Funeral expenses

[minx]

Read an interesting article yesterday.  If you died from COVID, you can qualify for $9 towards your funeral expenses courtesy of FEMA.

Now, I don't have a problem with the feds helping with funeral expenses, but $9K seems a bit excessive to me.  But I was willing to give that a 'whatever' at first.

Then I started thinking about this more.  Why are we paying for the funerals of the unvaccinated?  YOU made a choice, and the choice was not to protect yourself or your family.  So guess what?  That choice should extend to any expenses you incurred too - sorry that burying you will bankrupt the family.  Should have thought of that before refusing the jab, eh?

The saddest part of the article was the toll this is taking on all the people who's job it is to help those affected by the pandemic.  The main subject was a woman who was working remotely for FEMA helping with applications.  She made it 8 months before she couldn't take the sadness and anger anymore - so many people are hurting who have lost friends and loved ones to this.  The woman in the article came off as a very sympathetic person, but her hands are tied in many cases so all she could do was listen and offer what help she could.
One of the others mentioned in the article was a man who had called the helpline and spoke with this woman.  His father died in a nursing home at the beginning of the pandemic, and while he had all of the symptoms of COVID, there weren't reliable tests, so his death is listed as respiratory failure - she told him the death certificate had to be amended, or the doctor at the nursing home had to write a letter saying that dad had all the symptoms.  Nursing home won't cooperate, and the doctor is no longer working there - no one actually signed the death certificate.  Just heartbreaking listening to his story, along with the guilt he feels - dad was there for a short rehab stint.  Why didn't he (the son) demand access to the place and bring his dad home when they went on lockdown?  He should have been more forceful and not let his dad die alone.  So heartbreaking.

Which brought me back around to the assholes who feel this isn't all that serious, and vaccines are the devil's handiwork.  First question that this program needs to start asking - Was the deceased fully vaccinated?  If so, can you provide clear proof of vaccination?  If not, was there a defined medical reason that this person was not vaccinated?  Can you provide proof?

Otherwise too damn bad.  You have religious objections?  Let your church pay for your funeral then.  Not my fucking problem.

[Dave's Not Here Man]

Okay here goes (deep cleansing breath)....

It is not the job of government to pay funeral expenses for anyone other than to whom they may be under obligation because contracts/agreements. Military, for example.

The pandemic was/is a tragic consequence of a naturally occurring thing that comes with life on this planet, of which human beings have been exposed to through the many many means of transmission, many many times in it's own history, with many notable mass deaths. Whatever your camp is on that doesn't matter for now, so in trying to figure out who the payee really should be, we can't get intellectually lazy and lay blame on those who themselves succumbed to it because of their own apathy.... and apply a guilty verdict that bankrupts their families regardless of their own part in it. Show me a medical code for that.

I have to part ways with you obviously on the first principle above. But if the government did pay for it and excluded the unvaxed as you descibed above I can't go along with that either because people die of self neglect and abuse by their own choice everyday. So you would have to say, "well, the government warned you about smoking in the 60s, drug use in the 70s, gay sex in the 80s, trans fats 90s, opioids in the 2000s....... sorry, you don't qualify based on your life decisions that came with heavily advertised consequences and multiple attempts to help. Which you chose to forego. will that be cash or charge?"

[minx]

The expenditure was 'justified' as COVID being a disaster. I can't say I agree with that logic any more than you do.

And I do hear what you're saying. I'm just so fucking frustrated with these assholes. My cousin told my sister that the virus was no worse than a cold, and it doesn't affect young people. She's 55. Exactly what age category does she think she falls into? Guess what honey? YOU'RE OLD!!!! (and her employer along with her husband's employer mandated vaccines, so she does have 2 shots at least).