Letters: Freedom to refuse vaccine comes with enormous cost

Letters to the Editor| The Columbus Dispatch

While the human cost of the COVID-19 pandemic has been staggering, and its emotional toll on health care workers unimaginable, the economiccost to the health care systemhas been enormous, as well. Yet, a significant portion of the billions of dollars spent on hospital care could have been avoided.

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According to the Health System Tracker, a publication of thePeterson Center on Healthcare andtheKaiser Family Foundation, there were a total of 690,000 vaccine-preventable COVID-19 hospitalizations form June through November 2021with each of those cases costing an average of $20,000.That equals 13 billion, 800 million unnecessarilyspentdollarsthat will come from taxpayers or insurance rate payers.

In the end, those claiming the freedom to be unvaccinated are doing so at an enormous cost to others. It gives freedom isnt free an entirely new meaning.

Chuck Ardo, Lancaster

More: How to submit a letter to the editor for The Columbus Dispatch

I am writing with regard to a Dec. 28 Dispatch editorial published in the Canton Repository "Lawmakers hellbent on making gun violence worse."

More: Our view: Hellbent lawmakers are doing 'something' about gun violence making it worse

In the "world of rules" you refer to, needing a license to drive a car, hunt deer, and take fish from Ohio waters, I fully agree with, as license fees help pay the costs of maintaining roadsand funding the ODNR to keep our state a viable place for wildlife to flourish, while giving the residents who wish to participate an environment to do so. It doesn't require a constitutional obligation to do so, either.

Regarding the concealed carry law that awaits the governor's signature, we must realize that the right to defend ourselves is granted by the Second Amendment to the Constitution. It is clearly stated that this right "shall not be infringed" -period.

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Any need for a license will not be adhered to by those who have bad intent. The law-abiding citizen who is only wanting to have a chance of surviving a situation where his/her life may be in danger is no threat to anyone other than the "bad guy."

I highly urge the governor to sign this bill into law.

Randy J. Lindower,New Philadelphia

With every man, woman and child having access to one or moreguns, why should there be a question as to why homicides have risen in Columbus and the U.S.?

More: Amelia Robinson: Instead of celebrating Christmas, far too many are 'dying by the gun'

The actions of many of our elected officials explains why instruments searching for intelligent life are pointed toward the sky.

John Lindamood, Columbus

I am a vaccination card supporter (referencing Dec. 26 letter to the editor "Do vaccination card advocates support proper ID for voting?") and also support proper ID for voting.

More: Letters: Common sense needed about COVID-19 vaccines. Ohio Republicans need to shape up.

The problem is that William Kloss forgets we already have proper identification for voting:at the voting venue they compare my signature with the one on file when I registered as well as asking other questions about my address, etc.

If I vote by mail I have to submit my name, address, signature, date of birth and either part of my Social Securitynumber or my driver's license number. So showing a driver's license to vote would not add anything, and of course, not everyone has a suitable license. There is no need for anything else.

Martin J. Williamson, Worthington

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Letters: Freedom to refuse vaccine comes with enormous cost