What is a population bias and how does it affect your health and your dog's?
Finally, it got me too! Yes, I am positive for COVID-19. Luckily, the symptoms have been mild, with just some muscle aches, sore throat, and a fairly mild cough.
I am no longer a COVID-19 virgin and from the perspective of common sense immunology, having mild symptoms caused by the actual virus is better than any artificially made vaccine.
Except, unlike the EU, the USA and Canadian governments still do not recognize natural infection as a means of protection. In practical terms,
if Canada and the USA were students at a veterinary college
they would definitely fail their immunology course!
Crazy? Yes, it is, which makes me ask the following questions:
- Why do millions of people not care enough to stop the madness?
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Why are some Canadian citizens not permitted to fly and cannot effectively leave the country, which violates their Charter of Rights and Freedoms?
Have we all lost our minds, or are we just hiding what we are really thinking?
For the past two years, I've tried to remain neutral about people's choices regarding vaccination. However, there are two examples from recent history where the regulations made no logical sense.
- For several decades, until about ten years ago, veterinarians were taught to vaccinate dogs annually against the most common diseases, which is unnecessary because immunity often lasts for a lifetime. More importantly, in 34 years of being a veterinarian, I have never seen a dog over the age of one with distemper or parvovirus. This confirms that even with reduced canine vaccination, we still over-vaccinate dogs. (Here is more info on the topic)
- Now we are being told that the natural occurrence of a disease doesn’t count as immunization, and all I can say is, what the heck?! Canada and the USA, you have a big fat FAIL on your immunology report card, and so do those who claim to be experts.
Does it make sense that politics should not be a part of healthcare decisions? Would it make sense to hold the public policymakers accountable, or at least demand an apology for their blatant error in judgment and absence of knowledge?
Should we be surprised that most people do absolutely nothing about this situation? Is it possible that most of us make assumptions about what other people think and, as a result, do not share our honest opinions due to a fear of being laughed at, marginalized, ridiculed, or punished?
Harvard professor and author Todd Rose calls this phenomenon “Population Bias." Basically, the real opinions of society are actually quite far from the official and public ones, which is a very serious issue. When opinions aren't shared and we don't really know where society stands, it can affect the course of history. This is no exaggeration.
So today I had the idea of giving you a space to express your honest opinion anonymously in 10 short seconds. You just need to answer two multiple-choice questions in the poll below. I can't wait to see the results!
Thank you for your participation, I will publish the results next week to see where we stand.
