Editing 2806: Anti-Vaxxers

{{comic
| number    = 2806
| date      = July 24, 2023
| title     = Anti-Vaxxers
| image     = anti_vaxxers_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x269px
| noexpand  = true
| titletext = The vaccine stuff seems pretty simple. But if you take a closer look at the data, it's still simple, but bigger. And slightly blurry. Might need reading glasses.
}}

==Explanation==
This is the first comic referencing [[:Category:COVID-19|COVID-19]] in over half a year. Anti-vaxxers are people who are opposed to either vaccination in general, or specific vaccine schedules and mandates. The reasons given for this include global-scale conspiracy theories, various forms of pseudo-science, and concerns about vaccine novelty, efficacy and safety (despite the overwhelming consensus of the scientific community being that it's extremely safe and highly effective, and extensively tested). People in this group typically refuse to accept vaccination for themselves and their children, and some actively campaign against the use of vaccines. In this case, it refers implicitly to those who have not taken the COVID-19 vaccine. 

The advice to "meet people where they are" is often given when interacting with people you don't agree with. The notion is that you should first seek to understand a person's beliefs, motives and reasoning, and try to respect why they think what they think. [[Cueball]] (presumably as a proxy for [[Randall]]) expresses support for that advice, but finds it difficult to understand anti-vaxxers. Multiple XKCD strips have made clear that [[Randall]] is highly supportive of the COVID-19 vaccines, and frustrated with people who oppose its use. 

Cueball argues that dealing with the COVID pandemic was often confusing, leaving people uncertain about what to do. Prior to the availability of the vaccine, the methods used to control the spread of the disease (including masks, social distancing and lock-downs) were often proposed without clear data as to their effectiveness nor the best way to implement them; conflicting motives also played a role, such as the US government initially being reluctant to propose wearing masks due to concerns that it would lead to a resource shortage. This flip-flopping of information, Randall muses, should perhaps unsurprisingly lead to people becoming suspicious over the consensus rhetoric, never mind that of those who thought that the various mandates were already too tardy, brief, intermittent and/or permeable to properly delay and suppress the initial waves.

In light of all of this, Cueball sees the vaccine as near-miraculous. It's a highly simple intervention, requiring only a series of simple injections that are far less costly and disruptive than most other interventions. Data shows them to be extremely safe with few side effects, and they are more effective in the longer term than any other continuous intervention available. Cueball finds it incomprehensible that, in the middle of so much complexity and confusion, people would reject such a simple and effective solution.

Another interpretation is that Cueball ''is'' an anti-vaxxer, and he thinks that being one is much easier than trying to give almost everyone on earth the vaccine. The last sentence would then mean that he thinks scientists are trying to make it complicated ''when it isn't''.

The title text refers to the data concerning the vaccine. He argues that, when you look closely at the data, it continues to look exactly as compelling. For humor, he interprets the idiomatic statement "look closer", which typically means to examine additional details and context, literally. [[2400|Previous strips have made the point]] that the effectiveness of COVID vaccines is so dramatic that even without rigorous statistical analysis, their impact would be obvious. The comment that it is 'slightly blurry' also has a double meaning - it could refer to the inability to focus the eyes properly when staring too closely at it, or it could be referring to the fact that most of the analysis of vaccine effectiveness is statistical in nature, and so has a {{w|stochastic}}, 'blurry' distribution, which 'sceptics' often point to to argue that the evidence is not 'clear cut'.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball, White Hat and Megan walking]
:Cueball: I try to meet people where they are, but I have such a hard time with anti-vaxxers.

:[Zoom out; a tree to the right is visible]
:Cueball: The pandemic brought with it so much confusing stuff.
:Cueball: Ambiguous data, weird tradeoffs, disagreements, dilemmas, and uncertainty.

:[Zoom in on Cueball]
:Cueball: It just feels like a miracle that the best and most effective intervention to reduce suffering '''''also''''' turned out to be one of the easiest and simplest.
:Cueball: That never happens!

:[Cueball, White Hat and Megan sitting around the tree]
:Cueball: I hate that people are working so hard to make it complicated when it's one of the few things in this world that '''''isn't'''''.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:COVID-19]]
[[Category:COVID-19 vaccine]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]