[ceejayoz]

The average lay person knows "radiation is bad" and that Chernobyl blew up. That'll be about it.

People will be genuinely surprised when you tell them it's usually the same old mechanism of most other power plants - heat boils water, which generates steam, which powers a turbine. They're also really surprised to find out a coal plant puts out more radioactivity.

Same phenomenon as vaccines - people know very little about the mechanism, but have very strong opinions anyways.

[glogla]

"Anti-nuclear people are the utility version of antivaxxers" has not just nice ring to it but quite a bite. I like it.

[effie]

There is a pretty important difference though.

Vaccine is and should be a matter of personal/parent choice, because getting the vaccine is a per-person action and its benefits and risks concern only their health, not health of other people. The benefit/cost analysis is very different for different people, for some it is in favour of getting the vaccine, for some it is against. Vaccination program can and should respect individual peoples' wishes.

While building more nuclear energy is a strategic country-scale decision that cannot respect all people wishes, only the majority's.

[ceejayoz]

> getting the vaccine is a per-person action and its benefits and risks concern only their health, not health of other people

This is definitively not true.

[effie]

How so? If a man gets vaccinated, he can still catch the virus and he can still transmit the virus.

Vaccine helps the immune system to fight the infection, but does not stop the body from getting infected and we do not know how efficient it is in preventing spreading the infection.

[ceejayoz]

It does stop infection. New data out just a few days ago. https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2021/p0329-COVID-19-Vacci...

> Results showed that following the second dose of vaccine (the recommended number of doses), risk of infection was reduced by 90 percent two or more weeks after vaccination. Following a single dose of either vaccine, the participants’ risk of infection with SARS-CoV-2 was reduced by 80 percent two or more weeks after vaccination.

Immunocompromised people, folks who have allergies to the vaccines, etc. rely on others getting vaccinated to be protected via herd immunity.

[effie]

That would be interesting however it is an unsourced press release. No names, no links. Hm.

Can you link the study itself? I can't find it.

[mlyle]

https://www.google.com/search?q=heroes-recover+study