While I understand the purpose of neutrality when administering health care — surgeons must operate on wounded saints and murderers alike — I believe the author fails to make an important distinction. There are choices that have an impact on individuals (or relatively small groups of people), and choices that exponentially affect public health.

The one-two punch of choosing to abstain from vaccination and going about daily life unmasked is a terribly irresponsible combination, one that has the potential to kill innocent bystanders by proxy. Perhaps it’s most comparable to driving under the influence or arson, even though the worst case casualty counts of those are still only in the hundreds, while a “Typhoid Mary or Mark” could bring about the demise of untold numbers of vulnerable folks over the full course of time.

So yes, if you forgo vaccination and get sick it’s your own fault (consequence of a personal decision), but it also means that you bear some responsibility for every person you have now caused to be infected down the line. Perhaps it isn’t right to judge people for self-inflicted wounds, but I believe it is quite appropriate to judge people for the fire they’ve perpetuated. So while it’s simpler for physicians to just treat everyone and not get bogged down in who caused what — my goodness, how the rest of us should judge and scorn those who made choices that risk the well being of us all.