>Getting a flu shot is important. Please get yours this season so we can help reduce the spread of yet another deadly respiratory virus that kills thousands of people each year.
It turns out that masks are far more effective than flu shots, so no, I'm not going to get a flu shot. Anyway, IIRC, "kills thousands of people each year" is a statistical projection that doesn't actually stand up to scrutiny. Certainly, it's nothing like COVID-19.
>There was a lot of debate about masks.
There was a lot of misinformation spread because of the failure to stockpile PPE. That misinformation is still doing harm now because the MAGA folks are running around saying "masks don't work"
>I don't know what you're implying by the phrase 'argument by authority,' but we're talking about people who have spent their entire careers in the field of medicine. Normally we call those people 'scientists' and 'experts.'
Unfortunately, medical experts credibility is now shot by spreading false information about masks, and by downplaying the risk of COVID-19 in January and February by telling everybody to get a flu shot. Then I wonder how many people died on ventilators when intubated on MAX ..
As a group you're weren't operating at the level of Dennis Richie or Donald Knuth, so you have work to do to regain credibility.
In fact, you're still not now. You should focus less on evidence-based medicine and more on risk asymmetry. Mask wearing (even of cloth masks) had very little downside and a potentially huge upside. But we had to wait for evidence. The same is true of vitamin-D now. Look for low-risk interventions. If we don't have the resources to mass test the at-risk population, we should encourage those on poor diets to take 1000IU a daythis winter. But we will have to wait until next year for evidence.
Wait, you do understand that people are saying to get the flu shot so people don't get the flu, right? They're not saying that the flu shot will protect you against COVID.
Where do you get your data about annual influenza deaths? If you have a good source, I'm willing to take a look.
It's important not only so you don't get sick, but also so you don't spread it to others who may have a weaker immune system. We're all in this together.
Please don't lump all health care personnel in with political appointees in Washington D.C.
Donald Knuth is a computer scientist, not the president's politically-appointed personal pet computer scientist.
>Wait, you do understand that people are saying to get the flu shot so people don't get the flu, right?
For sure, but I don't happen to agree. It was on the news here in Japan this morning - flu cases have pretty much disappeared this season - presumably because everyone is wearing masks.
>Where do you get your data about annual influenza deaths? If you have a good source, I'm willing to take a look.
I can look for it, but IIRC the several 10,000 annual influenza deaths are a statistical projection. There was an article somewhere from someone in ER during the peak of the COVID-19 deaths saying they had pretty much never seen an actual influenza death - and that was the experience of other people in ER - so there was a mismatch between the statistical projection and lived experience.
>It's important not only so you don't get sick, but also so you don't spread it to others who may have a weaker immune system. We're all in this together.
The best way to do that is to wear masks. Here in Japan - nobody here ever said that "masks don't work for non-medics who haven't been trained to put them on properly". So we don't now have the problem with lots of MAGA folks running around saying "masks don't work".
It would be wonderful if we were anywhere near as diligent with masks as folks in Japan have been.
Unfortunately, masks became a political issue here in a way that probably had nothing to do with those dumb CDC press releases. Masks were cleverly and intentionally linked to a sentiment of 'freedom' and 'fascism' in an almost astonishing way.
This kind of thing doesn't even raise eyebrows here anymore:
I don't know how much of it you've seen in Japan, but this country is divided, scared, and hopeless in a way that nobody I've talked to can claim to have experienced in their lifetime. People's family members are dying, people are losing their jobs, people are being evicted, people are losing their businesses, politicians are locked in a geriatric MMA grapple, and there's no vision for how we're getting out of this.
Actually, I'm generally pro-freedom where there is no obvious victim. But that's not true in this case. The way I see it is you can suffer the more modest loss of freedom of mask wearing now. Or you can ignore that and have lockdowns imposed on you later.
>Unfortunately, masks became a political issue here in a way that probably had nothing to do with those dumb CDC press releases.
You want to believe that, but I think in your heart you know that is not true. Those messages seeped into the public consciousness. I'd be astonished if they're not being cited by MAGA et al against you now.
Generally, if you treat people like children, like the CDC did, they won't respond by behaving like adults.
It turns out that masks are far more effective than flu shots, so no, I'm not going to get a flu shot. Anyway, IIRC, "kills thousands of people each year" is a statistical projection that doesn't actually stand up to scrutiny. Certainly, it's nothing like COVID-19.
>There was a lot of debate about masks.
There was a lot of misinformation spread because of the failure to stockpile PPE. That misinformation is still doing harm now because the MAGA folks are running around saying "masks don't work"
>I don't know what you're implying by the phrase 'argument by authority,' but we're talking about people who have spent their entire careers in the field of medicine. Normally we call those people 'scientists' and 'experts.'
Unfortunately, medical experts credibility is now shot by spreading false information about masks, and by downplaying the risk of COVID-19 in January and February by telling everybody to get a flu shot. Then I wonder how many people died on ventilators when intubated on MAX ..
As a group you're weren't operating at the level of Dennis Richie or Donald Knuth, so you have work to do to regain credibility.
In fact, you're still not now. You should focus less on evidence-based medicine and more on risk asymmetry. Mask wearing (even of cloth masks) had very little downside and a potentially huge upside. But we had to wait for evidence. The same is true of vitamin-D now. Look for low-risk interventions. If we don't have the resources to mass test the at-risk population, we should encourage those on poor diets to take 1000IU a daythis winter. But we will have to wait until next year for evidence.