![Columnist taken to woodshed for 'heartless' idea to mock people who die from COVID after not getting vaccine](https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/columnist-taken-to-woodshed-for-heartless-idea-to-mock-people-who-die-from-covid-after-not-getting-vaccine.jpg?id=28783573&width=1245&height=700&quality=85&coordinates=40%2C0%2C40%2C0)
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Los Angeles Times columnist Michael Hiltzik was rhetorically ripped to shreds Monday after publishing an essay saying that people who are not vaccinated against COVID-19 and die from the virus should be mocked.
Hiltzik, a Pulitzer Prize winner, said that people who die from COVID while not being vaccinated against the virus "can be viewed as receiving their just deserts."
Focusing on the recent death of Kelly Ernby, a southern California Republican who advocated against COVID vaccine mandates, the thesis of Hiltzik's argument is that mocking people who die from COVID and were not vaccinated against COVID is a sufficient "teachable moment" to scare people into complying with COVID vaccine mandates.
"It may be not a little ghoulish to celebrate or exult in the deaths of vaccine opponents. And it may be proper to express sympathy and solicitude to those they leave behind," Hiltzik wrote.
"But mockery is not necessarily the wrong reaction to those who publicly mocked anti-COVID measures and encouraged others to follow suit, before they perished of the disease the dangers of which they belittled," he continued. "Nor is it wrong to deny them our sympathy and solicitude, or to make sure it’s known when their deaths are marked that they had stood fast against measures that might have protected themselves and others from the fate they succumbed to."
"There may be no other way to make sure that the lessons of these teachable moments are heard," Hiltzik declared.
Column: Mocking anti-vaxxers' deaths is ghoulish, yes \u2014 but necessaryhttps://www.latimes.com/business/story/2022-01-10/why-shouldnt-we-dance-on-the-graves-of-anti-vaxxers\u00a0\u2026— Michael Hiltzik (@Michael Hiltzik) 1641845248
Interestingly, Hiltzik did not apply his argument to clinically obese Americans who are likely to develop cardiac diseases or diabetes, two of the leading causes of death in America. Nor did Hiltzik apply his thesis, for example, to smoking, which is known to cause cancer.
One thus wonders: Should those who die from lifestyle diseases also be mocked?
Hiltzik was thoroughly slammed by critics across the bipartisan divide for his admittedly "ghoulish" idea.
Hiltzik actually responded to Ball's question of whether his standard should be applied to smokers and other drug addicts. Hiltzik said it should not because "smokers and overdosing addicts don't commonly advocate that innocent people subject themselves to life-threatening disease."
However, being vaccinated will not prevent you from transmitting the virus, thus harming "innocent people."
After all, breakthrough cases happen every day, fully vaccinated people are still dying of COVID (although the majority have several co-morbidities), and the CDC even says that fully vaccinated people still transmit the virus.