Should we leave the unvaccinated on their own?

[Florida Man for Crime]

The unvaccinated should receive medical care as long as there is sufficient capacity and medical resources to treat them available. However, that capacity and medical resources are not unlimited, and when capacity is exceeded, rationing and triage of care necessarily has to occur.

Another area in which there are, sadly, not unlimited medical resources available is organ transplants.

Smokers are commonly de-prioritized for lung transplants and alcoholics de-prioritized for liver transplants, in comparison to non-smokers/non-alcoholics who need organ transplants.

The reason for that is pretty simple - if you give a smoker/alcoholic a lung/liver transplant, there is a larger risk they will ruin/waste the transplanted organ. It will, other things equal, do less good to give them a transplant.

Similar logic applies to people who have deliberately chosen not to get vaccinated, and so they can and will be de-prioritized for care in comparison to vaccinated people. That doesn't mean they will never receive care; other factors such as severity of illness will be taken into account. But, other things equal, a vaccinated patient of equivalent age etc are generally going to get (and should get) preferential access to monoclonals/ventilators/ECMOs/etc in comparison to the unvaccinated. And vaccinated car accident victims who have a good chance of survival with treatment are generally going to get preferential ICU access in comparison to unvaccinated severely ill COVID patients who are likely to die regardless. Etc.

This is the new reality in states like Florida, Texas, and Mississippi. Hopefully not coming to an Illinois/California/Minnesota near you, but that depends over the coming weeks and months on numerous factors such as what mitigation policies get put in place, what increases in vaccination rates can be achieved, how much vaccine efficacy turns out to drop over time and in response to delta (more data continues to trickle in every few days), and how much of a difference booster shots turn out to make.