5 ms·

You can be a brilliant neurologist and also be anti-vax. Expertise in one field doesn't imply expertise in others even if they appear closely related to the la

You can be a brilliant neurologist and also be anti-vax. Expertise in one field doesn't imply expertise in others even if they appear closely related to the layperson.

Eric_WVGG 5y ago
Uh dunno if you saw his, but this morning I read about a study that shows that PhDs have the highest by-education rate of not getting vaccinated. https://unherd.com/thepost/the-most-vaccine-hesitant-education-group-of-all-phds/ https://unherd.com/thepost/the-most-vaccine-hesitant-educati...
- bellyfullofbac 5y ago
  At the beginning of the year their rate was not the highest, but other groups got convinced (their rates lowered), but PhDs remained constant. To me it means the PhDs have a high degree of confidence in their own beliefs (surely thinking they've come to their conclusions rationally and with rigorous scientific reasoning), and no push will change their minds. Whether this self-evaluation is accurate or not, is a different question. I wonder what their PhDs are even in, if it's molecular biology, then, well, maybe there's a case there, but a PhD in, say, Polynesian cultures?
  - Eric_WVGG 5y ago
    My guess is that the level of education required to get a PhD instills in one an extreme level of skepticism; since most PhDs are not in genetics or virology (just simple statistics), most PhDs are skeptical of the fields from which they are not experts.
    - jjeaff 5y ago
      But if they are skeptical of the experts, why in the world aren't they skeptical of the non-expert saying the vaccine is dangerous?
      - bellyfullofbac 5y ago
        "They" here are 23.9% of PhDs. So 76.1% believe the experts. The rest are probably like other skeptics (or like most of us humans), they've come up with the conlusion and they've seen the proof that supported that conclusion and dismissed proof that don't. Although as PhDs they should know more about confirmation bias...
geoduck14 5y ago
Yeah, but to be fair, if I knew how sausage was made, I'm sure I would eat less sausage
- cloverich 5y ago
  i would expect MDs to have a much higher than average fax rate for that very reason. There’s a lot of really awful illnesses for which we have still very crude protections and treatments. vaccines are a godsend treated as such among all the MDs i know.
  - jjeaff 5y ago
    The main issue I have seen with people that work in the medical field is when they value anecdote over data. Inevitably, some that work in the field are going to have a disproportionate outcome of some type that doesn't fit the data. So if several of your patients had a bad reaction to a vaccine, you might incorrectly assume that there is an issue.

You can be a brilliant neurologist and also be anti-vax. Expertise in one field doesn't imply expertise in others even if they appear closely related to the layperson.

Eric_WVGG 5y ago

Uh dunno if you saw his, but this morning I read about a study that shows that PhDs have the highest by-education rate of not getting vaccinated. https://unherd.com/thepost/the-most-vaccine-hesitant-education-group-of-all-phds/ https://unherd.com/thepost/the-most-vaccine-hesitant-educati...

bellyfullofbac 5y ago
At the beginning of the year their rate was not the highest, but other groups got convinced (their rates lowered), but PhDs remained constant. To me it means the PhDs have a high degree of confidence in their own beliefs (surely thinking they've come to their conclusions rationally and with rigorous scientific reasoning), and no push will change their minds. Whether this self-evaluation is accurate or not, is a different question. I wonder what their PhDs are even in, if it's molecular biology, then, well, maybe there's a case there, but a PhD in, say, Polynesian cultures?
- Eric_WVGG 5y ago
  My guess is that the level of education required to get a PhD instills in one an extreme level of skepticism; since most PhDs are not in genetics or virology (just simple statistics), most PhDs are skeptical of the fields from which they are not experts.
  - jjeaff 5y ago
    But if they are skeptical of the experts, why in the world aren't they skeptical of the non-expert saying the vaccine is dangerous?
    - bellyfullofbac 5y ago
      "They" here are 23.9% of PhDs. So 76.1% believe the experts. The rest are probably like other skeptics (or like most of us humans), they've come up with the conlusion and they've seen the proof that supported that conclusion and dismissed proof that don't. Although as PhDs they should know more about confirmation bias...

geoduck14 5y ago

Yeah, but to be fair, if I knew how sausage was made, I'm sure I would eat less sausage

cloverich 5y ago
i would expect MDs to have a much higher than average fax rate for that very reason. There’s a lot of really awful illnesses for which we have still very crude protections and treatments. vaccines are a godsend treated as such among all the MDs i know.
- jjeaff 5y ago
  The main issue I have seen with people that work in the medical field is when they value anecdote over data. Inevitably, some that work in the field are going to have a disproportionate outcome of some type that doesn't fit the data. So if several of your patients had a bad reaction to a vaccine, you might incorrectly assume that there is an issue.