Vaccinations

 Until I read this twitter thread I wasn't aware we now had this many vaccinations for the early years. I wonder how many other shots come up later in life?

 

I post this regularly, and many express surprise.

This is the current childhood immunization schedule. Many childhood vaccines are three+ doses, sometimes a booster.

This is one reason why, unlike earlier centuries, we don't have cemeteries full of children. We've forgotten. pic.twitter.com/H01WqNg7uj

— zeynep tufekci (@zeynep) January 27, 2022

USDA Is Last (in Vaccinations)

 That is reported by GovExec here: " The Veterans Affairs Department and Social Security Administration joined USDA in bringing up the bottom of the pack, with all three agencies holding vaccination rates under 88%." 

I suspect the three agencies share a feature--extensive field staffs located in red states.  I know from some posts on the Facebook page for the FSA employee group that whether or not to get the shots caused some angst.  FSA for one is culturally conservative. 

Politics and Vaccines

This twitter thread notes the outstanding performance of Puerto Rico in getting their people vaccinated--better performance than any state. It attributes their high rate to the fact their parties all support vaccination--there's no Dem-Rep split.

From First to Last

Early on West Virginia was leading the national in rate of vaccinations--their governor had relied on drug store chains.

Today West Virginia has the lowest rate of vaccination (lower than Idaho). 

Individual Rights and Society

This is a good point: 

Evidently we're going to have a debate about vaccine mandates and abortion at the same time--that is, both culture war tribes are simultaneously going to take both positions on the rights to medical privacy and "my body my choice" autonomy

— Conor Friedersdorf (@conor64) September 9, 2021

I support the idea of mandating vaccines, with minimal exemptions, and with permitting abortion before viability (and after in very limited cases).  So how do I reconcile the positions?

Vaccines. People who aren't vaccinated can be infected by the virus, possibly permitting its evolution into variants, and definitely enabling its continued existence. Its existence is a danger to me and others.  Being vaccinated carries a very low risk, so in my view the danger outweighs the risk, which warrants overriding an individual's preference and the vaccine mandate.

Abortion. Every thing equal, I'm in favor of humans. Birth of an infant is, on balance, good for me and the rest of humanity.  It's one more mind and body who can improve life.  But I'm also in favor of individual freedom, of autonomy.  Strong protection of such freedoms is part of my vision of the best society.  So if the prospective mother decides that her interests and sometimes her perception of the interest of the embryo are best served by an abortion, I have to take that seriously.  

And what of the embryo?  We say "life is sacred" but in fact we recognize that's not an absolute, not something which can be applied everywhere. Notably, we don't apply it to members of other species.  (I'm not a vegan.) So I'm comfortable drawing the line at viability.

How Things Change--Vaccine

 Early in the year we were amazed that West Virginia was leading the way in vaccinating their people.  My cousin in Massachusetts was griping about the way the governor was mishandling vaccination there.

Today it seems that West Virginia has fallen back, almost into the lowest tier of states, while Massachusetts is in the top tier. 

Testing the Vaccines

 The Times had this feature on how Pfizer  makes its covid vaccine.

It's fascinating,  What struck me most strongly was the amount of testing and retesting which was done all through the process. 

I recommend it for anyone on the fence about getting their shots.

Flaws in Statistics

Media have reported a significant percentage of people have failed to get their second shot of vaccine.  I'm not sure of the basis, but if it's built on the CDC's automated database there may be some distortion.  In the case of my wife, we reported the first shot timely, but failed to report the second until the issue hit the news. How much such a pattern might have occurred I don't know.

Vaccination History

 We're far enough along in our covid vaccination process to discuss patterns, as my cousin and I did this morning.  It turns out the Northeast, especially New England, is doing the best.  Early leaders like WV or NM have fallen back.  

I'm not sure what accounts for New England's record.  They voted for Biden, so that's a plus. My impression is that they're well-educated and perhaps have a higher regard for science than average.  But what accounts for SD's presence high up the list?

I wonder if anyone has run a correlation between the states which do well with the annual flu vaccinations and the current effort?  

Here's a graph of all the states for the 2019-20 flu vaccine. Eyeballing there seems a correlation, though Maine is an exception.  When the dust settles we'll see whether there's a pattern of general resistance/acceptance of all vaccines, or whether the unique factors of covid-19 played a role in acceptance.

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/fluvaxview/coverage-1920estimates.htm