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by Henchman21 27 days ago
> Ultimately though, if people really care, they should be parsing through study results

Absolutely hate this framing. I care but I don’t have the requisite education to understand what I’m reading. I need it explained by someone who has taken up that specialization.

But to say that because I have walked another path in life that I don’t care?!? Because I have chosen a different specialization?? Deeply insulting AND untrue AND unrealistic. Our society is based on specialization at this point. If we cannot rely on each other for these basic communication tasks, then society must be dead, eh?

2 comments

Turn that around: you're asking for someone to make something understandable to you despite your not having the background to make an informed decision.

That process, by definition, in the perfect case, includes someone summarizing/simplifying concepts.

And that process is extremely difficult to do without bias, summarization being an information-loss activity, etc.

So essentially, you're asking for an impossible standard of communication.

Additionally, I'd point out that the basics^ of biology, immunology, pathology, and epidemiology aren't that complicated, if you're a reasonably intelligent person.

Grasping the basics of mRNA transcription, viral fragment encoding, immune system functioning, and the purpose and effects of various common vaccine adjuvants is ~20 hours of internet research.

Which is one of the reasons it really gets my goat when so many anti-vaccine folks appear not to have made any educational effort before crystalizing their loud opinions.

^ As distinct from the details, which require a lifetime to comprehend

> I care but I don’t have the requisite education to understand what I’m reading. I need it explained by someone who has taken up that specialization.

They did explain it! Here's what it sounded like: "We have thoroughly researched these treatments and found them to be generally safe and effective, and well-worth the potential risks for people who fit profile X Y Z, but closer individualized medical consideration is warranted for people who fit profile P Q R."