions who mostly constitute the dying - so if that number is still falling it follows that those needing hospital care are fit enough overall to survive the virus, however ill it may make them in the meantime. So, anti-vaxxers.

Now I am not a mean minded person and I firmly believe in the NHS but... if someone takes a serious risk with their lives I think they should pay for their treatment. Not the life saving bit in the event of an accident – but the longer term care that is often the outcome.

And so it needs to be with Covid-19 - an easy route to protection exists in the vaccine and the vast majority of people are sane enough to understand that. So should those who do take the vaccine route have to pay for those who stubbornly and knowingly refuse?

It is certainly neither right no fair to change the system right now. But it is right that now is the time to look carefully at the costs we bear from the activities of our modern world and of our personal decisions.

Should we all bear the hospital costs of the few who undertake seriously dangerous activities or refuse to accept the widely accepted course of safe action?

Should we all bear the cost of the rock climber, the tombstoner, the sky diver, the cave diver etc who takes a risk and falls to serious injury? Yes we should get them to hospital. Yes we should pay to save their lives. But their injuries, knowingly risked, often result in expensive long term care. Should we all pay for that? Or should they be required to insure against these risks?

I say yes, they should and I say that this could reduce the NHS costs to all of us considerably.