Opus 2025-488: Enjoy Without Imbibing

I recently saw a meme and I found myself nodding my head . I liked the message that it was portraying because it agreed with my prejudices.  If I remember correctly, it was attributed to NBC news and it reported that 95% of all cases of measles occurred in children who had been vaccinated .

The inference was that this was the Covid vaccination and it fits perfectly with my preconceived notions about the whole Covid panic.  My problem is that I am a skeptic, even when I see things that I like . So I put on my thinking cap and looked at this.

First of all I’ve seen enough memes that are obviously false that attribute their source to a known entity, such as NBC, that I don’t automatically assume that it is an honest attribution.  Most of the time when you see something like this, the news that is attributed to them is so ridiculous that it is obvious that it is intended as humor.  I have no problem with that.  This was not presented as humor.  This was presented as a scientific breakthrough.  Did they really get it from NBC or is it Photoshop?  I have no way of knowing.  Strike one.

Secondly, the 95% is a meaningless statistic unless you know how big the sampling was.  If your sample was 100 children, it’s pretty meaningless.  If it was 10 children, it’s even less meaningful.  Not knowing that basic fact makes the 95% questionable.  That’s the way it is with statistics.  You have to be very careful about what they say and about what they don’t say.  Even if the 95% were accurate, you have no idea what it means.

Thirdly, I am guessing that most children who attend public school were forced to be vaccinated.  We all know, or we should know, that even the best vaccine is going to have some people that are still going to get sick.  I don’t know of any that give 100% guarantee except for the guarantees of politicians regarding the Covid vaccine.  For some people, the vaccines are just not going to take.  Since we’re talking about public school children, you need to understand that they are in incubation heaven.  Being in a public school classroom is like being bacteria in a petri dish.  You’re surrounded by disease and it’s gonna get you.

Fourthly, the main body of children that would not be vaccinated would probably be homeschoolers.  One thing about this is that they are not in the petri dish.  The chances of them catching measles would be much lower than their public school contemporary.  That would have a big influence on whether they catch measles or not.  Secondly, homeschoolers tend to be off the radar.  It’s possible that the children in the homeschool situation had measles and just didn’t report it.  We know how to treat measles.  I had measles when I was a kid and I don’t know that I was taken to a doctor.  They kept me in a dark room and whatever else, that’s all I remember, they knew how to deal with it.  I know that I’ve heard of homeschoolers having what they call “chickenpox parties” where if someone has chickenpox, you have a party and try to expose everybody else while they’re young and it’s not going to be a big deal.  I don’t know if they did that for measles.  I don’t actually know of any who did it for chickenpox, but it was one of the things they talked about.

So, is the meme accurate?  I want it to be.  That doesn’t meme anything.  I want to be skinny and good looking too, but I haven’t noticed any big changes overnight.  I’m more concerned with being honest and truthful that I am with being considered right.

Don’t be a cynic.  Be a practicing skeptic.  Seek truth no matter where the path takes you.  It will produce a better world.

homo unius libri