tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post1139292514116832119..comments2024-03-19T03:17:00.404-04:00Comments on The Philosopher's Stone: STUCK ON VACCINATIONRobert Paul Wolffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-76972352803208152932015-02-04T03:26:43.033-05:002015-02-04T03:26:43.033-05:00Autism disproportionately affects white upper-midd...Autism disproportionately affects white upper-middle class communities. Or, there is a selection bias, or we hear more about their autism cases because their class status affords them the privilege to be heard in society. Either way, because of this perceived link, anti-vaccine sentiment is strong in well-educated, affluent areas, which mostly vote on the left. For the upcoming election, this is actually a genius wedge issue for Republicans to own. Democrats won't voice this concern because they are currently the party of responsible government, and distrust of compulsory government influence has Republican written all over it. Republicans may pick-up some affluent voters and donors who are compelled by this single, highly charged issue. The sad corollary to this, is that giving prominent political voice to the issue will give credence to the skeptics, and encourage working-class Republicans to view being anti-vax as being pro-individual freedom. It's a deeply cynical position to take, as it will inevitably cause children of poor people to die.Jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14445639013701959765noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-10760223344191978392015-02-03T19:01:03.067-05:002015-02-03T19:01:03.067-05:00Oh sure, I was trying to cleave the left from righ...Oh sure, I was trying to cleave the left from right anti-vaxxers. The "cost" isn't $, but perceived risk. So even though they are rational enough to see the risk as low (though exaggerated), free-loading makes sense. David Auerbachhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15612242467208247588noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-39465858571187872972015-02-03T18:45:19.226-05:002015-02-03T18:45:19.226-05:00David, it is conceivable, but surely implausible, ...David, it is conceivable, but surely implausible, since vaccinations are all but free and risk-free as well. I cannot help thinking something more deeply irrational is at work.Robert Paul Wolffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-15285658824924304642015-02-03T18:40:55.742-05:002015-02-03T18:40:55.742-05:00I'm wondering (i.e. doing a priori philosophy)...I'm wondering (i.e. doing <i>a priori</i> philosophy) if anti-vaxxing on the (so-called) left side is a bit of (perhaps only semi-conscious) rational free-loading. After all, herd immmunity works to protect the involuntarily unimmunized (infants, immune-compromised, etc.) So, I can have my child free-load on herd immunity and everything's fine. (Until too many catch onto to the trick and herd immunity for that disease reaches the tipping point.)David Auerbachhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15612242467208247588noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-78814527264844160102015-02-03T14:24:42.172-05:002015-02-03T14:24:42.172-05:00Paul, it is enough to make one weep! So educating...Paul, it is enough to make one weep! So educating conservatives makes them stupider. And they say there is no God. Only a very powerful and truly malevolent deity could produce such a result. I must rethink my commitment to the Enlightenment.Robert Paul Wolffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-74291471830651816582015-02-03T14:07:22.610-05:002015-02-03T14:07:22.610-05:00I recently attended a talk given by sociologist La...I recently attended a talk given by sociologist Larry Hamilton (http://pubpages.unh.edu/~lch/). In the talk, he discussed the (largely anecdotal) claim that anti-vaccination attitudes are more likely to be held by liberals than conservatives. However, his empirical work did not support this claim. Instead, he found that anti-vaccination attitudes were held by (proportionately) far more conservatives than liberals. In fact, the anti-vaccination attitude looked similar (in terms of distribution according to political affiliation) with other anti-science attitudes, like climate change denialism (though, if I remember, climate change was particularly polarizing). <br /><br />There was something else that he discussed in the talk, which I found interesting. Apparently, he found that the effect of education on one's scientific attitudes differs dramatically according to political affiliation. So, for liberals, those with more education were more likely to hold scientifically accurate views. For conservatives, however, those with more education were actually *less* likely to hold scientifically accurate views (in