Math and experience

Some people are bedazzled by statistics, but I would prefer to read first-hand accounts of people who have had unique experiences, and who can tell of them in an entertaining, coherent and believable way.

I find statistics too emotionally dry to engage with on an ongoing basis. I also don't see the key understandings of life as being mathematical in nature. Not to say there is no value in applying math, but this isn't where my interests lie.

Analyzers will analyse, but my own analysis of life is not primarily mathematical, even if much of my formal education was mathematically based, with a focus on economics.

But math is clean and dry and gives the impression of certitude, and people like this in an uncertain world. However, we must guard against the use of math to deliver false certitude, through poor data collection or analysis, or when applied to an area where it doesn't belong!

Bacteria versus viruses in causing illness

It's interesting to learn how viruses operate v the bacteria that cause infectious disease.

Viruses seem to lie in wait until our body is compromised in some way before launching an assault.

Bacteria seem a more local phenomenon that also flourish under certain conditions.

It seems to be the ingestion of significant numbers of "bad" bacteria that aren't quickly neutralised that cause sickness, which begins quite quickly, whereas with viruses they are something that hibernate in the body until conditions are right for taking control, which can take years.

A doctor responds to non-vaccinating parents

From Dr. Ray Andrew, MD~

“I am running into increasing numbers of patients who decline to receive vaccinations. I don’t call them “anti-vaxxers” because that is the most immature way I can imagine to refer to another human being with an opinion, whether I consider it informed or not. Name-calling is what people do in politics when they don’t have an intelligent response to an opposing party’s argument. This is supposed to be science, not politics.

Based on my experience, those who choose not to vaccinate care just as much about their children as you and I do. But they are looking for information. They no longer consider the AAP and the CDC as unbiased sources of information because the former has ties to the drug industry and the latter actually owns vaccine patents. These parents want me to show them long-term safety studies, which I am unable to find.

They are bothered by the ingredient lists of vaccines, knowing that there are EPA-listed toxins in many of them. Some don’t like knowing that cells and DNA from aborted fetuses as well as animals are used in vaccine production. Some demand true double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled (using saline controls, not adjuvants) trials proving efficacy, which simply do not exist, even though we keep telling everyone that this is the gold standard in medicine. Some ask why—if informed consent exists for every other procedure in medicine—doctors and governments are trying to force vaccination on them, throwing informed consent (a legal right, I was taught) out the window. Some make the argument that, if vaccines are so effective, the vaccinated shouldn’t worry about getting sick from the unvaccinated. And they ask me for scientific proof of the theory of herd immunity. I don’t remember being shown any evidence of this in medical school. It was simply taught as a self-evident fact. But my patients don’t accept that anymore, not without seeing some proof.

So, when I receive all of these communications from different state health organizations telling me how I am supposed to combat the growing threat of vaccine deniers, I feel like a straw man because these communications never present actual evidence to respond to the questions of these parents. They’re just talking points, empty claims, and official pronouncements.

In conclusion, some of my patients vaccinate, and some don’t. I respect both kinds. They are both intelligent and care for their children. Last I checked, the Hippocratic oath doesn’t require me to insult people with whom I don’t agree. I present what evidence I can find, and let them choose based on their values, not mine. Maybe that’s not allowed anymore. Maybe I’m supposed to kick them out of my practice if they disagree with me. Maybe they should be kicked out of school. Out of the country, even. If that’s the America of the future, that’s not a country I would want to live in.”

22 March 2019