13451067, Do you think Covid and smoking are equal?|
Posted by Cold Truth, Tue Jan-04-22 01:01 PM
Even with second hand smoke, the overall risk to those around them is minimal compared to the continued spread of Covid.
Add the broader anti-vaxx sentiment to the anti-Covid vaccine sentiment, and the overall harm contribution doesn't remotely compare.
While the lung cancer comparison has *some* merit, speaking strictly in terms of compassion, it's just not on par.
Further, the general compassion fatigue experienced by the average person has nothing to do with the Hippocratic Oath of a medical professional. Unless Reeq is a doctor, I don't see how that works as a response to his post. Reeq can hold the opinion that they shouldn't be treated all the live long day, but that doesn't change the legal responsibilities of the health care system.
Conversely, antivax sentiments aren't unlike the Covid virus itself. Antivax thinking spreads and infects in much the same way.
This isn't just about someone's own life choice to smoke, or even to eat poorly, choose not to excercise, etc. It's nowhere near an apples to apples comparison IMO.
The person who contracts lung cancer, by and large, isn't spreading their cancer in a way that's contagious. So while the second hand smoke can be an issue, person A who winds up with a condition from second hand smoke isn't spreading it to others.
And the entire context of Reeq's sentiment- shared by many- isn't that they should die, or that he/we want them to die. it's that we're in a pandemic, going on two years in, with no end in sight, and plenty of people are extremely loud, proud, and active in their belief.
That belief isn't just a harm to themselves, but everyone, collectively. Compassion fatigue is quite real- and antivaxers are the active cause of that fatigue. The very sentiment people like The Mac and Kayru are so bothered about, is fostered by their own sentiments.
They are literally why such fatigue exists. Sure, it takes two. But they are the prime mover, the initiator, the driver. There's very little overlap between this and smoking or other largely personal choices regarding one's health.
That isn't to say there's not value in the idea of striving to rise above, to not give in, but that's a big ask IMO.