The risks of immunisation & implications for social marketers

 

Social marketers confront some extra ethical challenges that do not confront commercial marketers.

When you are given a medication by a doctor, you get to read all about the possible side-effects and decide on whether the benefits offset the risks.

When the medication is a vaccination, the same freedom of choice for the individual is more restricted.  An individual decision to not vaccinate may attract criticism, ridicule and even rage.

Yet, vaccinations can be harmful to your health.  Admittedly rare, but when it happens, someone (maybe you, maybe your child) 'takes one for the team.'

This is a tough space.  Public health and social marketers are therefore obliged to tackle the difficult space defined by what is 'good for all' on one side and an individual's right to choose on the other.

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See this article at The Conversation covering this issue.
http://theconversation.edu.au/preaching-to-the-unconverted-immunisation-risks-and-public-health-11007

Statistical significance is just like a horse race

The logic of statisticians can seem very complicated and impenetrable to normal folk.

But it really is just a formalised version of our own lay style of how we explain unusual events.

When something unusual happens, there are two possible interpretations.  One is to view the unusual event as a freak occurrence, a chance-result, a coincidence.  The other is to view the event as a sign that our understanding of what is going on is fundamentally wrong.

So, is the unusual event simply surprising or does it stretch credulity?  Did we see a rare occurrence or is there some other explanation?

It's a bit like interpreting the result of a horse race won by a horse with long odds.  Is the win a possibility even if improbable, or is it so improbable as to be considered an 'impossibility' requiring a brand new explanation.

Read more on this idea in this article posted on The Drum / ABC : The Melbourne Cup and Statistical Significance