The statement says “we recommend attendees to be up to date with WHO-approved vaccines.”
Given the indefiniteness of up-to-date, that’s a statement of deference to public health authorities in my book. I think that is appropriate, and would question CEA’s judgment if it felt conducting a deep enough dive on vaccine efficacy to make a more specific statement potentially contradicting public health authorities was a good use of resources. The statement doesnt say that people should get a certain number of boosters, or get Moderna, or whatever.
Finally, I don’t think a reasonable reader would take CEA’s statement here as individualized medical advice.
I strong downvoted this for the somewhat combative tone at the end.
I think it’s better in the less specific wording you changed it to.
On the other hand, I think the updated statement would be best interpreted as, a recommendation to get double-vaccinated AND boosted. Which I don’t think there is evidence for, personally.
But what do I know, I’m not a particularly well-educated EA. And I could certainly be wrong.
In other words: I do think the wording now is better; but you probably shouldn’t care too much what I think anyways :P
(Fwiw, I did also just mention in separate comment, I was a little too combative ((especially at the end)) in tone. I need to do a separate post on these “side thoughts” with much more nuance and evidence. And with the overarching theme being that I love EA / CEA, EA people, etc.)
I first thought it’s a slight improvement, as it’s a little less specific.
On the other hand, I believe being “up to date with WHO-approved vaccines” probably is best interpreted as being double-vaccinated AND boosted. Which I disagree with more than the original phrasing.
I don’t see even slight evidence that this is a good recommendation, certainly not for healthy young men… but even for other demographics as well. (keeping in mind natural immunity backdrop, and recent vs old strains backdrop… and then comparing slight risks both ways)
(Also, I agree with you, that my “side thoughts” at the end were a little combative, and need further exploration and evidence, and thus may have been better suited for a separate post. Good point.)
The statement says “we recommend attendees to be up to date with WHO-approved vaccines.”
Given the indefiniteness of up-to-date, that’s a statement of deference to public health authorities in my book. I think that is appropriate, and would question CEA’s judgment if it felt conducting a deep enough dive on vaccine efficacy to make a more specific statement potentially contradicting public health authorities was a good use of resources. The statement doesnt say that people should get a certain number of boosters, or get Moderna, or whatever.
Finally, I don’t think a reasonable reader would take CEA’s statement here as individualized medical advice.
I strong downvoted this for the somewhat combative tone at the end.
Bro they just changed that statement now, seemingly from me posting this? Idk.
Look:
https://web.archive.org/web/20221222171814/https://www.effectivealtruism.org/ea-global/events/ea-global-london-2023
″we recommend attendees to be double-vaccinated with WHO-approved vaccines.”
Hi — I can confirm we did update the website now as a result of you posting this, so thanks for flagging this!
The previous recommendation for attendees to be double vaccinated was just written a while ago, and we hadn’t updated it until now.
That’s cool. Thanks for letting me know Eli.
I think it’s better in the less specific wording you changed it to.
On the other hand, I think the updated statement would be best interpreted as, a recommendation to get double-vaccinated AND boosted. Which I don’t think there is evidence for, personally.
But what do I know, I’m not a particularly well-educated EA. And I could certainly be wrong.
In other words: I do think the wording now is better; but you probably shouldn’t care too much what I think anyways :P
(Fwiw, I did also just mention in separate comment, I was a little too combative ((especially at the end)) in tone. I need to do a separate post on these “side thoughts” with much more nuance and evidence. And with the overarching theme being that I love EA / CEA, EA people, etc.)
Does the change affect your criticism of the statement?
I first thought it’s a slight improvement, as it’s a little less specific.
On the other hand, I believe being “up to date with WHO-approved vaccines” probably is best interpreted as being double-vaccinated AND boosted. Which I disagree with more than the original phrasing.
I don’t see even slight evidence that this is a good recommendation, certainly not for healthy young men… but even for other demographics as well. (keeping in mind natural immunity backdrop, and recent vs old strains backdrop… and then comparing slight risks both ways)
(Also, I agree with you, that my “side thoughts” at the end were a little combative, and need further exploration and evidence, and thus may have been better suited for a separate post. Good point.)