Refusing society-protecting vaccine should come at cost

When a person decides not to get a COVID vaccine, regardless of the reason, it puts the health services we need out of reach for the citizens of Maui.

The hospital fills with unvaccinated people and suddenly there is no room for someone in the emergency room with regular health emergencies.

Kaiser has just suspended all other surgeries. So, if you need surgery, you are out of luck: Those among the crowd “who have the right to do what I want” have just taken your place.

The societal cost of one person’s freedom to not take a society-protecting vaccine should come at a cost to the person making this choice, not to most of the society that has taken the time to get the vaccine.

Actions have consequences. Each time one of the anti-vaxxers becomes sickened with COVID, their bodies end up being experimental factories for the virus, a laboratory which works very hard to come up with other strains. So, the anti-vaxxers inadvertently end up allies of the virus, giving their bodies for the science of COVID manufacturing and experimentation.

Is it any wonder everyone else becomes so upset at these potential COVID manufacturers? They put my child at risk, me, and the very fabric of our society — the hard-working businesses — they rob us of our ability to be together and to live good lives.

This is, in all honesty, a crime against society itself. So there needs to be financial and societal costs to their actions.

Sean Lester

Kihei