DOING ‘MY RESEARCH’ FOR EXTRA CREDIT

Hearing about people doing ‘my research’ gives me hope.

Before making a big decision it’s best to know all you can about the possible outcomes, the likely effects, and how you would benefit.

The problems start when the notion of doing anything extra, from reading, asking questions, to testing new knowledge, comes from people who clearly have no intention of changing.

Their pledge of doing ‘my research’ is an excuse to dodge an important issue. But they talk to the ‘best people.’

As kids the notion of doing ‘my research’ was easy, just watch what older kids did.

We used to shoot and snap each other with rubber bands. It was painfully good fun among equals and a problem for bullies who didn’t know when enough was enough.

That changed when a big kid in the neighborhood showed us how to make pistols out of wood that shot rubber bands made out of inner tubes. The difference was aim and velocity. And they hurt.

All the playtime innovation stopped when the big kid accidentally clipped another kid with a baseball bat. He was hitting a ball down the curb of the sidewalk. One kid wanted a better look and quietly watched from behind.

He caught a backswing in the forehead. After that we all calmed down.

Did My Research On Covid Vaccine

First there was a virus burning through vulnerable populations in elderly nursing homes.

Then more people started dying to the point of shutting things down while the loon in the White House decided to break out his expertise in bullshit.

At the same time the professional pubic health people and labs started working on a vaccine. Once it won approval the covid vaccine rolled out in a most public fashion at the Portland Convention Center, the Portland Airport, and finally in local drug stores.

I talked to the usual suspects: doctors, pharmacists, nurses, and came away convinced that a vaccine would be my best way forward. Even more, I’m convinced the covid vaccine is the best way forward to tame this thing down.

What I didn’t do?

I didn’t give any credence to what I saw on Facebook or twitter, the only two social networks I visit. The posts and comments that featured bad advice? It was bad advice. I don’t have a stake in those who take bad advice, but spreading it.

We don’t know any audience well enough to tell if they will act on the worst advice they hear and push it.

What’s in the vaccine? I don’t know any more than I know if it’s really chicken in chicken sausage, or turkey in turkey bacon. The labels call it chicken or turkey, and it’s approved by federal inspections.

The vaccines have been reviewed and approved by the FDA. Who thinks there aren’t enough whistler blowers along the way to highlight what could be wrong?

Going down the wrong path starts by following the wrong leader. The pastor in church does a scream job from the pulpit on masks and vaccines? Find a new church.

A radio host does a scream job against masks and vaccines? Turn the dial.

The President of the United States promotes misinformation and quackery in response to masks and vaccines after getting the vaccine. Fox News casts doubt even with a vaccine policy.

It’s not easy.

Research Basics

Start at the beginning. Research origins start with primary sources. It’s work.

Instead of reading comments on faulty Facebook posts, find reliable sources.

Look at the institutions and education behind the vaccines. Compare it to the institutions and education behind the anti-vaccine people. Is there a difference?

Education is easier than looking for the source of dark money. If some wild eyed howler wants your attention, why the drama? Talk like a normal person, not some performance artist channeling doom and death.

Ignore that part and the doom and death might get closer than you’re comfortable with.

Unfortunately a man of low motives found himself declared the end-all be-all for the future of America, a man who sees normal people the same as he sees dog-do on his shoe. In response, many common people embraced him like no other, taking his words as gospel.

When was the last time a normal person was called under educated and was fine with it?

We expect better, not him.

Go ahead and shake off the past doubts seeded by a bad farmer. Your future is safer by doing research, just make sure it’s more than Facebook.

Get a vaccine, wear a mask, set a better example. Consult the best people you know, the top people, not the sort of people at the end of Indiana Jones’ Raiders Of The Lost Arc in the top image.