Doing it Out of Respect for Old People

A month ago it was my wife who announced she'll take the vaccine. Now it was my 25 year old son in Norway. My reaction this time was similar to that of a month ago. I didn't object. Instead, I let him elaborate without interruption.

Apparently, it's disrespectful to my parents to not take the vaccine, because they will die if they get it, and they would have been dead for sure if they had gotten it before they got vaccinated.

"Really?" I asked. "The mortality rate among patients their age is 3%."

My son went quiet for a while. Then he came back, apparently surprised to have found my statement verified by a quick internet search. But he kept his conclusion unchanged. He's getting vaccinated in August out of respect for old people.

I didn't bother to object. My wife has still not taken the vaccine, and I suspect my son will delay the decision too once he gets time to think it over.

The interesting aspect of this is that my son didn't bother to check for any facts before I pointed out the 3% number. In his deluded world view, the plague is much more dangerous than it actually is. The lack of evidence to support this narrative never bothered him. He never found it strange that he himself doesn't know of any young people dead from the plague, nor does he know anyone who knows of such people.

August is still five weeks off. That's plenty of time for him to think things through, and maybe do a bit of research as to what this vaccine is all about. However, I'm not going to push any information on him. That's more likely to work contrary to my wishes than staying silent. I never stopped him from doing stupid things in the past. I'm not going to change my style now.

My son knows where I stand. He also knows that I have a tendency to be right about things, and he hates it when he ends up in a situation where I can tell him that he should have followed my advice. That should be sufficient pressure on him to do some due diligence, and do the right thing.

Smallpox vaccine

By Photo Credit: James Gathany Content Providers(s): CDC - This media comes from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Public Health Image Library (PHIL), with identification number #2674. Note: Not all PHIL images are public domain; be sure to check copyright status and credit authors and content providers. Deutsch | English | македонски | slovenščina | +/−, Public Domain, Link