Vaccines drastically reduce hospitalizations and death. That is required for public health systems to function. Beyond that, it is up to each individual how much they want to avoid getting the disease at all.
Mostly among elderly and risk groups as these groups are the ones with high risk of hospitalization and death.
But they also are at high risk of hospitalization and death from other sources, not only from covid. Although covid was more prominent at certain period and vaccines helped to bring down the numbers.
The risk groups make up quite a large population in the US. From a public health perspective, it makes little sense to ask people for their medical history and determine risk vs. just trying to vaccinate as much as possible, considering how cheap the vaccine is.
