A miracle occurred, I remember what I wanted to write about. It took so long that now I have to take a break to eat, but never fear, I know I’m an idiot and wrote down my blogging plan.
It turns out that I’m a procrastinating idiot. It is now 11:50 PM and I’m racing to finish this before I fall asleep. This might turn out to be very sure short, but if it is, it is.
It’s the time of year that I keep coming up with reminders to get a flu shot. Today, I passed a pharmacy giving them. I’m waiting. I recently read that as the flu shot inexplicably gets less effective with time that the optimal time to get it is near Halloween. I’m going to wait till November unless I happen to be at the pharmacy, where I’ll probably get it, before then but after let’s say October 29.
I’m going to get the shot even though last year’s was only about 75% effective. You know why? The public health doctors that recommend it are not idiots. They don’t make guesses, they weigh the risks and the benefits. The most important thing is that I’m not just making this decision for myself. I’m not even primarily making it for myself. The limited effectiveness of the virus increases the fraction of the population that needs to be vaccinated to confer herd immunity. There are some, the very young and those with compromised immune systems that cannot be vaccinated. They can only be protected if enough of the rest of the population gets the shots to decrease their chances of encountering the virus. The lower the efficacy of the virus the higher the percentage of people that need to be vaccinated. To not get vaccinated is selfish.
Every year when people are urged to get the vaccine I see people on Facebook pushing back against it. When I post this, I will get comments pushing back on it. None of these people will be doctors, none of them will be specialists in public health. Certain none of them will be epidemiologists. They just know that they read or heard somewhere that that they shouldn’t get it, quote the mediocre effectiveness, and decided that they know more than the experts.. They do think that the epidemiologists and other scientists who work full time on this are idiots; that somehow the scientists don’t know about the risks and the efficacy. They don’t know the detailed analysis of how they compute the cost and effectiveness and don’t realize the experts do. There are even some that think the doctors are being malicious .I have even heard it suggested that they want people to be sick so they will have more patients. Does it ever dawn on them that if that were true they’d be encouraging people to smoke, have unprotected sex, be overweight, and not practice preventive hygiene? Do they not know anyone that became a doctor? I knew many, not one was a sociopath, which is what they would have to be to conspire to make people unhealthy.
What struck me is how much the vaccine deniers are to climate change deniers. Both groups believe that their opinion as uninformed laymen, gleaning things from the internet, is of more value than those who have dedicated their lives to studying the subject. Both so fear the costs of doing the socially responsible thing that they refuse to see the benefits.
One big difference is that there are very few climate deniers in my social circles. If I post about climate change I won’t get push back. I’ll get agreement or indifference. I do know vaccine deniers. You know what I noticed? They too are not sociopaths and not selfish. Just like climate deniers their actions will in the future hurt innocent children but it isn’t because they don’t care. It’s because they don’t process the information properly. It’s a cognitive, not moral error. It’s important to realize that when dealing with them, and with climate deniers. They key is not making them care. They do care. They key is to let them see past their tribalism, fear, and ignorance. It’s much more satisfying to rail against evil people but that won’t combat the evils. If you take that attitude you yourself, are doing the same thing, choosing what feels better to you over what is better for humanity
Good timing, it’s now my bed time and the glow in my eyes is dimming. I can put evangelizing to bed for the night and get some sleep. I’ve written about it before but I’m considering writing about my evangelizing tomorrow, except that now it’s today..
Wise Madness 