If you want people to take the vaccine tell them to take the vaccine because the vaccine is safe and effective for everyone

There are a lot of reasons why uptake of the safe and effective bivalent booster has been shockingly low. But public health authorities continuing to engage in silly, counterproductive galaxy-brained messaging really isn’t helping:

you don’t have to do a complicated risk calculation or any of this other crap. the science says this for all categories of people without exception: “updated booster good”— ryan cooper (@ryanlcooper) October 19, 2022

lot of reasons why we’re at ~4% updated booster uptake, but public health people pulling this stuff for over a year now is a big one https://t.co/kT3AeJBA9s— ryan cooper (@ryanlcooper) October 19, 2022

The obvious effect of these completely unnecessary qualifications and “it’s time for some game theory!” onanism is to send a message that 1)undersells the very substantial benefits of the booster, 2)exaggerates the very minor risks, and 3)nobody should feel any urgency about getting boosted even with the winter coming. It makes no sense in theory, it’s been disastrous in practice, and I really wish they would cut it out.

…via Cheryl, a good forward-looking roadmap here.