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Special Edition Strong Opinions Loosely Held: Part 2 Misinformation, Vaccines, and Prosocial Ways to Respond Published on September 10, 2021 Dr. Chris Stout I come to this piece from a place of concern, not politics. It is spurred by some friends, aware of my weekly newsletter, and from reading social media posts of well-intentioned friends that I found to be a bit upsetting, as I believed their sharing was meant to be of good intention and help to others in their networks, but may have more of an iatrogenic impact. I have noted herein and numerous other places that the pandemic has spurred what has become a meme of multitudes having become Covid-19 experts, a la the Dunning-Kruger Effect. And less funny, the proliferation of many hysterical, inaccurate feeds and posts that get propagated on various social media platforms. My only “horse in this race” is public health. As a note of context, I served on a Board of Health for over a decade, on an advisory Council to the Board of Health for another decade, did a Fellowship in Public Health (University of Illinois’ School of Public Health Leadership Institute), I founded and run a nonprofit center focused on global health, education, and humanitarian intervention, and in my undergraduate, graduate, and professional work, I was trained and worked as a scientist and clinician. Thus, this topic is very important to me—I have shown in past articles
like How to Protect Yourself from Fad Science and my three part series, The Reproducibility Problem—Can Science be Trusted? , —Shame on us?, and —What’s a Scientist to do? If you know me, then you know this is a near-and-dear topic and concern of mine. I have organized it in five areas, purposely organized in this order: Science, Psychology, Misinformation, Vaccines, and Prosocial Ways to Respond. This is a long-form post that will take time to read. It will take even longer to read if you choose to look into the linked original sources and listen to the associated podcasts—which I sincerely hope you will do. It is my desire that this is not be a “TL;DR” kind of piece. Please be curious. Please read this from a perspective of wanting to learn and understand how others may hold a point of view that’s different from yours. As Covey put it, “Seek first to understand.” I am the poster-boy for seeking to understand what I am puzzled by. As a departure from my typical LinkedIn Influencer writing, this piece will be composed more so of curated and vetted pieces that speak to the point with not only greater eloquence, but more importantly, authority, research, and expertise. Also, I will continue to update this article as new information becomes available as a way to make it “evergreen” and I and others can refer readers to it who may find it of use. Let’s get started. (Please be sure to read Part 1 - Science and Psychology, in case you missed it.) III. Misinformation Contagious misinformation - The Delta misinformation loop As coronavirus cases soar, so too are online lies about Covid-19 and the vaccines designed to stop it. Misinformation experts told Davey Alba, who covers technology, that people who peddle in untruths have seized on the spike in cases from the Delta variant to spread new and rehashed false narratives. Some of the most prevalent pandemic falsehoods, according to a company that tracks misinformation: vaccines don’t work (up 437 percent); they contain microchips (up 156 percent); and that people should rely on their “natural immunity” instead of getting vaccinated (up 111 percent). Some of the most prominent purveyors of misinformation include Andrew Torba, the chief executive of the alternative social network Gab, and Joseph Mercola, an osteopathic physician. “We’ve seen the same names over and over in the past year,” Davey said. “A lot of them shifted from virus misinformation to election misinformation, and then to virus misinformation again. They often seize on news events to elevate themselves and get their names in the conversation.”
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The more savvy spreaders know blatant lies could get them banned on social media platforms, Davey said, “so they frame a lot of their posts as just asking questions, or they cherry pick certain outlier cases.” Conspiracy theories also spread on fringe platforms before moving into more mainstream sites like Page | 3 Facebook, which has struggled to eradicate health misinformation during the pandemic. Nicole Hong recently encountered a woman in New York City who rebuffed her employer’s request that she get vaccinated. To explain her decision, she said the film “I Am Legend” shows how a vaccine could cause millions of people to turn into zombies — a meme that people opposed to vaccines have circulated widely on social media. (The movie’s screenwriter recently weighed in on Twitter: “Oh. My. God. It’s a movie. I made that up. It’s. Not. Real.”) Even for those who follow the news closely, it can be confusing to follow the ever-evolving virus and the attempts to defeat it. It’s in those gaps of understanding that misinformation can flourish — and for as long as the pandemic lasts, that dynamic is sure to continue. “The new wave of misinformation is obviously caused by the Delta variant,” Davey added. “But you can expect that there will be another surge when there’s another variant.” https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/10/us/coronavirus-today-misinformation-delta.html ‘Ridiculous’: Vaccine Myths Cripple U.S. Uptake as Delta Surges The excuses range from the merely false to the absurd. The shots don’t work. They impair fertility. They’ll alter your DNA. They’ll magnetize you. They actually spread the virus. Unvaccinated Americans cite a litany of myths to explain their hesitance to get shots, confounding local health officials battling yet another surge of coronavirus cases fueled by the more transmissible delta variant. Inside the White House, the concern is so acute that President Joe Biden has publicly lashed out at Facebook Inc. for helping to spread disinformation. “Everything from Bill Gates putting a microchip in it — I’ve heard everything. It’s ridiculous,” said Tom Keller, chief executive officer of Ozarks Health Care in southern Missouri, a region with low vaccination rates that’s an epicenter of the U.S. delta outbreak. “People are listening to social media instead of listening to their docs,” he said. “Somebody who has a million followers all of the sudden becomes the expert on not getting the vaccine.” Just as the Biden administration appeared at the verge of snuffing out Covid-19 in the U.S., a shadow pandemic of disinformation threatens to prolong the crisis. Promulgated virus-like itself through social media platforms, a miasma of uncertainties, anecdotes and outright lies has seized the imaginations of Americans hesitant to be vaccinated, slowing the U.S. campaign to inoculate its population.
Biden himself showed his frustration, accusing Facebook Inc. and other social media giants of “killing people” by allowing posts with falsehoods about the virus and vaccines. During a town hall hosted by CNN, Biden said that “what we’re trying to do is use every avenue we can -- public, private, government, non-government -- to try to get the facts out, what they really are.” He walked back his remarks about Facebook however after the company rebuked him in a blog post, citing data showing that its platform has helped to increase vaccination rates and reduce hesitancy among its users. Biden instead cited a report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a nonprofit with offices in London and Washingon, that found 12 leading anti-vaccine individuals and organizations are responsible for as much as 70% of Facebook content discouraging Covid-19 vaccinations. “Facebook isn’t killing people,” Biden said Monday. “These 12 people who are out there giving misinformation, anyone listening to it is getting hurt by it, it’s killing people. It’s bad information.” He added that “instead of taking it personally,” Facebook should “do something about the misinformation.” Slowing U.S. Vaccinations The campaign against vaccination has contributed to a sharp slowdown in the pace of inoculations since April, forcing the government to shift to what Biden has called a “door-to-door” effort to get shots in arms -- a remark that itself has been portrayed as conspiratorial by some Republican leaders. While more than half the U.S. population overall has received at least one dose of a vaccine, a recent Bloomberg analysis found that among the least-vaccinated counties in the U.S., the proportion with a shot is only about 28%. A political divide has also emerged, with Republicans far more likely to be unvaccinated than Democrats, polls show. Conservative media and some Republican officeholders have in some cases amplified disinformation, or have tacitly supported vaccine hesitancy by refusing to get shots themselves -- or admit they have. Several Fox News hosts including Sean Hannity urged their viewers this week to get vaccinated, after criticism that the network’s programs had previously aired segments downplaying the threat of Covid-19 and questioning the necessity and safety of the shots. The U.S. surgeon general, Vivek Murthy, issued an advisory on misinformation. “Today, we live in a world where misinformation poses an imminent and insidious threat to our nation’s health,” he said at a White House briefing.
