

Very Low Vaccination Rates at Silicon Valley Daycares - chriskanan
http://www.wired.com/2015/02/tech-companies-and-vaccines/

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dragonwriter
> Of 12 day care facilities affiliated with tech companies, six—that’s
> half—have below-average vaccination rates, according to the state’s data.

Um, "half of the ones we looked at are below average" is exactly what you'd
expect with a normal (or any symmetric, really) distribution.

They also assert there is a 92 percent immunization threshold for herd
immunity _for measles_ , and note that half are below that level -- which is a
legitimate grounds for some concern -- but then go on and compare immunization
levels for _other_ diseases to that 92 percent threshold, without any
discussion of why.

And deep in the article we find the response from Google that explains why the
current-year numbers are unreliable -- they reflect the share of total
enrollees that have provided documentation of meeting vaccination
requirements, so the fact that documentation from parents is incomplete for
the current year results in understatement of the current rates.

A better headline than Wired's "The Sickeningly Low Vaccination Rates at
Silicon Valley Day Cares" might be "The Sickeningly Shoddy Journalism on
Vaccination Rates at Silicon Valley Day Cares at Wired".

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prawn
_Um, "half of the ones we looked at are below average" is exactly what you'd
expect with a normal (or any symmetric, really) distribution._

I might be missing something, but aren't they comparing half of the tech day-
care centres with the average data of centres across the state (broader than
tech)? e.g., you might expect that all of the tech centres (smartish parents
in forward-thinking industries) were above average?

~~~
dragonwriter
> you might expect that all of the tech centres (smartish parents in forward-
> thinking industries) were above average

That might be a hypothesis worth exploring, but I think many people in tech
overestimate both how well-informed and forward thinking they are and, even
moreso, how well-informed and forward thinking the industry in general is
outside of their own personal (or, in the latter case, the industry's
defining) area of focus.

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chriskanan
I wonder why the measles vaccination rate for Oracle is so high (~99%). Is the
culture of the parents at Oracle _that_ different from Pixar (~68%)? I wonder
if there was a localized anti-vaccine movement at Pixar. Pixar has a
relatively small number of employees (1,200) compared to Oracle (122,000), so
their daycare is probably a lot smaller and the parents with kids attending
the Pixar daycare are much more likely to know each other. So, a few parents
spreading anti-vaccination philosophy could have a larger influence over the
decision to vaccinate.

~~~
wcfields
Having no knowledge of either company beyond my own impressions I'd recon that
Oracle is more "old-guard" employees in a much more collared shirt/blouse &
khaki environment; while Pixar might lend to sneakers and t-shirts.

Plus, again, having no knowledge, Oracle might have a section of people with
Top Secret clearance, further lending to more faith into the 'establishment'.

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OneOneOneOne
I wonder if the reported numbers are inaccurate. Some families may withhold
immunization records for privacy where possible. Oracle may have a stricter
policy regarding immunization.

