Two somewhat-related items as we head into the weekend…
Yesterday’s post sparked some interesting discussion; it was supposed to be about the difference with arguing opinions versus facts. When it comes to English or Political Science, there are opinions. When it comes to Math, there are facts… and just because the facts were taught incorrectly (or not at all), it does not negate their validity. The big difference between Math teachers and English teachers is that one has more “wiggle room” than the other. Or, should. Thinking back to elementary school, grade 5 to be exact, I remember this interaction… and it bothers me to this day. I am a big fan of good teachers (and have written about, and will do so in the future as well) – many I’ve experienced in my lifetime.
But school teachers… public or private / elementary or high-school… it’s always hit or miss.
On this day back in 1978, the English teacher who was now also teaching Math… asked the class something like “Of the numbers from one to ten, which ones go into twenty?”
Hands shot up and kids were called upon…
“Five!”
“Yes”
“Ten!”
“Yes”
“Four”
“Yes – very good”
And then I put up my hand and said, “Don’t they *all* go into twenty? I think you mean which ones go into twenty *evenly*”.
“What?”
“Like nine… it goes into twenty twice, but not evenly. Remainder two”
And instead of “Oh, well… yes, you’re right…”, what she said was, “Oooohhhh… boys and girls, looks like we have a little math genius in the room!” – which of course was met with derision and “Hee Haw” from around the classroom. Up yours, Mrs. T.
Hey, teachers… your kids are impressionable. They remember stuff like that. Here we are, more than forty years later.
And speaking of education, and possible lack thereof, the messaging around vaccines has not been great. There are people who “get it”, but they are not the ones that need convincing, explaining or educating. They understand, and they will get their vaccine as soon as they’re able.
The messaging towards the vaccine-hesitant has been awful, to the point of making things worse. Now, finally, we are on the cusp of seeing ramped-up production and delivery… and now the issue will simply be that people don’t want to get vaccinated… and when you ask an otherwise well-informed person why, you’ll hear things like:
“The vaccine isn’t 100% effective”
“It doesn’t work against the new variants”
“You can still be contagious after you get it”
“We’re told we still have to wear masks and socially distance, so why bother?”
Most of that has some truth to it, but that’s totally missing the point. Yes, 95 isn’t 100. It seems to work just fine against the new variants, but we won’t know for sure till we have some data. Yes, for a period of time, you can still be contagious… but after two weeks, almost certainly not. And, finally, yeah… we still have to wear masks and socially distance because we’re not all immune… because, guess what, we’re not all yet vaccinated.
But, for whatever reason, the clarity of the message gets lost with all of the more-effective fear-mongering… and, as a result, a third of the U.S. military have refused to get vaccinated. Some 60% of Ohio nursing-home workers have declined it. Ultimately, as per the latest poll, half of Americans would refuse the vaccine today… a number which is ironically higher in Black in Hispanic people; ironic, because they generally have a higher chance of getting the disease… and worse outcomes. Data has shown that two weeks after getting the second dose, your chances of dying from C19 are near zero. At worst, you’ll suffer what seems to be a conventional cold… but that message is not getting through.
This is the end-result of awful, inconsistent messaging from former leadership in the U.S…. but here in Canada, while the numbers are better, they’re still alarmingly high… probably because for people who like to see things in terms of a binary solution… good/bad black/white right/wrong… no matter how good vaccine outcomes might be, there’s always the caveat… it’s not perfect. Therefore, it’s useless.
The messaging needs to be consistent. It needs to be hammered home unequivocally. And it needs messaging from trusted experts, not politicians. Not English teachers posing as Math teachers whose attitude is to lash out at those that don’t agree.
At the end of the day, it’s all about education… and that needs to be happening a lot better than it is now.
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Don’t forget that we also have to overcome the “vaccines are dangerous” crap that all started with one now debunked paper.
Even though this vaccine bears zero resemblance to the vaccines that spurred that now-debunked paper, you will still hear people saying that this vaccine will cause autism.
Pro-tip: Don’t get old in Ohio.
On an unrelated note… people of our age should be celebrating the 30th anniversary of the release of one of the top Canadian albums of all time… Road Apples.
People who are interested, will actively seek new information, hopefully the right one. Others are the “vaccine skeptics”, they do not bother to look at facts, they do not want to change a mind made up already.
Hey, I’m a public school teacher. I don’t think public school teachers are any more “hit-and-miss” than private school (or any other kind of) teachers. Humans in all professions and sectors are hit-and-miss, IMO.
Having said that, I’ve been humiliated by teachers too. And it sucks. You’re right, that kind of interaction is never forgotten.
For me, it was grade 3, subtraction, and negative numbers – something that I was not supposed to be aware of, apparently, and certainly not supposed to mention in a class full of my peers…
Yes
Brett: its one thing when kids tease you, its another when adults / teachers do it….
At one Care home that I am aware of the care aids were 70% vaccinated and the remaining staff were clamoring for the vaccine ( especially after one of them came in sick). Unfortunately there has been no further vaccine available in the Province until next week, when residents will start on the 2nd dose.
Fortunately we aren’t the USA and while there are a few vaccine reticent people out there care aids and nurses are mostly buying in, in great enough numbers to get well past herd immunity. People that don’t get vaccinated can line up for 14 days of sick time or whatever COVID dishes out to them.
MIL in care home in Prince George got her 2nd dose yesterday. Hopefully we will be able to see her some day
Horatio Kemeny I think your vaccination numbers are a little behind. Based on the Canada Vaccine tracker and today’s briefing, my understanding is that 12,251 people received a dose of vaccine in BC in the past day, and while many of those were second doses, the total number of people who have received at least one dose of vaccine in BC is 192,942, amounting to ~3.783% of the population of BC. Also, yesterday we had a vaccine delivery of ~55,000 doses of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.
https://covid19tracker.ca/vaccinationtracker.html
Education is important, but I think incentives are important too. If you want to travel to certain countries, you must be vaccinated against dengue, hepatitis A and B, yellow fever, etc. I fully expect Covid-19 to be added to the international travel vaccination list. I would like to see it added to the job requirements for health care workers, although I can see that there might be legal challenges to that. I note that vaccination is now mandatory for employees of Vatican City. I guess if you are the Pope you can call the shots there (literally).