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About 150 leading anti-vaccine online accounts gained more than 10 million social media followers from December 2019 to December 2020, especially on Instagram and YouTube, according to CCDH. Murthy accused large social media companies of practically designing their products to spread misinformation. “Modern technology companies have enabled misinformation to poison our information environment with little accountability to their users,” he said. “They’ve allowed people to intentionally spread misinformation, what we call disinformation, to have extraordinary reach. They design product features, such as like buttons, that reward us for sharing emotionally charged content, not accurate content, and their algorithms tend to give us more of what we click on, pulling us deeper and deeper into a well of misinformation.” Biden’s chief of staff, Ron Klain, recently called Facebook Inc. chief executive Mark Zuckerberg to complain about the social media platform’s role in the spread of vaccine misinformation.
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“The platforms need to do better, I think particularly Facebook needs to do better,” Klain told the New York Times in a podcast released July 1. “There is just no question that a lot of misinformation about vaccines is coming from postings on Facebook, and this is a life or death situation here.” Facebook said in its blog post that more than 2 billion people worldwide have viewed “authoritative information” on Covid-19 and vaccines using its platform, and that 3.3 million Americans used its vaccine finder tool to locate a vaccination site and make an appointment. “When we see misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines, we take action against it,” the company’s vice president of integrity, Guy Rosen, wrote in the post. He wrote that the company had removed 18 million “instances” of Covid-19 misinformation since the beginning of the pandemic and had labeled and reduced the visibility of 167 million posts that had been “debunked by our network of fact-checking partners.” Partisan Divide Social media posts can reinforce preexisting doubts about the vaccines. A Kaiser Family Foundation survey of unvaccinated adults published June 30 found that 53% think the shots are too new and 53% are worried about side effects. About 43% said they just don’t want it, 38% don’t trust the government, 38% don’t think they need a shot and 26% said they don’t trust vaccines in general.
Smaller percentages of people said they didn’t know where to get a shot or were concerned about missing work or having to pay for the vaccine. It’s free for anyone in the U.S. Republicans, rural residents, younger people, and people of color are among the most wary of Covid vaccination, but demographics don’t easily explain hesitancy — or how to combat it. Twothirds of Democrats live in homes in which everyone is vaccinated, the Kaiser survey found, while 39% of Republicans live in homes in which no one’s gotten a shot. “Not everyone is going to be hesitant for the same reasons,” said Timothy Callaghan, who studies rural health at Texas A&M University. “The most important thing public health can do right now is first understand the beliefs people have. And then explain what is true and what is not. The last thing you want to do is disregard someone’s entire belief.” For many hesitant people, the issue comes down to a fundamental lack of trust, Callaghan said. That means government public health messages are often less powerful than counsel from a trusted friend, relative or community leader. Another Kaiser survey found that people initially skeptical of the vaccine got shots after seeing friends and family inoculated without side effects, after being pressured by friends or family, or after speaking with their doctors. But in communities where fewer people are vaccinated overall, there’s less encouragement or pressure from peers. “These people have had the opportunity to vaccinate for months. At this point not vaccinating is deeply ingrained in their beliefs,” Callaghan said. Changing people’s minds at this point, he said, is “about building trust and building relationships.” Corrosive Social Media In those places, social media is having a corrosive effect on the vaccination campaign. The large social networks have been slow to take action against unsubstantiated claims about Covid-19 and the vaccines, and when interventions do happen, they’re often half-measures. Instagram, for instance, banned celebrity vaccine opponent Robert Kennedy Jr. in February -- but he remains on Facebook, Instagram’s parent company, and his organization is on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.
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In Springfield, the city health department’s Facebook account has found itself beating back ridiculous allegations, including that the vaccine itself spreads the virus. “Honestly, I don’t know how to find all of the sources because we don’t see them,” said Katie Towns, assistant director of the Springfield-Greene County health department, in Missouri. “I don’t know how to even get to some of this stuff.” Complicating the situation further, the misinformation spread by vaccine opponents has begun to overlap with that of anti-government conspiracy theorists and figures in the far right, including the QAnon movement. Misinformation about the effect of coronavirus shots on kids has found particular resonance among QAnon adherents, who maintain that prominent Democrats are involved in convoluted conspiracies to traffic children. Some of the disinformation spread by vaccine opponents is simply odd, like a claim the shots will magnetize patients that’s popular on TikTok in particular. In the Midwest and South, regions where hesitancy runs deep, questions circulate about whether the vaccines affect fertility (there is no evidence for it) or alter human DNA (they do not).
Politicians could help, especially if more high-profile Republicans would endorse vaccination, work with local leaders to promote shots and stop spreading misinformation themselves, said Matt Motta, a political science professor at Oklahoma State University at Stillwater. But in many cases, the absence of politicians might be even more helpful. In Springfield, for example, Towns said one of the city’s most successful vaccine clinics was an event held at a fire station -- Americans still trust firefighters. In Alabama, one of the country’s least vaccinated states, the state health officer, Scott Harris, said that pharmacists, doctors and religious leaders are some of the best proponents for shots. “These folks who are struggling with getting vaccinated or are opposed to it,” he said, “they just have such a low level of trust for everybody – and that includes politicians.” By Josh Wingrove, Kristen V Brown, and Daniel Zuidijk with assistance by Jenny Leonard, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-22/-ridiculous-vaccine-myths-
cripple-u-s-uptake-as-delta-surges In Covid-19, 'Do No Harm' extends to social media The Federation of State Medical Boards has issued an extraordinary warning to clinicians that they could lose their licenses for spreading misinformation or disinformation on Covid-19 vaccines. The nonprofit represents medical boards across the U.S., so its warning carries weight, though it does not indicate how individual medical boards may act. Its decision to spotlight the issue came after President Biden’s administration significantly stepped up its efforts to shut down the spread of false or misleading information about vaccines and call out negligent social media companies. Spreading Covid-19 Vaccine Misinformation May Put Medical License at Risk The Federation of State Medical Boards’ Board of Directors released the following statement in response to a dramatic increase in the dissemination of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation and disinformation by physicians and other health care professionals on social media platforms, online and in the media: “Physicians who generate and spread COVID-19 vaccine misinformation or disinformation are risking disciplinary action by state medical boards, including the suspension or revocation of their medical license. Due to their specialized knowledge and training, licensed physicians possess a high degree of public trust and therefore have a powerful platform in society, whether they recognize it or not. They also have an ethical and professional responsibility to practice medicine in the best interests of their patients and must share information that is factual, scientifically grounded and consensus-driven for the betterment of public health. Spreading inaccurate COVID-19 vaccine information contradicts that responsibility, threatens to further erode public trust in the medical profession and puts all patients at risk.”
