Minnesota’s COVID-19 Deaths Visualized
What if Minnesota’s COVID-19 deaths struck the state’s smallest towns and communities first? How many Minnesota communities which would no longer exist due to COVID-19? […]
Wisconsin’s COVID-19 Deaths Visualized
What if Wisconsin’s COVID-19 deaths struck the state’s smallest towns and communities first? How many Wisconsin communities which would no longer exist due to COVID-19? […]
Still Sick Despite Flu Vaccine?
Every flu season I hear someone say, “I received my flu shot, but I’m still sick!” Usually it is simple crankiness caused by not feeling well, but often others will comment they skip the cheap or free flu vaccine every year because they do not want to waste time on an ineffective vaccine. Sound like someone you know? Maybe even you?
Hold up there overreact-er. Vaccination is what made influenza (the scientific name for the flu) a seasonal annoyance. Before you take the path of least disease resistance, read about why you should vaccinate, how the flu vaccine is made, and what you should do with your new knowledge. The flu shot is not a panacea, but your flu symptoms are not likely caused by a bad flu shot. […]
Milwaukee’s Lead Legacy: A New Wisconsinite’s Observations of His Adopted State
When you move to a new place there are things you think about because you know they will change (mailing address, insurance coverage and cost, and, if you are me, local elected officials). There are other things you don’t think about because they are part of a cultural background and as a stranger in a strange land you don’t know they change (Every one eats at a Friday fish fry, Neighborhoods set days/times for Trick-or-Treating, and, if you are not me, local elected officials). One thing I never considered when moving to Milwaukee was that my tap water might not be safe to drink.
It’s not. My tap water has lead in it.
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Searching Through Smoke: A New Wisconsinite’s Observations of His Adopted State
Moving to a new state means experiencing a new local culture. I expected, as a new Wisconsinite, I would have fewer culture shocks than being a new resident of, say, Alabama or Hawaii as I moved from another, similar, Midwestern state. Similar is not the same, however, and, despite Wisconsin’s statewide smoking ban, I ended up searching through smoke for a bar to watch sports. Smoking is still a problem in Wisconsin.
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In Defense of Vaccination #TBT
Vaccines
Whenever anyone says they are anti-vaccination the first image I think of is this one:
The photo is reductionist, of course, but it’s also powerful. Powerful because it encapsulates the current anti-vaccine debate: Vaccines cure and prevent deadly and debilitating diseases and yet are viewed as an olde tymey relic. For pro-vaccine advocates vaccination’s benefits are established history and to argue otherwise is as incomprehensible as arguing against the Holocaust. For anti-vaccine advocates there’s a mountain of “evidence” and the wisdom of mothers and fathers with first-hand “experience” and “logical” caution.
I use quotation marks, because I am pro-vaccination; this post is in defense of vaccination: a scientific, humanitarian, and moral position. […]