Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by esoterica 2479 days ago
Also explains why so many people think vaccines cause autism.

"I vaccinated my child and 6 months later he was diagnosed with autism. Cause and effect!"

2 comments

a.k.a. post hoc ergo propter hoc
Shame about your downvotes -- I guess people don't want to believe that vac. scepticism can be a reasonable conclusion from limited evidence.

Well: it is. Autism is a childhood disorder (therefore) whose symptoms usually follow vaccination. It is not unreasonable to hypothesize a causal link.

It may be unreasonable to maintain it in light of other evidence (eg., no difference in rate amongst the non-vax'd). But people don't live in the macro (ie., comparative contexts) they live in the micro (ie., their own experience). And its hard to communicate macros to micros.