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For more information about how state medical boards and the FSMB are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, visit FSMB’s webpage dedicated to providing resources and information to states and the public about COVID-19. https://www.fsmb.org/advocacy/news-releases/fsmb-spreading-covid-19-vaccine-misinformationmay-put-medical-license-at-risk/?utm_source=STAT+Newsletters&utm_campaign=0207722270health_tech_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_8cab1d7961-0207722270149624905 IV. Vaccines Wild COVID Vaccine Myths And other misconceptions https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/covid19vaccine/94012?xid=nl_popmed_2021 -0813&eun=g1024768d0r&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=PopMed icine_081321&utm_term=NL_Gen_Int_PopMedicine_Active Anti-vax info Brian Deer: A tale of scientific fraud—Andrew Wakefield & the belief that vaccines cause autism Brian Deer is an award-winning investigative journalist best known for his coverage of the pharmaceutical industry. In this episode, he and Peter discuss the content of his book, The Doctor Who Fooled the World: Science, Deception, and the War on Vaccines, which exposes the complex and disturbing story behind the infamous 1998 Lancet paper by Andrew Wakefield linking the MMR vaccine and autism. Brian explains how doctors led by Wakefield, a lawyer, and an anti-vaccination parents’ group worked together on a study to validate their preconceived belief that the MMR vaccine caused autism. He reveals what happened behind the scenes as the study was carried out, explains problems in the lab, and discusses inconsistencies in the analysis. In the end, this is a story that serves as a cautionary tale about the consequences of science driven by an agenda rather than by a spirit of open inquiry. https://youtu.be/icJtTHgR_Ds The Age-Old Struggle against the Antivaccinationists Today, the spectrum of antivaccinationists ranges from people who are simply ignorant about science (or “innumerate” — unable to understand and incorporate concepts of risk and probability into science-grounded decision making) to a radical fringe element who use deliberate mistruths, intimidation, falsified data, and threats of violence in efforts to prevent the use of vaccines and to silence critics. Antivaccinationists tend toward complete mistrust of government and manufacturers, conspiratorial thinking, denialism, low cognitive complexity in thinking patterns, reasoning flaws, and a habit of substituting emotional anecdotes for data.5 Their efforts have had disruptive and costly effects, including damage to individual and community well-being from outbreaks of previously controlled diseases, withdrawal of vaccine manufacturers from the market, compromising of national security (in the case of anthrax and smallpox vaccines), and lost productivity.
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By Gregory A. Poland, M.D., and Robert M. Jacobson, M.D., https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Robert-Jacobson/publication/49747317_The_AgeOld_Struggle_against_the_Antivaccinationists/links/02e7e53cd3c6debbcb000000/The-Age-OldStruggle-against-the-Antivaccinationists.pdf ‘I’ll See You in Court’—Inside the Fight Against Vaccine Mandates The portfolio of the Manhattan firm Siri & Glimstad—the go-to lawyers for anti-vaccination groups—is a peephole into the well-resourced fight against vaccine mandates in American police forces, schools, and other institutions, The Washington Post reports. In 2019—pre-pandemic—the Texas-based Informed Consent Action Network’s top expenditure was $1.3 million paid to the firm. Their key tools: The argument that mandating vaccines approved under emergency use authorization is “illegal and unenforceable,” and leveraging the ethical principle of informed consent to claim that mandates violate international laws and individual rights. Organizations threatened with legal action may have a strong case in their favor—but with little existing case law to go on, legal threats alone may be enough to deter institutions from mandating vaccines. Another weapon for casting doubt: Much to the distress of scientists, a vital database—the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System—is being misused to tout misleading narratives about vaccines, Science reports. Example: On his Fox News show, Tucker Carlson cited the database in stating that 4,000 people had died after receiving COVID-19 vaccines—even though reporting a death to VAERS indicates nothing about the cause. https://www.globalhealthnow.org/2021-05/ill-see-you-court-inside-fight-against-vaccine-mandates Smallpox versus Covid-19 – What Should We Learn? I have a small scar on my left arm – a reminder of the smallpox pandemic that killed as many as three out of every 10 people infected and claimed the lives of some 300 million people since 1900. The smallpox vaccination left this small scar. But today, younger persons have no such scar. Why not? The vaccine against smallpox proved to be extraordinarily effective. And, the intensive, worldwide vaccination campaign was so successful that the World Health Organization certified global eradication of the disease in 1980. No existing smallpox virus meant no longer any need to continue vaccination.
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Now, smallpox disease and prevention are not identical to COVID-19. Nevertheless, what pearls can be gleaned from smallpox history and applied to the COVID-19 pandemic? For one, the remarkable effectiveness of certain vaccines. Those currently available in North America are more than 90% effective in preventing serious disease. Another pearl is the power of worldwide resolve to vaccinate all persons. This strategy has worked for smallpox, measles, pertussis, and more. The COVID-19 pandemic will not be controlled until everyone is protected. With the coming fall season and greater indoor activities, unvaccinated persons will be at especially high risk. Suspicion and disinformation ‘plague’ the benefits of COVID-19 vaccination. These obstacles are not new. They obstructed the eradication of smallpox at every corner. But seeing the proof of vaccine effectiveness is as easy to see as looking at your arm. You have no smallpox vaccination scar because the vaccination worked! By Nicholas Comninellis, MD, https://inmedblogs.us/nicholascomninellis/2021/07/16/smallpox-versus-covid-19-whatshould-we-learn/?fbclid=IwAR0zBCK7MNBSKhQ5_QQMXX8OHGpyD1qBYC9rceaP5Ito5CwYMT68Itg_FM They Suffered Through Covid, and Still Don’t Want the Vaccine When Eric Grunor contracted Covid-19 in January, he became so ill that he struggled to get off the couch. One night, he awoke at 3 a.m., winded, barely able to talk and so fatigued he could hardly lift his head.
“I woke my wife up and said, ‘You’ve got to take me to the ER,’” he said. “My wife thought she was going to be a widow.” After three weeks of recovery at home, the 54-year-old Texas insurance broker’s experience is one few would want to endure twice. But he remains unvaccinated, putting him among a stubborn contingent of Americans who say they have natural immunity and don’t require shots -- a belief that experts are divided on. “I’m in the category of person who would least need the vaccine, at this point,” said Grunor. “To me, natural antibodies are better than any man-made antibodies.” Natural Immunity Grunor said he’s concerned that vaccinated people can still get infected and believes there’s a lack of clarity about the shots’ long-term safety. Even if he hadn’t been ill, he said, he probably would have remained unvaccinated. His wife and son, who appear to have avoided Covid-19, aren’t vaccinated either. More than 100 million people in the U.S. have likely been infected with Covid, according to one recent estimate. Many of them have become proponents of natural immunity who are among the roughly 126 million Americans who remain unvaccinated, about 38% of the population. As public health officials urge universal immunization, polling shows more resistance to shots among people with prior infections. The majority report that having had Covid influenced their decision to remain unvaccinated. The debate over natural immunity fuels hesitancy and foreshadows more challenges for vaccination campaigns as the highly contagious delta variant rages. Indeed, some research indicates that an earlier case of Covid protects as well or better against the strain than vaccination alone. A recent analysis from Israel found that fully vaccinated people were at six times higher risk of Covid than those who were previously infected and unvaccinated. Those with earlier infections were also less likely to fall ill with symptoms and get hospitalized with Covid, according to the study, published before review by experts in the field. Different Conclusions But other findings suggest different conclusions: A large U.K. study, also published before peer review, found two-dose vaccines were at least as effective as natural immunity. Last month, a study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found people who caught Covid and remained unvaccinated were more than twice as likely to be reinfected as those got immunized. Experts also point to continuing questions about how much protection is given by previous illness, how long it lasts and how well it stacks up against vaccination. Several studies, including the one from Israel, show that at least one shot adds to the protection granted by an infection.