other words, conservatives with advanced degrees were more likely to deny climate change, believe that vaccinations are dangerous, etc. than conservatives with no advanced education) Fascinating!Paul Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09548174144965259259noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-66784589980379934122015-02-03T12:09:40.188-05:002015-02-03T12:09:40.188-05:00Also—the VT information is interesting. I wonder w...Also—the VT information is interesting. I wonder what effect all of the publicity surrounding the measles outbreak will have on people far removed from the outbreak itself. (In CA there's been a swing back towards vaccination in the past few years, one that seems likely to strengthen in response to this outbreak.)<br /><br />Jim seems to me to get one strain of the rationalizations exactly right with the controlling/"no-poison!"/purity ideology. And while (in my experience, at least) the well-off, liberal, &c anti-vaxxers don't tend to be strongly libertarian, there is a tendency towards anti-*corporate* anti-authoritarian conspiracy theorizing. (The vaccine requirement is a plot to make Merck billions!)David Goldmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03797961839396621645noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-56985611950173809252015-02-03T11:47:38.597-05:002015-02-03T11:47:38.597-05:00Well…
http://www.ifc.com/shows/portlandia/blog/201...Well…<br />http://www.ifc.com/shows/portlandia/blog/2015/01/in-portlandia-raw-milk-is-the-futureDavid Goldmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03797961839396621645noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-56923778382859890452015-02-03T11:42:24.111-05:002015-02-03T11:42:24.111-05:00I would love to see some good sociology done on th...I would love to see some good sociology done on this. There is some class resentment in this but there has to be some "charismatic FUD" involved (some celebrity but also local and loud anti-vaxers). Some of it is libertarian anti-authority but some of it is rabid control freakery ("nobody is putting poison in my kids body!")<br /><br />I have looked at the data for Vermont and its very revealing. It is not necessarily the richest towns or the most "new agey" or "earthy/crunchy" The 5 or 6 towns that stand out are mostly above average wealth but towns just like them have in Vermont have really high vax rates as well(Prof. Wolff may be interested to learn that some of the lowest vax rates in Vermont are in Marlboro and West Brattleboro--a small college town--and in Montpelier, the smallish state capital).<br /><br />Vermont has a notable lower vax rate (MMR rate for Kindergartners is 93%) but the state rate is misleading as there is high variance between towns (easily half of Vermont Kindergartners go to schools with 98%+ vax rates). <br /><br />There are clearly some pockets of anti-vax in Vermont but they are concentrated in a dozen or so school districts spread out in different "type" towns. There is also, sadly, an anti-Vax lobby, which has power far beyond its actual numbers that has successfully made refusing vaccines easier than it should be.Jim Westrichhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11523640492416820740noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-90380254074421023872015-02-03T11:40:46.584-05:002015-02-03T11:40:46.584-05:00That is fascinating. Why is the upscale rejection...That is fascinating. Why is the upscale rejection focused on vaccination, rather than, say, radiation treatment for cancer or cellphones or pasteurized milk? Or is it? Clearly there is much here I do not understand.Robert Paul Wolffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-1204468782303651722015-02-03T11:19:35.084-05:002015-02-03T11:19:35.084-05:00Frankly, the right-wing anti-vaccination sentiment...Frankly, the right-wing anti-vaccination sentiment that's cropped up recently puzzles me. In my experience as a parent (in California, CT, and central Ohio—but I've really only encountered actual vaccine skeptics in CA), vaccine rejection has been *overwhelmingly* an upscale college-educated new-age ("all-natural", anti-corporate) phenomenon.<br /><br />This LA Times map of vaccination rates is pretty much a map of wealthy, whiter areas of L.A. (and many of the red dots are private schools, to boot). I'd be curious to know if actual vaccination rates (as opposed to rhetoric against government mandates) (hm, there's an important distinction) are lower in lower class, white, conservative areas, too. On the basis of my experience I doubt it, although my confidence in that prediction isn't very high.<br /><br />http://spreadsheets.latimes.com/immunization-levels-california/David Goldmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03797961839396621645noreply@blogger.com