Sure, you’re sitting there with a deliberately stupid look on your face as you read this. But then you uncross your eyes, wipe off the drool, and realize that it’s important for Science to study general Human stupidity so we can have even the remotest chance at coming up with a “cure” for it. Anti-vaccine advocates are a particularly insidious form of stupid–one that, without even needing to resort to hyperbole, could be responsible for the deaths of millions should their nonsense take hold in the public consciousness. Matthew Hornsey, PhD, of the University of Queensland is one of the people working on the topic. He studied the relationship between conspiracy beliefs and anti-vaccination views. Just imagine this, in color, in your neighborhood elementary school What he found out, shouldn’t surprise anyone, but does bring us that much closer to figuring out how to “fix stupid”. According to Science Daily: Hornsey and his co-authors surveyed 5,323 people from 24 countries on five continents using online questionnaires between March 31 and May 11, 2016, measuring antivaccination attitudes and belief in four conspiracy theories: that Princess Diana was murdered; that the American government knew about the 9/11 attacks in advance and chose…
This might sound foolish to a lot of you, but only this year I was able to come to the realization that a lot of medical doctors are so inept, but SO inept, that it hurts my brain. (And I’m not counting with good old Andy W., anti-vaxxer supreme – this one’s levels of shit for brains are legendary.) Never have I ever had to argue so much with family and (ex)friends about bullshit spewed by some random physician on random videos posted on social media. It doesn’t even make me angry anymore – it’s just sad.
The vaccines we currently have are not perfect.
And, we could use some longer term data, particularly with regards to the pediatric population, the efficacy of boosters, the pregnant population, etc.
And, people that have had recent COVID19 infections have a reason to ask, “why should I get a vaccine, I have post infection antibodies, etc.”
And people have a reason to be pissed about dickwads who run around and harass people about wearing masks, not wearing masks, or attempt to shame them for stating reasons they are hesitant to get the vaccines, etc.
It is ironic in the extreme to claim intelligence, or claim to criticize the absence of intelligence, and then choose stupid ways to discuss the issue, that are counter-productive, and cause the people one claims one wishes to persuade to one’s point of view to instead dig their heels in, merely for the pleasure of calling them names, and acting in a falsely superior manner.
Vaccines aren’t perfect, but they do work, though. As do masks. I can’t really say if you agreed with me or not - not your fault, English is not my first language and I’m getting way worse at reading it each day. Also, I’m reaaally slow today, burnout and shit. Couldn’t find the strength to post something here for months.
Also(2) my comment was only anecdotal. Anyway, to further elaborate my point, in the past two years I’ve had contact with medical professionals including doctors, nurses, technicians etc who often demonstrated much less proficiency in subjects I once judged really simple, high-school biology shit. Ever since then I have come into contact with the perspective that medical professionals are more concerned with a pragmatic approach to the clinic - if it seems to work, maybe it really works so we cut the crap and just use the damn thing. Therefore we get doctors telling people to treat viral infections with vermifuge. General public does not concern themselves with the intricacies of how certain remedies, once thought to treat a certain condition, could also be used to treat other stuff. General public also does not concern themselves with measures like how much of a certain substance is safe to take. It is possible, and as we now know, that a fraction of the public will take those advices without the expected caution and cause themselves harm. Yeah, doctors may have given advice with the best intentions yada yada, but they’re still responsible for spewing bullshit. I’ve just read the news in my country, and the main article was about how a stupid and irresponsible study was rushed by politicians to push some new medicine as a solution for the COVID-19 pandemic and about 200 people died from the experiment. People who did this aren’t just stupid - they’re criminals. And I will take every single chance I get to criticize and ridicule them because they deserve worse. Way worse.