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“If you’ve been naturally infected and you get vaccinated, you are better off,” said Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “And there’s no downside. There is no good reason to not get the vaccine.” Shot Skeptics: Many say earlier Covid case affected decision against vaccination Page | 14
The combination of natural immunity and vaccine-induced protection has long been seen as a route out of the pandemic. In the U.S., the concept became politicized early on, as opponents of masking, social distancing and other public health measures claimed that when enough people had been infected with the coronavirus, the pandemic would burn out. Viral Tricks Antibodies and other components of the immune system remember invaders, helping protect against further infection. But immunity is complicated and not without limitations: many infectious diseases, like smallpox, persisted for millennia despite humans’ natural immune response, and have only been controlled by vaccination. The immune system can also be fooled by viral tricks, such as mutation. SARS-CoV-2’s interaction with the body still has many mysteries that remain uncracked. “We don’t have any formula where we know what gives you reasonable protective immunity,” said Shane Crotty, a professor at La Jolla Institute for Immunology. “We can’t look at a single person and say, ‘Yes, you are protected.’” After illness with Covid, the vast majority of people appear to have significant amounts of immunological memory as measured by antibodies and immune cells, Crotty said. But about 5% do not, and levels of protection vary dramatically between people. Vaccines Plentiful Then there’s the issue of documenting infection. Some people who believe they had Covid were never diagnosed. Even for those who were infected, “what PCR test do you trust?” Crotty said. “What antibody test do you trust, if you’re going to formalize this?” Meanwhile, vaccines are plentiful in the U.S. and carry only rare serious safety issues, said Brian Castrucci, president and chief executive officer of the de Beaumont Foundation, which has a public health focus. The risks of Covid infection are far greater, he said. “The path to getting through the pandemic is vaccination,” he said. Most people who claim they’re protected by natural immunity are “not virologists, they’re not public health professionals.” Todd Zywicki, a George Mason University law professor, sued school officials in early August over its vaccination policy and other Covid measures, saying that he shouldn’t have to comply because he’d already had Covid.
The New Civil Liberties Alliance, which represented him, later said Zywicki had been given a medical exemption. But the university doesn’t consider natural immunity a substitute for vaccination, the group said in statement, calling vaccination “medically unnecessary” for those people. “At times GMU officials have appeared to deny that such a thing as naturally acquired immunity exists,” the statement said. ‘I’m Safe’ Natural immunity comes up often at the North Carolina hospital where physician Dona Hasou works. Patients as well as colleagues say that they can’t get Covid again, or that if they do, they won’t get as sick. Many hospital staffers previously contracted the illness, and less than half of them have been immunized, Hasou said. “‘I’ve had it already, so I’m safe’ is part of the reassurance for people,” she said. Often, though, the same people cite fear about the vaccine’s side effects. Many proponents of natural immunity refer to an unreviewed study of employees at the Cleveland Clinic that concluded previously infected people are unlikely to benefit from Covid vaccination. The medical center later released statements walking the findings back, pointing out it was conducted prior to the delta variant’s ascendance. Still, some medical providers are also asserting that natural immunity is superior. “The doctor said there’s no reason for me to get a vaccination before my antibody numbers become almost nonexistent,” said Reed Storey, a 35-year-old farmer in Arkansas, speaking over the whirring of a cotton picker in the background. He declined to name his physician. Storey said his girlfriend, a nurse who became sick around the same time he did and also has antibodies, also hasn’t gotten shots. For public-health outreach workers, it adds up to a lot of frustration. In a focus group of vaccinehesitant people, Castrucci recounted, a woman said her father died from Covid, likely contracted from an unvaccinated health-care worker. “And she didn’t want to get the vaccine,” he said. “I can’t make sense of that. I think that is the hardest part here.” By Emma Court, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-09-05/they-suffered-throughcovid-and-still-don-t-want-thevaccine?cmpid=BBD090621_CORONAVIRUS&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter &utm_term=210906&utm_campaign=coronavirus Some Tools
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To vet a source, here is a handy fact-checking website to cut through Covid vaccine misinformation. It includes: “Places to go for accurate information include the CDC (which already has a FAQ about Covid vaccines), the FDA, major hospital websites such as Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s Vaccine Education Center, and reliable fact-checker websites.” You can find a list of those websites here, courtesy of the University of California. Page | 16
V. Prosocial ways to Respond A Brief Guide to Navigating Difficult Topics Climate change, transgender athletes competing in various classes, immigration reform, police funding, critical race theory, whether or not Sha'Carri Richardson should be banned from the Olympics for breaking a rule and smoking pot, and so on... Chances are as you read through that list of words and phrases, you had a hint, or maybe even a scream, of a reaction. Your inner voice may have piped up as you started down the path of defending or explaining one or more of the topics. You might have even felt angst or anger towards me, ready to bang out an angry tweet or Facebook rant for the mere mention of a series of topics that bring forth strong opinions regardless of where you stand on them. Don’t worry, reader, I am not here to delve into a detailed argument over the aforementioned topics. I am not here to dive into the political foray. Instead, I want to explore briefly how we at the Growth Equation approach controversial topics that demand nuance. A common refrain on The Growth Equation is that we need to fight the urge for the easy answer, and take the time to understand the issue or problem. Quick answers might feel good, satisfying our need for certainty and closure, but they often miss the whole truth. And sometimes that’s fine. In his book Intuition Pumps, philosopher Dan Dennett states “Oversimplifications…cut through the hideous complexity with a working model that is almost right, postponing the messy details until later.” Simplifications can be great when it comes to usability. We oversimplify the stress and adaptation cycle in fitness so that we can have an easy-to-use framework that mostly works when deciding how hard our workouts should be and when we should do them. If we didn’t, we’d be lost in the world of timing of hormone release and protein synthesis; we’d understand the nuance of the adaptation cycle but be lost in the minutia when it comes to applying it to our training. But where we run into problems is when we chop off all nuance. We lose the messy details that, while they might seem small, are vital for understanding the problem. The world of nutrition and dieting is notorious for living on this end of the spectrum. We simplify to one refrain (Carbs are evil! Fat is evil!) so that it is really easy to apply (stop eating fat/carbs), but it misses the boat on the complexity underlying human metabolism. With just about anything, we have to find the balance between usability and accuracy. Or put another way: between practicality and depth of understanding, between missing the forest for the
trees and missing the trees for the forest. We use the following five strategies to help find the right balance: Find Good Thinkers and Look in Both Directions. We can’t be subject matter experts on everything. The quickest way to understand a topic is to go Page | 17 to the experts. But the key here is that difficult topics likely have experts who believe different things. Even in simple subjects, like should your lifting routine focus on heavier weights or power, you can find subject matter experts who will give differing opinions. That’s fine. Search for good thinkers on both sides of the argument. People who seem to explore ideas and nuance, who rely on data, who occasionally change their opinion. In today’s world, it’s rather easy to listen to a few podcasts, search for a few articles or Twitter threads, and get well-informed information on both sides of the argument. Understanding the arguments that experts are making is a shortcut to grasping the bulk of a problem and the holes on each side. That said, be careful of false balance. If 99 percent of the experts are saying one thing (e.g., climate change is real, masks are harmless) then you can probably safely ignore the one percent who very may well be addicted to being a contrarian for the thrill of being a contrarian. Note Your Biases and Check Them We all have inherent biases. When evaluating challenging topics, note how your worldview influences your thinking. That doesn’t mean that your bias make you incorrect or illogical, it’s just that we all have a particular way of seeing and approaching things. Acknowledge that. For example, whenever I come across a claim in the exercise and fitness world, I tend to see it through the lens of running. I don’t see the new thing through the lens of a lifter or baseball player. For most things, that’s fine, but for some, that lens will bias my opinion. Go to the Primary Source Every time a writer or reporter details a particular argument, they compress it. Their goal is to distill an argument so that it’s quickly understandable. The result is like a children’s game of telephone. The nuance and details of the original research is lost, and a simple model takes its place. We end up arguing against a simplistic boogeyman instead of the real thing. If at all possible, go to the primary sources. Research articles for an explainer of the science, a textbook chapter for a primer on an issue, and so forth. And if this is too much (which, sometimes it is) try to have a roster of go-to science writers, ideally those with diverse backgrounds and biases themselves. Phone a Friend Discussions bring out flaws and holes in your thinking. The problem is that truly authentic discussion, where there is a suspension of judgment and an actual exchange of ideas, are exceedingly rare. Discussions or productive arguments shouldn’t be about proving oneself right, but about gaining a clearer picture.
