Happy Sunday! This week’s headline polls: The best use of polling this week is in gauging the public’s reaction to the CDC’s decision to pause one-dose J&J vaccinations. So far, it has not changed public demand for vaccines or increase overall hesitancy. Two like on this:
I've lived in that area. I grew up with people like this, but in the pre-Fox era, so gullibility was not a feature at that time. It's very hard, still, for me to comprehend the wild stuff people will believe. I mean...can they even make a functional microchip that will fit through the .25 millimeters of the typical vaccination needed? And it's transmitting to...where?
And all the while, their cell phones are providing real-time tracking of their locations while they freely share every moment of their day on Facebook. Who needs a microchip? It's mind-boggling.
What has always driven me insane is the contradictions in their positions they can't even reason through.
These same people who get many government benefits, hiring preferences, etc. still hate the government and redistributive policies...while being redistributed to. I see the same thing in farmers, who on the whole get massive welfare in the form of crop subsidies and various programs. But in my rural home town, you CANNOT point out how much more they get in government assistance than they pay in taxes because THEY deserve it while others are just suckling off the government without justification.
I just don't know what to think about the conservative mind anymore.
Maybe I'm misinterpreting the Economist graphs, but it looks like the share of respondents rating J&J as safe has left its former confidence interval -- and the same goes for those rating it as unsafe. It's clear that there's no reliable difference between safe and unsafe after the pause. But haven't the safe and unsafe answers changed in a statistically important way from before the pause?
I got my first shot of the Pfizer vaccine this week. I'm glad the J&J pause hasn't halted demand for vaccines. I am worried about the people who are skeptical of being vaccinated regardless. I'm wondering how vaccine hesitancy will impact the amount of time for us to get back to "normal".
I'm not sure if it is ethical to time travel. For example, would I go back in time to tell my younger self about how to do well in my professors' classes or about the friends I made during college? Probably, but could it drastically change the direction of my life? Maybe.
Jim and I have been fully vaccinated for more than a month. But fully 1/4 of US residents report that they refuse to get a vaccine. https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/04/07/984697573/vaccine-refusal-may-put-herd-immunity-at-risk-researchers-warn This means that virus variants will continue to spread and an unknown %age of variants will overpower existing varieties for which we are vaccinated. This is, I suppose, nature's way of using Homo sapiens to reduce the Homo sapiens population. Nature's other ways include mass migrations of Homo saps, anthropogenic global warming, and unchecked resource destruction. As the past was what got us here and the future looks bleak ahead, neither nostalgia nor futurism beckons. Our business is to build a better future if we can and to live as citizenly as we can.
First vaccine shot on Monday, finally!
Regarding hesitancy:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/04/17/veterans-coronavirus-vaccine/
I've lived in that area. I grew up with people like this, but in the pre-Fox era, so gullibility was not a feature at that time. It's very hard, still, for me to comprehend the wild stuff people will believe. I mean...can they even make a functional microchip that will fit through the .25 millimeters of the typical vaccination needed? And it's transmitting to...where?
And all the while, their cell phones are providing real-time tracking of their locations while they freely share every moment of their day on Facebook. Who needs a microchip? It's mind-boggling.
What has always driven me insane is the contradictions in their positions they can't even reason through.
These same people who get many government benefits, hiring preferences, etc. still hate the government and redistributive policies...while being redistributed to. I see the same thing in farmers, who on the whole get massive welfare in the form of crop subsidies and various programs. But in my rural home town, you CANNOT point out how much more they get in government assistance than they pay in taxes because THEY deserve it while others are just suckling off the government without justification.
I just don't know what to think about the conservative mind anymore.
Was going to get J&J but had had settle for Moderna. So 6 weeks until I am fully vaccinated. I waited this long...
Maybe I'm misinterpreting the Economist graphs, but it looks like the share of respondents rating J&J as safe has left its former confidence interval -- and the same goes for those rating it as unsafe. It's clear that there's no reliable difference between safe and unsafe after the pause. But haven't the safe and unsafe answers changed in a statistically important way from before the pause?
Hi Elliott,
I got my first shot of the Pfizer vaccine this week. I'm glad the J&J pause hasn't halted demand for vaccines. I am worried about the people who are skeptical of being vaccinated regardless. I'm wondering how vaccine hesitancy will impact the amount of time for us to get back to "normal".
I'm not sure if it is ethical to time travel. For example, would I go back in time to tell my younger self about how to do well in my professors' classes or about the friends I made during college? Probably, but could it drastically change the direction of my life? Maybe.
I hope you are having a great weekend!
Elliot
Jim and I have been fully vaccinated for more than a month. But fully 1/4 of US residents report that they refuse to get a vaccine. https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/04/07/984697573/vaccine-refusal-may-put-herd-immunity-at-risk-researchers-warn This means that virus variants will continue to spread and an unknown %age of variants will overpower existing varieties for which we are vaccinated. This is, I suppose, nature's way of using Homo sapiens to reduce the Homo sapiens population. Nature's other ways include mass migrations of Homo saps, anthropogenic global warming, and unchecked resource destruction. As the past was what got us here and the future looks bleak ahead, neither nostalgia nor futurism beckons. Our business is to build a better future if we can and to live as citizenly as we can.