| Clearly by listening to some rando on YouTube that is pointing out how the whole system is rigged /s In seriousness, I think it is actually possible for people to understand enough information that they need to make a decision, even if they don't understand it to the level of an expert. I apologize for bringing Covid into this, but here was my analysis for understanding the mRNA vaccines: 1. The mRNA vaccines contain a small snippet of mRNA wrapped in a lipid bubble. This mRNA codes for spike proteins that are present on SARS-COV-2. 2. Your body takes up these lipid cells, translates the mRNA into spike proteins, and then your body recognizes those spike proteins as foreign and builds an immune response to them. There is really nothing in the above (i.e. mRNA translation, the immune response, etc.) that I didn't learn in high school biology. There are certainly a ton of details that an expert is much more aware of. And, in evaluating my risk, there is certainly a ton of stuff there that I don't know, e.g. what's the probability of my body having a severe negative (a) immune response or (b) other reaction to the spike proteins in my body. But all that said, even given all of the things I couldn't know because I'm not an expert, the rough details made it clear to me that, in any case, getting vaccinated should certainly be less detrimental than actually getting Covid, which was highly likely. That's why I get frustrated by some of the "trust the science" messages. You don't need to "trust" the science. The basics of the science are understandable by anyone with a high school degree. Another thing I think is important to understand is that it may make a ton of sense to give very different societal recommendations versus individual recommendations. For example, I think both of the following are easily provably true: 1. Publishing recommendations of "eat less and exercise" is ineffective in combating obesity at the societal level. 2. For an individual, eating less and exercising is the number one way to lose weight. That is, we know that most people are unable to stick with the recommendations of eating less and exercising more, and we have decades of data to prove it. For an individual, though, if you are able to set up a system to stick with your plan, this is the best way to lose weight. |