Pull Up a Stool At The Growth Equation, we've often talked about the stool test (no, not that kind of stool test!) as a way to check your thinking. You have three legs of a stool: research, theory, and practice. If they are all there, great, go forward with your hypothesis. If two legs are there, proceed, but do so with a little extra skepticism. If you only have one of the three legs, then your idea is on shaky ground. No Page | 18 legs and it's almost certainly junk, or more generously, a good fiction story. Use the stool test as an evaluative tool to make sure that your thinking is clear and on the right track. By Steve Magness, https://thegrowtheq.com/difficult-topics-demand-nuance/ Many vaccine skeptics have since changed their minds and gotten shots. Here’s why. How to persuade When the Kaiser Family Foundation conducted a poll at the start of the year and asked American adults whether they planned to get vaccinated, 23 percent said no. But a significant portion of that group — about one quarter of it — has since decided to receive a shot. The Kaiser pollsters recently followed up and asked these converts what led them to change their minds. The answers are important, because they offer insight into how the millions of still unvaccinated Americans might be persuaded to get shots, too. First, a little background: A few weeks ago, it seemed plausible that Covid-19 might be in permanent retreat, at least in communities with high vaccination rates. But the Delta variant has changed the situation. The number of cases is rising in all 50 states. Although vaccinated people remain almost guaranteed to avoid serious symptoms, Delta has put the unvaccinated at greater risk of contracting the virus — and, by extension, of hospitalization and death. The Covid death rate in recent days has been significantly higher in states with low vaccination rates than in those with higher rates:
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(For more detailed state-level charts, see this piece by my colleagues Lauren Leatherby and Amy Schoenfeld Walker. The same pattern is evident at the county level, as the health policy expert Charles Gaba has been explaining on Twitter.) Nationwide, more than 99 percent of recent deaths have occurred among unvaccinated people, and more than 97 percent of recent hospitalizations have occurred among the unvaccinated, according to the C.D.C. “Look,” President Biden said on Friday, “the only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated.” The three themes What helps move people from vaccine skeptical to vaccinated? The Kaiser polls point to three main themes. (The themes apply to both the 23 percent of people who said they would not get a shot, as well as to the 28 percent who described their attitude in January as “wait and see.” About half of the “wait and see” group has since gotten a shot.) 1. Seeing that millions of other Americans have been safely vaccinated. Consider these quotes from Kaiser’s interviews: “It was clearly safe. No one was dying.” — a 32-year-old white Republican man in South Carolina “I went to visit my family members in another state and everyone there had been vaccinated with no problems.” — a 63-year-old Black independent man in Texas
“Almost all of my friends were vaccinated with no side effects.” — a 64-year-old Black Democratic woman in Tennessee This suggests that emphasizing the safety of the vaccines — rather than just the danger of Covid, as many experts (and this newsletter) typically do — may help persuade more people to get a shot. Page | 20
A poll of vaccine skeptics by Echelon Insights, a Republican firm, points to a similar conclusion. One of the most persuasive messages, the skeptics said, was hearing that people have been getting the vaccine for months and it is “working very well without any major issues.” 2. Hearing pro-vaccine messages from doctors, friends and relatives. For many people who got vaccinated, messages from politicians, national experts and the mass media were persuasive. But many other Americans — especially those without a college degree — don’t trust mainstream institutions. For them, hearing directly from people they know can have a bigger impact. “Hearing from experts,” as Mollyann Brodie, who oversees the Kaiser polls, told me, “isn’t the same as watching those around you or in your house actually go through the vaccination process.” Here are more Kaiser interviews: “My daughter is a doctor and she got vaccinated, which was reassuring that it was OK to get vaccinated.” — a 64-year-old Asian Democratic woman in Texas “Friends and family talked me into it, as did my place of employment.” — a 28-year-old white independent man in Virginia “My husband bugged me to get it and I gave in.” — a 42-year-old white Republican woman in Indiana “I was told by my doctor that she strongly recommend I get the vaccine because I have diabetes.” — a 47-year-old white Republican woman in Florida
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These comments suggest that continued grass-roots campaigns may have a bigger effect at this stage than public-service ad campaigns. The one exception to that may be prominent figures from groups that still have higher vaccine skepticism, like Republican politicians and Black community leaders. 3. Learning that not being vaccinated will prevent people from doing some things. There is now a roiling debate over vaccine mandates, with some hospitals, colleges, cruise-ship companies and others implementing them — and some state legislators trying to ban mandates. The Kaiser poll suggests that these requirements can influence a meaningful number of skeptics to get shots, sometimes just for logistical reasons: “Hearing that the travel quarantine restrictions would be lifted for those people that are vaccinated was a major reason for my change of thought.” — a 43-year-old Black Democratic man in Virginia “To see events or visit some restaurants, it was easier to be vaccinated.” — a 39-year-old white independent man in New Jersey “Bahamas trip required a COVID shot.” — a 43-year-old Hispanic independent man in Pennsylvania Talking to your unvaccinated friends Recently I interviewed a California woman named Holly who wasn’t vaccinated against Covid-19. Holly was nervous about getting a new vaccine and had a lifelong fear of needles. She believed Covid was a real concern and wore a mask around others. But she just couldn’t bring herself to get vaccinated. “I was nervous about putting it in my body,” she told me. “I’m overall healthy. I work out. It was really that I wasn’t sure what was going into my body.”
