[extropy-chat] Are vaccinations useless?

[Russell Wallace]

On 3/20/06, Jeff Medina <analyticphilosophy at gmail.com> wrote:

(a number of very good points, snipped)

* Side note: Given that Robin is consistently sharp and rational in
> areas in which I am fit to make a judgment, and considered so by so
> many other seemingly intelligent folks, in areas in which I am not
> expert and he is, such as health economics, I have no rational choice
> but to give his claims about health economics more weight than my own.
> Frankly, I'm amazed so many people with no claim to even moderate
> competence in any health economics, public health, or related areas,
> have been so dismissive of Robin here.
>

As one such, I will throw up another example: do you think Fred Hoyle knows
more than you or me about astronomy? You surely should, he was at one time a
renowned expert on the subject. Do you think interstellar dust clouds are
made of bacteria and flu epidemics are caused by passing comets? No? You're
being a bit dismissive of an expert then, aren't you? ;)

Seriously, even experts can say wildly stupid things now and then, even in
their own areas. I sure as hell have, for example. At the end of the day,
reality trumps authority.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20060320/b5c771f9/attachment.html>