Well it must be more something you don't like, or you'd just do it, right? — Srap Tasmaner
I had a quick look for more studies, and found only a small study at Qatar University that did not have sufficient granularity to reproduce the results. — Banno
The authors now seems to think a mass conspiracy of fraudulent responses was to blame, possible with the numbers. — Isaac
As near as I can tell, the most you can claim so far is that you're doing your part to keep too many people in the UK (yes?) from getting vaccinated. If the UK has already reached herd immunity, then good for you. If not, then you're advancing the wrong goal, aren't you? — Srap Tasmaner
RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — Some skeptics who question the vaccine are pointing to a survey that found a high rate of hesitancy among people who have Ph.D. degrees.
CBS17.com tracked down one of the authors of the study that’s based on those survey results, and while she says the numbers are accurate, they might not mean what the questioners think it does.
THE CLAIM: Nearly a quarter of people with Ph.D. degrees responding to a survey expressed hesitancy about the vaccines, with the implication that if some of the most educated people have questions about them, then perhaps more people should, too.
THE FACTS: Researchers Robin Mejia at Carnegie-Mellon University and Wendy C. King of the University of Pittsburgh based their study of vaccine hesitancy rates off of results from a Facebook Data for Good survey, reviewing about 1 million responses each month between January and May and analyzing it by race, education, region and support of former President Donald Trump.
READ THE PREPRINT OF THE STUDY HERE
They found 23.9 percent of the people who said they hold Ph.D. degrees expressed hesitancy, the highest rate among the various levels of education.
But some of their work appears to be misrepresented online, missing the overall point that hesitancy dropped.
“There are people that can kind of take a data point and twist it around to mean something that it doesn’t mean, and that’s unfortunate,” King said.
A sensitivity analysis found some people answered in the extreme ends of some demographic categories to throw off some of the numbers. King said it appeared to be a “concerted effort” that “did make the hesitancy prevalence in the Ph.D. group look higher than it really is.”
For example, they observed higher hesitancy rates than expected in the oldest age group — 75 and over — as well as the top end in terms of education level.
“We found that people basically used it to write in political … statements,” King said. “So they weren’t genuine responses. They didn’t really complete the survey in good faith.”
There were some other issues.
The study hasn’t been peer-reviewed yet.
People taking the survey were on the honor system, with no way to make sure people who claimed to have Ph.D. degrees actually have them.
And the Ph.D. group does not include medical doctors or nurses.
“So it’s not representative of the medical profession,” King said.
It's not a trivial issue. There's still hundreds of very serious medical conditions which need to be monitored and the mismanagement of admission data confuses the picture to no benefit. — Isaac
There's not enough x for everyone who needs it. Taking a x when others need it more is wrong. — Isaac
I'm a little confused now and will have a rethink. — Srap Tasmaner
A sensitivity analysis found some people answered in the extreme ends of some demographic categories to throw off some of the numbers. King said it appeared to be a “concerted effort” that “did make the hesitancy prevalence in the Ph.D. group look higher than it really is.”
some of their work appears to be misrepresented online, missing the overall point that hesitancy dropped.
There was not a decrease in hesitancy among those with a professional degree or PhD.
the Ph.D. group does not include medical doctors or nurses.
Am I missing something? — Isaac
Explaining this by dishonesty would require, by my calculations, around 1600 dishonest respondents, with the intent to bias the results against the expectation. That sounds a lot to start with, to have all had the same idea, but it's not impossible in the large sample size. But, again, without biasing the interpretation, we'd have to initially assume there were an equal number of people wishing to bias the results in favour of the expectation, — Isaac
King is not rejecting the data, b — Banno
Hmmm. This is not what I understood you to be arguing. — Srap Tasmaner
Presumably - and I am speculating - the survey included doctors and nurses in the professional qualification category? — Banno
Note also that the steady level of the PhD result was commented on; much the same for the duration fo the study, unlike the other levels — Banno
I don't see that anything can be concluded safely. — Banno
So you misrepresent me in retaliation. Ridiculous as usual. — frank
The authors now seems to think a mass conspiracy of fraudulent responses was to blame, possible with the numbers. — Isaac
That's a lot of verification. There'd have to have been a concomitant reduction in sample size, which may have been a trade-off they weren't willing to make in a scoping experiment. — Isaac
There is reasonable doubt that vaccine hesitancy can be ameliorated by education alone. — Isaac
Oooo, that'd be pushing it. We might agree that there is at least something here that is worth a second look. The data for those with masters qualifications or less represents the bulk of the population, after all; and the relation between education and hesitancy is undeniable in that group. — Banno
Only on my second cup of tea this morning — Isaac
Tea? There's your problem, right there... — Banno
I gather from the ambience hereabouts that I've walked back into a bit of a shitstorm. I'm not going to go back over the two hundred posts to see who said what, but I take it that there has been a bit of a pile-on with you at the bottom.
My comment here was not intended to be part of that. It was directed to Prishon's apparent lack of erudition, which it now seems was a result of drugs and lack of sleep rather than a lack of knowledge. My apologies for causing offence. — Banno
Perhaps I should change to tea. — Banno
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