L A Taylor Blog On being part of the solution

If there's one thing the pandemic has taught me, it's that we have some work to do in elementary and high school science classes. This is the only science most people ever learn, and we can apparently leave school with some important gaps in our knowledge.I've been surprised to learn that lots of people not only don't understand basic science, they don't even know what science is. Hence the outrage when scientists change their recommendations when new evidence emerges. That's not a cue for "the scientists lied to us"! That's the scientists doing what scientists do - working with the evidence at hand, and responding to new evidence as it becomes available.But if I had to pick one science topic to start this improvement process, it would be "how vaccines work". I'd like everyone to know that vaccines work at a population level, not at an individual level.Vaccines are not like umbrellas, protecting the holder and leaving everyone else out in the rain.A vaccine program is like an infantry square, where the virus is the charging cavalry. Or a muskox defensive ring, where the virus is a pack of wolves.Like these two examples, a vaccine program relies on enough people doing their part. Individual infantrymen or muskox participate in the defense of all. If a few muskox or a few soldiers decide to shirk their responsibilities, the whole formation is waay less effective.Muskox calves or wounded soldiers, who are truly unable to help with the defense, are protected by the ring around them.The many who are able can protect the few who are not. But none of these things - infantry squares, muskox circles, or vaccine programs - can work the other way around.Join the square. Join the circle. Be part of the solution.