Grams desk clock: Please say “But she helped me!”

to know, What really worksA clear distinction must be made between subjective experience and objective judgment. What doesn’t help is having sentences like: “Well, orthopedic treatment should be effective because I know this super good orthopedic doctor who’s definitely not drunk, and then my back was really better…!”

Why is this so important to me? Of course I’m happy for whoever is better – no matter what. But we see, for example, with vaccines against Covid-19, that individual assessment can be a huge problem. You can hardly judge the “efficacy” for yourself: if the vaccination was successful, you will not notice the “effectiveness”, you simply do not get sick. Or it’s not that hard, but it can’t be compared to how “difficult” it would be without the “effectiveness”. Efficacy cannot be determined individually, but only with large comparison groups, one of which receives the vaccine and the other a placebo. Then the difference in the number of infections and severity of disease in the two groups must be objectively evaluated.

This is the same when evaluating side effects: it is difficult to draw conclusions about the whole from individual experience. If you have had bad (great) luck because of experiencing rare side effects, you have to go through myocarditis, for example, and the vaccination is cursed personally and rightly. Many, many others do not experience any side effects and benefit from a preventive vaccination. It is therefore not useful to generalize an individual fear of side effects rather than to consider the available data. It is for these exact purposes that the whole hype has been submitted with approval and clinical studies – because it is known how deceptive autonomy can be.

Opposition to Freedom of Facts

Of course, not everyone can be familiar with the current evidence base for a variety of procedures. Then all that remains is the humility to withhold a personal assessment of effectiveness. And if you are now concerned that this might harm freedom of speech, it should be said: The right to express your opinion will not be denied to anyone if you are asked first to see how that opinion fits into the general situation before you take it. pass. In case of doubt, according to this analysis, one is more correct with his own opinion – this should help us all. With every right to freedom of expression, there is no freedom of facts. Efficacy and security can also be checked. We must judge by it.