Lately, there’s been a lot of anger directed toward the unvaccinated, but I think we should have a different response: compassion and empathy. While I am frustrated by elected officials and news pundits who argue against vaccination (despite being vaccinated themselves), I don’t blame people who are scared or victims of misinformation. Their fear is real, and we have to try to help them overcome it — not reject them. When I spoke with Holly, she told me that she had finally scheduled a vaccination appointment because a trusted friend in the medical field had been talking to her about it for weeks. It had taken several conversations during which he cited scientific research and reassured her. “He kept saying, ‘Get the shot,’ and ‘The shot really is the way to go,’” said Holly. So Holly eventually scheduled an appointment, but she still was nervous about the needle. When I spoke with her, I urged Holly to tell the people at the vaccination center about her fear of needles. (Read more about how to overcome needle fear here.) I was thrilled a few days later to see Holly post a picture of herself on social media with the person who gave her the shot. She wrote in her caption: This is Daniel. He just gave me the first shot of the Pfizer Covid vaccination and turned a very scary experience into a quick and painless one. I was shaking and had tears in my eyes, and he made it all better with his kindness, and I never felt a thing. He even promised to be there for my second shot. I love him. The two other ladies in the office were also so kind and reassuring. I never had a flu shot because I’m afraid of needles and of what’s in the shot. I didn’t want this shot for the same reasons, but my mind was changed by the guidance from incredibly knowledgeable people that I trust. I was finally allowed to do this, and I know that I made the right choice. Be safe everyone. If you know someone who isn’t vaccinated, experts say you shouldn’t shun them or show anger. Instead, keep talking to them about their concerns and fears. Use this vaccination “chatbot” based on the principles of motivational learning. It was created by Dr. Arnaud Gagneur, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Sherbrooke in Quebec whose research includes motivational interviewing, and Dr. Karin Tamerius, a former psychiatrist and the founder of Smart Politics, an organization that teaches people to communicate more persuasively. The tool is like a quiz that presents different potential responses to people who don’t want to get vaccinated. You might want to call them an “anti-vaxxer” or remind them that Covid, which has killed millions, is a lot scarier than a vaccine. But the tool explains why those aren’t good choices. Calling them an anti-vaxxer “tells them their concerns are irrational and overblown. This will just make them defensive and angry.” Telling them that getting Covid is scarier than a vaccine dismisses their concerns. “They take it personally. As a result, they’re likely to reject what you have to say, even if it’s true.” Try this instead:
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Ask them what they’ve heard that has made them worried or unsure. “When people are anxious about getting the vaccine, the first thing they need is for you to listen to their concerns without judgment and then offer compassion,” Dr. Gagneur and Dr. Tamerius explain. “They’re more likely to trust you if they know you understand their fears, respect their Page | 23 perspective and care about their welfare.” By Tara ParkerPope, https://nl.nytimes.com/f/a/X39fHn8slF7qZJek3Sskpg~~/AAAAAQA~/RgRi7wDCP0Ti aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubnl0aW1lcy5jb20vaW50ZXJhY3RpdmUvMjAyMS8wNS8yMC9vcGluaW 9uL2NvdmlkLTE5LXZhY2NpbmUtY2hhdGJvdC5odG1sP2NhbXBhaWduX2lkPTE4JmVtYz1 lZGl0X2hoXzIwMjEwODA2Jmluc3RhbmNlX2lkPTM3MjE4Jm5sPXdlbGwmcmVnaV9pZD03 MTAyMTQyNiZzZWdtZW50X2lkPTY1NDkzJnRlPTEmdXNlcl9pZD1mZjA2OGFjYjAzY2U3 N2E0NzIxOTg2ZTVmYmI0ZmY2Y1cDbnl0QgphDMJ7DGEDP4ZPUhZkcmNocmlzc3RvdXR AZ21haWwuY29tWAQAAAAA Persuading the Unvaccinated New York City became the first American city to follow the lead of several European countries in announcing a vaccine mandate for the general public: As of mid-September, people have to show proof of vaccination before entering indoor venues, including restaurants, gyms and performance spaces. “If you want to participate in society fully, you’ve got to get vaccinated,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said. “It’s time.” Whether the rest of the United States will follow suit remains an open question. In much of the country, employment-based vaccine mandates are only just gaining momentum, and some states have enacted prohibitions on government-issued ones. Can the unvaccinated be persuaded, and not just coerced, to get a shot? And who exactly are they? Here’s what people are saying. The unvaccinated are not a monolith As The Atlantic’s Ed Yong notes, the unvaccinated are not all anti-vaxxers, and it hinders the national vaccine effort to conflate the two. “Their vulnerability to Covid-19 is the only thing that unvaccinated people universally share,” he writes. “They are disparate in almost every way that matters, including why they haven’t yet been vaccinated and what it might take to persuade them.” A closer look: About 93 million Americans, or 30 percent of the population, are eligible for shots but have chosen not to get them. In broad terms, they break along four fault lines, as Umair Irfan explains for Vox.
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Political party: Republicans — and Republican women in particular — remain the largest source of vaccine opposition. While 86 percent of Democrats have received at least one dose, only 52 percent of Republicans have done the same, according to a poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Age: Younger adults remain less likely to report being vaccinated. That may be in part Page | 24 because older Americans had earlier access. Indeed, the age gap has begun to shrink: In May and June, the largest increases in self-reported vaccination were among people ages 18 to 29. Race: White people make up a larger share of the vaccinated than the overall population, ahead of Black and Hispanic people and behind Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, Native Americans and Alaskan Natives. The racial gap has been shrinking, but as of July, the vaccination rate for Black people was still about 12 percentage points lower than for white people and about seven percentage points lower for Hispanic people. Class: According to Kaiser, uninsured people under 65 are the only major demographic group of adults to mostly report being unvaccinated, which may reflect a perceived cost to vaccination or a general lack of contact with the medical system. And across every age group, higher-income earners are much more likely to be vaccinated. The class gap can also be measured by education: About eight in 10 college graduates say they have gotten at least one dose, compared with only about six in 10 adults without a degree.
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People’s reasons for remaining unvaccinated aren’t monolithic, either. Unvaccinated Republicans, for example, are more likely to say they don’t want or need the vaccine or don’t trust the government, whereas unvaccinated Democrats tend to cite an aversion to shots or worries about missing work. For unvaccinated Hispanic people, fear of immigration authorities poses a unique roadblock. Unvaccinated youth have their own reasons as well. As Ashish Jha, the dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, told The New Yorker, vaccination is a kind of insurance against Covid, “and young people tend not to buy insurance for health stuff because they tend to think they’re invincible.” At the same time, “for a year and a half, they have been bombarded with misinformation that says that, for them, the coronavirus is no worse than a bad cold.”
