You cannot identify the situations as apples vs snickers bars but then say the Polio situation is worth considering for relevant skepticism for today. Vaccine skepticism has always been present going back to Jenner! Modes of transmission and prevalence, case doubling times... I'll just leave with peak annual incidence of paralytic polio myelitis was "only" 20K. Flu kills more than Polio paralyzed at its peak!
6.7 million COVID hospitalizations in the USA. So, the level of skepticism should be scaled to the threat.
Not sure what you are even talking about here. I didn't bring up polio or make the comparison. In fact, I indicated that it probably
wasn't a good comparison. The whole point was that vaccine skepticism isn't a new phenomenon.
The problem is that simply saying "3/4" or "most" might feel good, but epidemiology tells us what is "enough."
Again, putting words in my mouth
and missing (or more likely, ignoring) my point. I said nothing about "feeling good" that we have a 75% vaccination rate, or about it being "enough". The discussion wasn't about herd immunity. I was disputing the general notion that Americans as a whole are largely resistant to vaccination. In many or most parts of the country the vaccines didn't become widely available to the general public until the early summer of 2021. That was only 7 or 8 months ago. Yet here we are with the large majority of the country already voluntarily vaccinated. That wouldn't be the case if Americans as a whole were as willfully negligent about this whole thing as we keep being portrayed.
Oh it is a pandemic virus in the age of globalization that is the genesis of the problems difficulty. Solutions, imperfect, and are hard and based on evolving information. However, the fight is made all the harder when well crafted disinformation campaigns originating from various malactors: enemy states, the power hungry, and the ignorant combine in to a maelstrom that raises the confusion of even intelligent non-experts.
We were told very early on that the Wuhan Coronavirus was likely to quickly become a widespread epidemic in many parts of the world, if not the persistent global pandemic that it has. Admittedly, I and other skeptical types dismissed this is just another Chicken Little moment. Some experts came right out and said that it was probably inevitable that every human would be exposed to it at some point. Then the official messaging quickly took on a less desperate and resigned yet appropriately serious tone when they rolled out the campaign to "flatten the curve". Not necessarily to try to stop the spread, but to slow the spread enough that we could figure out ways to protect the most vulnerable and keep the healthcare system from being totally overwhelmed. Now, almost two years later, we are being told the opposite: It is still spreading
not because that is the nature of a highly contagious virus that was rapidly scattered across the entire planet, but because of the actions of bad actors and because we citizens just don't do what we are told. This is exactly the type of messaging that makes folks not want to listen to another word that you have to say, especially when it is delivered with the condescension that it often is.
Casting public health have indeed acted with the best information available, but are then unfairly cast as incompetent and dishonest for it, despite also having more successes and many of their failures are failures in application due to groups of individuals acting "stupidly" driven by disinformation and human nature. Have there been some examples of individual officials who were consistently incompetent and/or dishonest, hell yes. Have there been incompetent and dishonest actions that are not characteristic of the whole? YES.
Do you get to characterize all public health officials as inherently incompetent and dishonest? ABSOLUTELY NOT and it is irresponsible to do so.
We as health professionals should vigorously attack poor policies while vigorously supporting the good and sensible ones. Unfairly coloring all PH negative plays directly into the hands of the malactors. Be better than that.
For the last time, please stop putting words into my mouth. Never have I ever characterized "all public health officials as inherently incompetent and dishonest".
What I have done is point out that while there are multiple factors that contribute to the lack of cooperation shown by a sizeable chunk of the American public. the bulk of the blame lies squarely on the shoulders of American public officials and politicians. The real problem has never been Russian bots or far-right conspiracy theorists on social media or Joe Rogan taking ivermectin or the fact that people are predominantly just dumb and stubborn. The real problem is that so many people just
do_not_trust government officials and the mass media. From the early failures of WHO, CDC, and the FDA, to the hypersonic politicization of the issue by elected officials and bureaucrats on both sides of the aisle, to the apparent enthusiasm with which some governors and mayors enacted draconian and nonsensical emergency orders banning people from uncrowded outdoor spaces like parks and beaches, to the high-profile politicians caught breaking their own orders, to the many public school teacher's unions clear attempts to take advantage of the situation for their own gain, to the verifiable mistruths told the public by Fauci and others, to the constant condescension and finger wagging and "the science is settled - just do what you are told!!" messages from so many politicians, celebrities, and columnists, to the generally lousy messaging and seemingly contradictory guidelines and rules that have existed all along, the officials have given the public plenty of reason to just not believe what they are being told.
Like it or not, a noble lie is still a lie, people don't like being insulted and talked down to, and people often won't do things they don't understand or see the necessity of just because they are told to. It almost seems too late now, but maybe next time we should try a little less berating and politicization and little less blaming of "disinformation campaigns" and instead try a little more honesty, openness, explaining, and overall better messaging.
