The establishment campaign to demonize those who choose not to be vaccinated against covid has reached ludicrous proportions, as exemplified by this study, published in the American Journal of Medicine. It claims that people who are not vaccinated are more likely to be injured in traffic accidents. I’m not kidding:
Coronavirus disease (COVID) vaccine hesitancy is a reflection of psychology that might also contribute to traffic safety. We tested whether COVID vaccination was associated with the risks of a traffic crash.
You can read the whole thing for the details. The people who did the study attribute the allegedly higher accident rate among the unvaccinated to character defects:
[O]ur data do not explore potential causes of vaccine hesitancy or risky driving. One possibility relates to a distrust of government or belief in freedom that contributes to both vaccination preferences and increased traffic risks.
Believing in freedom is hazardous to your health!
A different explanation might be misconceptions of everyday risks, faith in natural protection, antipathy toward regulation, chronic poverty, exposure to misinformation…
Misinformation about car accidents? That makes no sense.
…insufficient resources, or other personal beliefs. Alternative factors could include political identity, negative past experiences, limited health literacy, or social networks that lead to misgivings around public health guidelines.
The authors suggest that their study justifies financial discrimination against the unvaccinated:
The observed risks are sufficiently large that paramedics, emergency staff, and other first responders should be aware that unvaccinated patients are overrepresented in the aftermath of a traffic crash. The observed risks might also justify changes to driver insurance policies in the future. Together, the findings suggest that unvaccinated adults need to be careful indoors with other people and outside with surrounding traffic.
If you understand that last sentence, let me know.
This study starts with 11,270,763 vaccinated and unvaccinated residents of Ontario, 84% vaccinated and 16% unvaccinated. It then analyzes 6,682 traffic crashes that required emergency medical care. My crude arithmetic indicates that out of Ontario’s population, 0.00059 were involved in a crash. Supposedly at that ridiculous level, unvaccinated people were more likely to be in a crash than the vaxxed.
The authors of the study find that the unvaccinated were more likely to be involved in crashes when they were passengers, not drivers. And when they were pedestrians! So it is hard to attribute those injuries to their purported character defects.
Someone with more patience and statistical acumen than I possess could no doubt deconstruct this study in entertaining fashion. I think it is notable simply as an example of the absurd lengths to which lockstep establishmentarians will go, in order to suppress any intelligent discussion of the efficacy of covid vaccination.
Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.