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That being said, some concerns are broadly shared among the unvaccinated. Across all major demographic groups, the two most-cited issues for vaccine uncertainty are side effects and the speed with which the vaccines were approved, according to Morning Consult. How to reach the unvaccinated For the purposes of persuasion, it makes sense to divide the 93 million unvaccinated Americans into two groups: those steadfast in their refusal, who tend to be disproportionately white, rural, evangelical Christian and politically conservative; and those who are open to getting a shot but want to “wait and see” before committing. This second group makes up 10 percent of American adults. How can they be brought off the fence? Expand access: While the vaccines may be widely available to Americans, they are not universally accessible, Rhea Boyd, a pediatrician and public-health advocate in the San Francisco Bay Area, told Yong. “If you have to walk the five miles, you’re going to rethink getting vaccinated, especially if you’re elderly, or you have chronic disease, or the round trip is interfering with other things like work,” she said. “And if you don’t have paid sick leave to deal with the vaccine or the potential side effects of the second dose, you’ll skip it because feeding your family is more important right now.” Free transportation, paid time off, financial incentives, mobile clinics and door-to-door campaigns could all help increase vaccination rates among low-income and young people, Irfan says. Change the message: Stressing the safety of the vaccines, rather than just the danger of Covid, may help persuade more people to get a shot, The Times’s David Leonhardt writes. One of the most persuasive messages, according to Echelon Insights, a firm co-founded by a Republican strategist and pollster, emphasizes that people have been getting the vaccine for months without any major health issues. The medium may make a difference, too: A study published in Nature on Monday reported that text message reminders significantly boost vaccination rates.
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Modify the messenger: Many Americans — especially those without a college degree — distrust mainstream institutions, so hearing directly from people they know or already trust may make a bigger difference. In some cases, those people could be local doctors: “The most powerful messengers are clinicians caring for very sick people who are honestly telling you that if they had had a vaccine, they wouldn’t be lying with an intubator on,” Robert Blendon, a professor of public health at Harvard, said last week. The limits of persuasion Even if every unvaccinated American adult willing to be swayed got vaccinated, it would still leave the much larger group of Americans firmly opposed to vaccines, who account for as much as 20 percent of the adult population. Some experts have estimated that the threshold for herd immunity now lies at 85 percent to 90 percent or more of the total population, and children younger than 12 make up 15 percent of it. So for now, at least, the elusive path to herd immunity necessarily runs through vaccinating unpersuadable adults. Without vaccine mandates, it’s hard to imagine making much progress with this population, the Times columnist Ezra Klein argues: “The Delta strain is fearsome enough, but if we keep permitting the virus to dance across the defenseless, we could soon have a strain that evades vaccines while retaining lethality, or that attacks children with more force. Over and over again throughout this pandemic, the same pattern has played out: We haven’t done enough to suppress the virus when we still could, so we have had to impose far more draconian lockdowns and grieve far more death, once we have lost control.” How to overcome hesitancy
While lots and lots of people have been vaccinated against covid-19—4.7 billion shots worldwide at the last count—there are still many places where that’s not true. And even in parts of the United States, dose rates can be pretty low. That doesn’t mean everybody who isn’t vaccinated already is anti-vaccine, however. Perhaps they have immune conditions that complicate their medical situation, or fears about medical procedures, or maybe they just need paid time off work to actually get their shots. You probably know some of those people. Maybe, even, you are one of them. But with the delta variant ripping through many communities, getting vaccinated matters just as much as ever. In Tech Review today, Tanya Basu takes a look at the ways to talk about vaccine hesitancy and help people get protection. Here are some tips: Cater your argument to the person. There's been a lot of aggressive conversation about vaccination that makes people feel misunderstood or that they are lacking control. So be respectful and kind, and help them realize their agency. “Maybe you don’t understand their position,” writes Tanya. “Maybe what they say enrages you. But the person you are trying to communicate with will shut you out immediately if you are disrespectful.” It can be important to reinforce the idea that they are in charge of the vaccination process, she notes. “Much of the messaging around vaccinations has either involved commands (‘Get the vaccine now’) or implicit shaming (‘If you don’t get the vaccine, you are a bad person’).” Using language that puts power back into the hands of the person is more encouraging: One study showed that more personalized, ownership-driven language such as “claiming your dose” or “the vaccine has been made available for you,” was successful at driving up appointment rates. Be an ally. A lot of people who are hesitant need people in their circle who can help them find new ways to look at the same information—and not feel cheated when they change their opinion. Realizing that your previous position was wrong carries a lot of baggage that can make people resistant. Tanya describes the idea of “the cooler,” an ally who consoles a con artist’s victim. Talk about how you may have originally shared their concerns but went ahead with getting shots. That might help influence those around you. Have your sources ready—but don’t hammer people with them. Tanya spoke to Ryan Steward, a pastor in South Carolina, who says he was vaccine hesitant because he wanted to know that the FDA’s drug approval process wasn’t botched. So he posted on Reddit, asking for people to persuade him. What made the difference? Arguments that presented facts without being condescending. As Tanya writes: “On Tuesday, he talked to his wife, who was also unsure about getting the vaccine, about what he had learned. That night, they booked their appointments. And on Thursday, he and his wife got their first vaccine doses together.”
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There’s lots more good advice in the full story, which you can read here, by Tanya Basua https://technologyreview.us11.listmanage.com/track/click?u=47c1a9cec9749a8f8cbc83e78&id=3e9e32993a&e=71499fc1d8 America is getting unvaccinated people all wrong Page | 29
Why is only half of America vaccinated? We explore what we know about the remaining vaccine holdouts. Then: The pandemic might have changed sex—for the better. The fully vaccinated may feel fed up with their unvaccinated peers for endangering the country’s pandemic recovery. Who are these people, and why have they still not gotten their shot? • •
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Not all unvaccinated Americans are anti-vaxxers. Availability and access aren’t the same thing. Some people can’t afford to take time off. Also, kids under 12 remain ineligible. The recent jump in cases may motivate some people to get a shot. “Rather than diverging politics, people’s willingness to get vaccinated might best be understood as a function of how they perceive risk,” Daniel Engber argues. Vaccination gaps in the American South threaten the whole country. In one study, researchers pinpointed five regions with low vaccination rates that remain particularly vulnerable, Adam Harris reports. Four were in the Southeast. One was right next door in the Southwest.
