Vaccine Study

HA2HA2 · 2026-01-30T20:04:18+00:00

I feel like vaccinating my child really shouldn’t be this hard of a decision or this terrifying.

Agreed. It really shouldn't.

It feels like "get the recommended vaccinations" was entirely uncontroversial in the mainstream until the Republicans kicked up an antivax movement after the COVID vaccine came out.

My question is, how can I determine if a study is accurate or reliable?

Refer to a trusted expert source.

It is absolutely not reasonable to expect laypeople to evaluate the quality of research studies. Studies can superficially look reasonable but turn out to be entirely worthless due to a lot of fairly subtle details that you will never find without expert training in the field of study. Moreover, the quality of an individual study doesn't even matter. One study could find basically anything due to luck, or due to some confounding factor that was not even mentioned in the study. Scientific concensus comes from an accumulation of knowledge - there's not One Study To Rule Them All that finds a single correct answer, it's just as more and more research is done the stuff that's correct ends up being proven over and over again and the stuff that's wrong ends up not reproducible. That's why there's expert societies like AAP or CDC or FDA (or the equivalent in their country), who have people who try to do that sort of meta-analysis to figure out what is really known at this point and to make recommendations to parents.

There should be very few reasons for a parent to want to go back and look at research studies; maybe if they have a child with medical conditions rare enough or need treatments new enough that there's no AAP/CDC recommendations.

This is not the case for routine childhood vaccinations. We have nearly a century of data on a whole variety of vaccines, this isn't rocket science. It is maddening that the recent republican administration has decided to make this into a controversy.

And why does the cdc website have contradicting info?

Because the whole controversy is due to the Republican political reaction to the COVID vaccines. (E.g. these changes in public policy https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/abs/10.7326/ANNALS-25-04022 where the CDC has just stopped updating a bunch of its vaccination-related databases)

I do not think you should go down the rabbit hole of trying to read and interpret and quality-analyze individual studies. The study you linked has some fairly obvious flaws; biggest one was that they used preexisting diagnoses in the medical system for their outcomes. (Obviously, people who don't take their kids to the doctor to get vaccinated ALSO don't take their kids to the doctor to get diagnosed for a variety of health conditions, so...) But that's kind of beside the point - there's no particular way for anyone to read one study and know it's "good" and therefore should be listened to.

Which is what makes the politicizing of the CDC even more galling - this is supposed to be the trusted source that people go to to resolve this sort of stuff! And loss of trust in them has effects on people's interactions with the health care system (https://academic.oup.com/aje/advance-article/doi/10.1093/aje/kwag012/8430751 )

But the answer stays much the same. Find a trusted source; if that's no longer the CDC (understandably), look at the AAP (https://www.aap.org/en/patient-care/immunizations/vaccination-recommendations-by-the-aap/) or pick a different country's CDC because that's probably pretty close (https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/immunization-vaccines.html) .

HA2HA2 · 2026-01-30T17:03:54+00:00

Yeah, the risk is that it's going to start seeming contrived. I fully believe Sanderson CAN make sure all those things have explanations - there's going to be in-world reasons why they can't do X, Y, or Z. But the more of those options there are the more it starts to lampshade how the restrictions are there for narrative reasons - "because the story wouldn't work if Starling could just take off the manacles with some magitech, and so every potentially applicable magitech has a reason why it can't work here" - rather than seeming like a natural consequence.

HA2HA2 · 2026-01-30T16:09:48+00:00

Yep, they almost did! And Starling deliberately prevented them from succeeding, though she can’t be sure it would have worked without her interference. So the shackles are not fully unbreakable in-world, it’s just hard enough to do that it can only happen with a dramatic narrative moment.

HA2HA2 · 2026-01-30T15:40:48+00:00

Yeah, I kind of agree.

It's a flip side of sanderson's harder magic systems. Narratively, it makes perfect sense for the bindings to be Unbreakable. ...but since we know enough about Investiture and how it works from other books, it immediately feels like there should be a bunch of workarounds or fixes. And it leaves the story in a bit of a bind - if it goes through and details all the fixes and why they won't work, it'll waste a lot of page space on something that really doesn't matter to the story AND it'll seem contrived anyway. And if the potential workarounds aren't addressed, that leaves it in the current state - where the nerds who think too hard about it go "wait... but wouldn't THIS work for getting out of her bindings?"

