When we are convinced that we are right, it is tempting to crank up our determination, making us stray into the land of fallacies. But we can avoid this!
You are absolutely right: death should not be the only focus. This is why I also looked at the incidence of tetanus in my essay, observing that the total number of cases in the US per annum is around 25, i.e. exceedingly rare.
I am not sure I agree with your inference that the 1/3 people who report not having had a booster in the last 10 years have "limited access to healthcare". I have no reason to believe that there are a significant number of deaths caused by tetanus that are not recorded properly.
As for Caplan's tweet being capable of being used by bad actors... that is indeed a possibility. But I do not think that suppressing the a legitimate (and correct) analysis is a sensible approach. If anything, I think that the poorly-considered criticism (also by public intellectuals - one responder was UBI advocate Scott Santens) can be much more damaging by undermining the case for vaccination when appropriate.
Glad you liked the article!
You are absolutely right: death should not be the only focus. This is why I also looked at the incidence of tetanus in my essay, observing that the total number of cases in the US per annum is around 25, i.e. exceedingly rare.
I am not sure I agree with your inference that the 1/3 people who report not having had a booster in the last 10 years have "limited access to healthcare". I have no reason to believe that there are a significant number of deaths caused by tetanus that are not recorded properly.
As for Caplan's tweet being capable of being used by bad actors... that is indeed a possibility. But I do not think that suppressing the a legitimate (and correct) analysis is a sensible approach. If anything, I think that the poorly-considered criticism (also by public intellectuals - one responder was UBI advocate Scott Santens) can be much more damaging by undermining the case for vaccination when appropriate.