"Just Shot Me"

Now that the end of the Pandemic seems to be in sight, we are all jostling in line to get The Shot (aka COVID-19 Vaccine).

I see celebrities and government officials doing photo-ops of them getting The Shot.  They rationalize being among the first because of their status as opinion-leaders, or "essential workers" but I am skeptical that seeing Nancy Pelosi or Mitch McConnel getting a shot is persuading any VAX skeptic to offer their arm to allow  alien sperm to be injected.  Nor do I consider either of them to be "essential" since they have accomplished nothing to ensure that the citizens are safe or well-fed. 

It seems to me that the way to stop the pandemic is to offer the vaccine to people who have the most human interactions.  First Priority should be the nurses and doctors who are personally involved with caring for sick patients.  Then other hospital and group facility staff that directly work with residents (and inmates)  and those who have customer facing positions like cashiers, cooks, servers, barbers, letter carriers, tradespeople like plumbers, repair technicians and electricians who need enter residences to do their jobs, people who work at counters, anyone who has hands-on food preparation or delivery. Also Classroom Teachers doing in person classes.  Then anyone in residential homes setting, including visitors.

If folks at these transmission points can be immunized as a priority.  The spread should be easier to stop. Then I would consider offering the vaccine to "essential workers." Active military, cops, firemen, persons who  need to show-up to keep the wheels of society running.  (This excludes most government workers, especially elected representatives.)

After these folks, then the general public should be next in line according to risk factors such as age, ethnicity, economic status, location, compromising health conditions.   This will be tricky.  I think there should be an outreach to "at risk" communities where infection spread is more of a problem.   Although I would be glad to get The Shot because I am over 75 with high BP  and fat (and therefore at higher risk from Covid complications), I think I would rather see a healthy 50 year old who needs to take public transportation to get to work get immunized before me.    

In other words the risk factor should not be solely based on who is most likely to die, but who is most likely to get and spread the disease.  Since I live in a suburb where there are fewer cases, since I stay home except for food and supplies, and I wash my hands, stay masked and distanced when out.  I am less of a spread risk than someone who is in constant close interaction with other folks.

All this intellectualizing is mere virtue signaling,  of course.  My survival instinct hopes that I am called tomorrow and told I am on "the list".  You can be assured:  I will show-up for my shot.

AFTERTHOUGHT: 

When they give you the second Covid shot you should get a card that certifies that you have had vaccine.  Restaurants and other businesses could then post signs saying "Only those who have had vaccine are welcome inside."  New job title for bouncers:  Virus checker.

The Reality of Perception

Some of you Skeptics may have a hard time with certain claims made by true believers about the efficacy of pseudo scientific systems of belief , such as Feng Shui and Astrology
The term pseudoscience refers to any body of belief that cannot be subjected to the rigorous test of science.

Most believers in pseudoscience also believe in scientific facts, but they feel that traditional science does not answer enough questions satisfactorily.

My wife tells me that according to Feng Shui the flood was good for us, because it makes room for new things. Yeah, we had to take a lot of wet stuff to the dump and there is room for new things like sump pumps, dehumidifiers, water monitors, back-up generators. And our lives are so much richer with heightened awareness of the power of water to change everything, the increased fear of rain and nightmares of mold growing in dark corners....

Drip Drip Drip = bad, Flood = good, she tells me. And she believes it.
She seems to have a mystical belief in cosmic harmony. If you arrange physical things according to a prescribed thousands-year-old tradition, you create avenues for good energy (Chi) to flow. This is supposed to bring good luck.

I think that the Chi is disturbed by the glut of wireless signals, (especially tweets) because the Universe thinks most electronic gadgets are a huge waste of time. I don't see how ancient systems of belief can be applicable in a quantum physics era. Unless the Chi is traveling through some kind of worm-hole.

A few weeks ago, I was debating a friend about the efficacy of psuedo-scientific medical "cures." He cited anecdotal claims of certain patients who seemed to have benefited from "alternative" (usually a synonym for "psuedo-scientific")approaches to medicine. I argued that there have always been claims of faith healers and charlatans which have been bolstered by the testimony of true believers. Much of the cure was in the mind.
He argued that my position is - in essence - that if the cure was in the mind of the believer, then it follows that the disease is also created by the mind.
I was reluctant to jump on the "it's all in your head" bandwagon because I realize disease is much too complicated to have such a convenient explanation. Clearly, physical injuries are externally caused, and clogged arteries are not a figment of imagination. But studies in recent years show a strong correlation to certain emotional states and diseases. Anger and Heart attacks, neuroses and bowel issues, etc.
A recent article in the Boston Globe Ideas section summarize recent research into the Placebo effect. This is the name scientists give to the phenomenon that occurs where people who think they are getting medicine experience Cures even when the "medicine" is fake.

One of the findings is that the efficacy of placebo is much stronger in diseases that are actually a collection of symptoms that do not appear to have a physical cause, such as irritable bowel and chronic headaches. It seems there is an increasing body of evidence that the real power of the universe is somewhere up there - among the little gray cells. I notice that none of the faith healers on TV are able to grow a new leg for an amputee. Now that REALLY would be a miracle! Paraphrasing George Carlin, "God is all powerful. He has infinite power to cure you, but He draws the line at replacing missing parts!"

One of my old managers would settle disputes with the dictum "Perception is Reality." At the time, I thought it a feckless phrase, typical of the pronouncements of Ivy league B-school graduates. Now, I see the quantum truth of it.