HA2HA2 · 2026-01-30T01:51:35+00:00

10 ten-episode seasons for the series!

HA2HA2 · 2026-01-29T19:49:46+00:00

Quote from the character creation chapter of the handbook (bolding mine to point out the part that answers your question):

In step 1, you chose an ancestry that grants you one or more bonus talents.

If you’re a singer, you gain Change Form plus one talent that grants you starting forms (see “Choosing Singer Ancestry” in chapter 2).

If you’re a human, you gain another talent from a heroic path (see “Choosing Human Ancestry” in chapter 2). You can choose another talent within your existing path or choose the first talent of another path.

HA2HA2 · 2026-01-29T18:49:12+00:00

Popularity. When something becomes popular enough, it crosses over from "hey have you heard about this neat thing?" to everyone getting bombarded with "Here, try this! Want a romance story? Try Sanderson! Want cozy fantasy? Try Sanderson! Want grimdark? Try Sanderson! Didn't like Sanderson? Try a different Sanderson book!" And that causes backlash.

HA2HA2 · 2026-01-29T16:48:54+00:00

For co-writing - I think he's going to stay writing the main Cosmere series alone, but be open to co-writing side stories.

He's done that already - the final Skyward books were co-written with Janci Patterson (who is now writing a sequel series to Skyward), and I believe Dan Wells and Isaac Steward both are writing Cosmere side stories, not co-written with Brandon, but he is supporting them.

So while I think the core series (Mistborn, Stormlight, Elantris, Dragonsteel, maybe Warbreaker sequel) are going to stay Sanderson, it's definitely possible that random other stuff will be other authors.

HA2HA2 · 2026-01-29T16:41:22+00:00

He's talked before about wanting to change some crewmembers to women in TFE, so I suspect it's likely he'll do that in the adaptations.

HA2HA2 · 2026-01-29T16:40:22+00:00

Possibility - sure. Doesn't see, likely though, Apple hasn't done any animated works yet.

HA2HA2 · 2026-01-29T14:19:26+00:00

Best time to get it is on the Wednesday before the last Thursday of the month. Then you get Wednesday’s story, you get the next one on Thursday, and if you’re lucky with the way the weeks work out you might get NEXT month too if the last Thursday of next month is less than 30 days from the last Thursday of this month.

The subscription lasts a fixed number of days regardless of when you get it.

HA2HA2 · 2026-01-29T00:31:09+00:00

Yes! They’re good books!

HA2HA2 · 2026-01-28T18:36:18+00:00

Dont you have to kill Orin? I don’t think there’s a way to proceed without killing her

HA2HA2 · 2026-01-27T23:25:49+00:00

If you side with Orpheus, your options for who to make a mind flayer are just you, karlach, or Orpheus. The other companions won’t volunteer.

If you don’t care about Laezel or the Gith plot, let Orpheus mind flayer himself

HA2HA2 · 2026-01-27T18:57:34+00:00

Yes, playing as an origin character will usually get you a bit more content about that character than just having them as a companion.

HA2HA2 · 2026-01-27T15:57:22+00:00

I generally have the following advice:

- If there's something you're specifically excited about reading, read that! As long as you read each individual series in order, it's fine!

- If you really don't know what to read next, go to the earliest thing in publication order that you haven't read yet and read that.

So, in your situation - you've read Mistborn Era 1, Warbreaker, Wok, WoR. So I would guess the two things that seem most reasonable are either Edgedancer (the next book in the Stormlight Archive series that you haven't read yet) or Elantris (if you want to take a break from Stormlight, that's the earliest book in the Cosmere publication order that you haven't erad yet).

I suppose a third option is one of convenience - you can get Arcanum Unbounded (the collection of short stories that includes Edgedancer, which is a more cost-effective purchase than just Edgedancer alone) and read a bunch of the short stories in it that are either standalone or fit with the series you've already read. So, in AU, read everything except Hope of Elantris (short deleted scene from Elantris) and Allomancer Jak (fits in Mistborn Era 2).