By Ed Yong, https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2021/07/unvaccinated-different-antivax/619523/ An Approach on Using Social Media for Good (and Not Lose Friends) Recently a former high school classmate put up a post on a popular social media platform that, in all honesty, somewhat ticked me off. I’ve known them long enough to know their politics are a bit different from mine. OK. Difference of opinion is a good thing, free speech and expression, and all that. I mentioned it to my wife and she said why do you still follow them then? Fair point. I suppose it didn’t feel right and maybe smacked of a 1:1 cancel culture moment if I would have summarily just disconnected from them. And as a psychologist, I also thought it could be they’re under stress as most of us can understand and needed to vent. I get that. And, if I countered them, it would likely not mitigate their stress but more likely doing so would risk increasing mine if we got into a row. So, I took a breath. And I came up with an idea and I thought it may be of help to others feeling similar to me and offer a model or template for trying to be a helpful friend. But first a secondary bit of context. I have noted herein and numerous other places that the current pandemic has spurred what has become a meme of multitudes having become Covid-19 experts. And less funny, the proliferation
of many hysterical and inaccurate feeds and posts that get propagated on various social media platforms. From my perspective, my classmate took that hate-bate as it seemed to be a fit with their political perspective more so than their scientific skepticism. Page | 30
Granted part of the current situation is muddied with the chaos of states and countries acting differently from one another and getting varied outcomes—good and bad. Add to that the simple, but frustrating fact that findings change as scientific study grows. As I have opined in past articles like How to Protect Yourself from Fad Science and my three part series, The Reproducibility Problem—Can Science be Trusted? , —Shame on us?, and —What’s a Scientist to do? This is a near-and-dear topic and concern of mine. The last thing my friend needed to hear is some pontificating from a would-be expert. So while I am no infectious disease know-it-all, I do know a thing or two about public health and scientific research, and that’s where I decided to couch my response. Here it is: Hi ________, I know your heart is in the right place. I fret I may have posted something that upset you in the past. If so, I apologize again as well. Lately, based on many of your posts and the responses they garner, you seem to be a bit of a lightning-rod for a many of your political and healthcare related points. While I am no help with the politics, maybe I can be with the public health side? While we know each other from way back, during the ensuing years I got involved in healthcare, public health, psychology, and science. As for the latter-most, science is hard. Really hard, not just for the public but for those doing it. I hope you may find this helpful in your work: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/checklist-manifesto-junk-science-
fool-me-once-dr-chris-stout/ And to add to the complications, COVID-19 is a brand-new illness that we’re all still learning about every day, so may it would be more helpful for us all to: 1. Never repost something we have not vetted to be from a trustworthy or original source. 2. Think twice if something seems to be even a WEE BIT provocative. If it is, before we post, we need to double check the authenticity and validity of the source as best we can albeit a nonscientist. If you’re not sure it’s legit or feel it may be based more so on political motivations, then take a pass of perpetuating something that may be hokum. For example, Here’s how you can tell the difference between real guidance from the CDC and the phony letter, which spread on Reddit,
Twitter, and Facebook: https://www.fastcompany.com/90532354/the-latest-pandemic-hoax-afake-cdc-notice-advising-against-masks 3. The super-easiest way to be a help is to share any verified links from: https://www.facebook.com/groups/CenterForGlobalInitiatives Page | 31
4. If you’re not sure about something, shoot me a message and if I have the bandwidth to suss it out, I’ll take a crack at it. I hope this may help you and your work… Chris Not that any of us need to be the internet or social media police—heavens no, but perhaps coming from a place of helpfulness not anger or fear, to help our friends, we can here and there offer some tools that others may be unaware of to use in better informing decisions and also perhaps mitigate their anxieties spurred by hyperbole. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/approach-using-social-media-good-lose-friends-dr-chris-stout/ Accountable Freedom Responsibility is the price of freedom. – Elbert Hubbard There is pervasive narrative about COVID-19 that has taken hold in many parts of the world, especially in the United States. Many have argued that masks and vaccines are assaults on individual freedom, rather than attempts to keep people safe. First, it’s crucial to note that freedom has never been an absolute, nor has it been entirely individualistic. Every functional society has always balanced liberty with some level of sacrifice or commitment to a collective cause. This was most clear in the aftermath of September 11. After absorbing a tragedy where over 3,000 people died, we accepted new security protocols to keep us safe from harm. Furthermore, throughout our history, many Americans went to war, or sent their children to war, to protect others. But it’s somehow been too much to ask people to wear a mask to do the same, even when the pandemic was killing over 3,000 Americans every day during one period last winter. The delta variant of COVID-19 has brought a new phase to the pandemic, one that has completely overwhelmed medical systems around the world. Even in countries and states with high vaccination rates, the virus is capable of spreading rapidly. Because of this, our individual actions with respect to COVID-19 impact many more people than just ourselves and our immediate families. We cannot morally view these choices with a myopic lens, as a mother in Nevada did when she sent her child to school after both she and the child
tested positive for the virus two days prior. That decision impacted 80 other kids and their families, and forced those students to learn remotely. That’s not a defensible expression of individual freedom; it’s reckless indifference to the welfare of others. Page | 32
From an impact standpoint, we should view COVID-19 the same way we view drunk driving, as opposed to how we view individually risky activities such as not wearing a seatbelt. When you don’t wear a seatbelt, you are likely only harming yourself. But when you drive drunk, you aren’t just putting yourself at risk; you also put others in danger. This is one of the reasons we find drunk driving so deplorable and don’t see many serious arguments for the right to drive drunk. Also, crucially, no one who drives drunk expects to cause a fatal accident, even though that is often the outcome. The same dynamic exists in the debate over vaccines. At this point, the data is pretty clear that between one and two percent of people who get COVID-19 will die, and many more will be hospitalized in critical condition. Despite this, many people incorrectly calculate that if they get COVID-19, it will certainly be minor. They certainly don’t expect to spread a potentially fatal case to others. This is often the calculus used to justify declining to get vaccinated. No one believes they will be among the unlucky one or two percent, even though millions have been worldwide. No one should be forced to get vaccinated. But anyone who declines the vaccine in the name of their individual freedom should perhaps be willing to accept the corresponding consequences of that choice, with respect to both their own well-being and the potential impact on others. However, this is not how it has been playing out in the real world. Hospital capacity is being pushed to its limit by COVID-19 patients, 90 percent of whom are unvaccinated, placing a debilitating burden on already exhausted doctors and nurses who have put their own health, families and freedom at risk for 18 months to help others. Understandably, their compassion and willingness to sacrifice even more to help those who consciously chose not to protect themselves from COVID-19 is waning. If someone exercises the choice not to get vaccinated, should a doctor prioritize their care over other patients, their own physical and mental health or their ability to hug their kids? Similarly, if a person has expressed that COVID-19 is a hoax, and that the medical science surrounding it is fake, should they really go to the ER and rely on that same science to save them when they get sick? Personal freedom can be a core value. But a value should be uncompromising; therefore, anyone who believes so deeply in personal freedom should stick to their guns irrespective of the outcome. Yet, I have read so many stories of people who decided very intentionally and resolutely not to get vaccinated, then wanted or
demanded any possible treatment to save their life once they were sick, including begging for the vaccine right before intubation. By contrast, I have not read a single story of a person who declined the vaccine and then accepted the outcome when they came down with serious illness. This includes several public figures who previously encouraged their audiences to rebel against the vaccine and government overreach, only Page | 33 to dramatically change their tune after suffering life-threatening COVID-19 complications. Our rights and lives as individuals are inextricably intertwined with the lives and freedoms of others. Making a choice that puts others in danger, restricts their choices or forces them to bear the consequences of your choices isn’t freedom; it’s hypocrisy. Personal freedom without responsibility, accountability or consideration of others is not really freedom and it’s certainly not liberty. We need to stop pretending otherwise. Let’s take care of ourselves and each other so we can all enjoy both freedom and safety. By Robert Glazer, https://www.robertglazer.com/friday-forward/mask-vaccine-freedom/ Getting the answer right is different than being right. – Adam Grant #
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If you'd like to learn more or connect, please do, just click here. You can join my email list to keep in touch. Tools and my podcast are available via http://ALifeInFull.org. Click here for a free subscription to our Weekly LinkedIn Newsletter If you liked this article, you may also like: Special Edition – Strong Opinions Loosely Held: Part 1 - Science and Psychology The Reproducibility Problem in Science—What’s a Scientist to do? (Part 3 in a series of 3) The Reproducibility Problem in Science—Shame on us? (Part 2 in a series of 3) The Reproducibility Problem—Can Science be Trusted? (Part 1 in a series of 3) Can AI Really Make Healthcare More Human—and not be creepy? How to Protect Yourself from Fad Science Source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/special-edition-strong-opinions-loosely-held-part-2-drchris-stout/