Vaccine Hesitancy

 After 18 months of a global pandemic, there is a huge data set available to people so that they can make informed decisions.  That is a good thing.  If we are implored to :follow the science" then we have the opportunity to do exactly that.  There is a new MIT study out that examines the science behind the problem of vaccine hesitance and finds that the skeptics are both informed and rational.

But a study done at MIT showed that a substantial portion of public-health skepticism was highly informed, scientifically literate, and sophisticated in the use of data. Skeptics used the same data sets as those with the orthodox views on public health.

You can read the MIT article here.

We can use data to draw conclusions.  The government publishes data that we use.  Two things can be rue at the same time.  For example:

Data shows that Covid kills people.  That is true.  The same data also shows that it kills a tiny percentage of people who it infects.  Less than one-tenth of one percent.  That is also true.

Pubic health authorities tell us that the vaccine is safe and effective.  That may be true.  But, there have been no long-term studies on the possible effects of the vaccine in ten or twenty years.  That is also true.  We will know in twenty years, but anyone who tells you differently is simply spit-balling. We don't know that yet.

It does't help to characterize anti-vaccers or anti-maskers as rubes or illogical, or misinformed..