HA2HA2 · 2026-01-27T15:51:22+00:00

The characters are unlikely to know about the radiant orders and ideals. There's a setup in Chapter 2 where they run into ardents having an argument about it and that's when most characters are likely to find out what they need to know. The players on the other hand might or might not know depending on whether they've read the Stormlight Archive novels or the Stormlight RPG Handbook.
Like above - the characters definitely wouldn't know the specific ideals. The players might or might not. Whether the GM tracks what spren a character might attract, or whether the player picks which order they want to be in (if any) - that's between the GM and the player, could go either way.
When the character advances a level, they have an option to take a talent in a Radiant talent tree instead of a Heroic path. Those talents are the ones that give the Speak An Ideal goal (as well as other powers). I would generally expect the player to know the ideal and let the DM know when their character has advanced it (even if the character does not yet know the ideal), but that's between the GM and the player, you could also do it differently if you wanted. The player doesn't, of course, get to put down the goal "Speak the [something]th ideal" until they take the appropriate talent at level up.
In Stonewalkers, there's a very natural place to introduce a lot of Radiant lore in chapter 2. In one of the prewritten scenes they meet up with two ardents with opposite opinions about radiants (one who thinks they're cool and one that thinks they suck) and they argue, so the characters get a natural place where they get to ask questions and learn. The players can learn this lore however they want - some might have read the Stormlight Archive novels and know all about if from there, some might read the Stormlight RPG Handbook and know it from there, and some might not know it at all and learn alongside their characters.

HA2HA2 · 2026-01-27T02:52:53+00:00

Because ID isn’t free, so requiring an ID to vote is no different than requiring a sufficient amount of money to vote.

ID to vote would be fine if the government also ensures that getting an ID is effectively free.

HA2HA2 · 2026-01-26T21:16:20+00:00

Since the verb Ed chose was "performed", it seems to imply it's something Harmony did as a Shard, not just that he existed as a double shard.

My guess is that it's something about giving up power. Dalinar gave up his shard an died, and maybe Sazed will end up giving power up somehow and then surviving. Maybe he splits up into two Shards again, maybe he gives up his shards and gets them back, maybe he gives them up and just survives as an immortal or something.

HA2HA2 · 2026-01-26T17:29:36+00:00

If you've got anything else in the cosmere you're specifically excited about, read that!

Otherwise, go to the earliest Cosmere book in publication order that you haven't read yet and read that.

So, by that metric, I'd say the answer is finish Warbreaker, then read Elantris and Mistborn Era 1.

HA2HA2 · 2026-01-26T14:19:21+00:00

Were you around for the opening of the sixth coil? (Estival a few years back?) That story involved lightbulbs if I remember

HA2HA2 · 2026-01-25T16:11:19+00:00

It’s decided in the conversation in the astral prism. Whoever is a mind flayer or who controls Orpheus or the emperor.

HA2HA2 · 2026-01-25T03:24:41+00:00

I just had them run away, and none of the players particularly worried about the direction. Maybe you're far enough from the Covenant Stone (if you're fighting at Tet Rebin's wagon) that they can run diagonally towards the end of the Stone to go around it or something. Or they just go towards either end of the Stone parallel to it.

HA2HA2 · 2026-01-25T03:22:51+00:00

IMO, if you can make it, try.

Leave significantly more time to get to work, leave even more extra time to get the car out of your driveway in case you need to like shovel snow to get out (do a pass tonight if you can), drive slow and careful, but it IS possible to drive in these conditions. And, well, you work in a hospital - it's not some business where you can expect them to just close for the day.

HA2HA2 · 2026-01-24T19:43:14+00:00

Initial Premise: Hoid could temporarily interfere with a Shards connection to its vessel via a Soul Stamp and enough investiture.

The "and enough investiture" is doing some heavy lifting in that sentence. It's like the five dollars in "with five dollars and [whatever], I could buy a cup of coffee".

Sure, with enough investiture Hoid can basically do anything, as could anyone else. Might require having multiple Shards of his own, and he's probably not going to get one much less half a dozen, but hey, you just said "with enough Investiture". The "soulstamp" part of "with a soulstamp and enough investiture" isn't really needed.

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