> Are unvaccinated hospitalizations significantly worse compared to other personal decisions (diet, exercise, risky hobbies).
I mean, clearly, yes. Those, in themselves, never (or at least virtually never) cause sudden exhaustion of hospital capacity. Now, many covid cases, particularly unvaccinated cases, have some sort of lifestyle problem as a comorbidity, but that's not really the point.
As an example, lets say hospitals have a capacity of 100, 40 of the capacity is generally taken up by non-lifestyle factors, 40 is taken up by various lifestyle factors (things that could have reasonably been avoided from a better diet, exercise, or otherwise), and the remainder is left as buffer. Now, lets say covid takes up 25 capacity, which now overflows hospitals by demanding 105 capacity. Why is this new lifestyle factor (not getting a vaccine) obviously worse than the previously accepted and accounted for lifestyle factors?
Is it the ease of avoidance? 3 jabs and you're done? If so, what about the injuries we accept that could be avoided entirely through inaction (sports, motorcycles, whatever)?
Is it the magnitude? Looking at covid as a single factor, it could be argued that it has far greater impact than any other individual lifestyle factor. but that information sure hasn't come up in any discussion I've seen. It's always left as an exercise for the reader.
Is it the suddenness? Covid sure has been a shock to the system that it was unprepared for, but that's only true through the lens of comparing pre-pandemic to current moment. Looking at the current state, it's no longer sudden. The existence of covid is now known, and so is hospitalization needs. Now it's just a question of capacity, not suddenness.
I'm not saying the point can't be argued, but it's certainly not obvious to me. And if every discussion is left as "it's obvious, why can't you see it", the discussion won't go anywhere.
It’s a question and a calculation of the CFOs of health care organizations whether or not they want to make major investments and if those investment will provide a high rate of return 5-10 years from now. This is no different than energy companies avoiding build new power plants by giving people rebates and credits for reducing power. Instead, in the short term they are “asking” you to spend more time waiting in the ER or for surgery and asking health care workers to work harder. They were and are really hoping that Covid goes away so they can continue to make astronomical amount of profit and keep there NPS and Glint surveys somewhat above the gutter.
Suddenness still applies if it continues to come in waves like Omicron. If the waves are spaced far enough apart, the extra capacity is hard/expensive to plan for. Omicron came very suddenly after a long period of little activity (and is already leaving almost as fast in much of the US).
Importantly, COVID can make hospital staff sick, which is one way it takes up capacity. I'd read that in the hospitals that hit capacity issues during Omicron, they wouldn't have had any capacity problems if staff weren't sick from Omicron. So, the capacity challenge is having enough personnel slack to cover the suddenness, which seems harder than handling equipment/room capacity issues.
That said, I agree with your points and we need clear answers to those questions.
I mean, clearly, yes. Those, in themselves, never (or at least virtually never) cause sudden exhaustion of hospital capacity. Now, many covid cases, particularly unvaccinated cases, have some sort of lifestyle problem as a comorbidity, but that's not really the point.