Editing 2515: Vaccine Research

{{comic
| number    = 2515
| date      = September 13, 2021
| title     = Vaccine Research
| image     = vaccine_research.png
| titletext = Honestly feel a little sheepish about the amount of time and effort I spent confirming "yes, the vaccine helps protect people from getting sick and dying" but I guess everyone needs a hobby.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is another entry in a [[:Category:COVID-19|series of comics]] related to the {{w|COVID-19 pandemic}}, specifically regarding the [[:Category:COVID-19 vaccine|COVID-19 vaccine]].

The comic starts with [[White Hat]] using a common conversational tactic used by vaccine skeptics, and conspiracy theorists, in order to try to persuade others, typically claiming that they did their own research. The phrase "{{rw|Do_your_own_research|done my own research}}" is often taken to mean that the speaker is skeptical of the topic, and has done only cursory fact-checking, typically consulting only nonscientific sources that confirm and validate their prior beliefs. However, subverting expectations, it seems that White Hat genuinely had researched the subject deeply, consulting a large number of primary sources, and coming to a conclusion matching the overwhelming scientific consensus that vaccination against COVID-19 is safe and effective. The conclusion he expresses is humorously simple, but entirely in keeping with every expert analysis: "These vaccines are pretty good... Seems like it would be great if lots of people got them."  

In the last panel, White Hat asks if there are any efforts to distribute the vaccine, to which [[Cueball]] responds with understated irony. Anyone genuinely informed about the vaccines would have to be aware of the huge scale of vaccine rollout efforts, or of the resistance to them. It strains credulity that someone could read "hundreds of studies" on the topic and not be aware of how many people had been vaccinated. Cueball, however, doesn't mock White Hat's incongruous ignorance, but simply responds that there's been "some effort", which satisfies White Hat.

At the time this strip was posted, only about 42.3% of the world population had been vaccinated against COVID-19. In low income countries, however, distribution has been negligible, and the rate is [https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations below 1.9%].

In the title text, [[Randall]] comments that he feels a little sheepish that he has spent way too much time and effort confirming the statement "yes, the vaccine helps protect people from getting sick and dying". This has been known for a long time despite the {{w|Vaccine hesitancy|anti-vaxxers'}} efforts. But, as he states, this could be seen as a [[:Category:My Hobby|hobby]]. Anti-vaxxers often refer to people who get vaccinated as "sheep".

This comic may be a sort of spiritual successor to [[2281: Coronavirus Research]].

==Transcript==
:[White Hat is talking to Cueball.]
:White Hat: I've been hearing about vaccines. 
:White Hat: But I decided to do my ''own'' research.

:[In a frame-less panel White Hat continues to talk to Cueball.]
:White Hat: So I spent months on the Internet reading hundreds of studies.

:[Close up of White Hat as he speaks to Cueball, who replies from off-panel.]
:White Hat: And wow, I gotta say,
:White Hat: these vaccines are pretty good.
:Cueball (off-panel): Oh, really.

:[Zoomed back out, to White Hat and Cueball talking.]
:White Hat: Yeah, seems like it'd be great if lots of people got them. 
:White Hat: Is anyone working on that?
:Cueball: There's been some effort.
:White Hat: Okay, cool.

==Trivia==
*This comic is listed as released on 2021-09-13 in the [https://xkcd.com/archive/ archive on xkcd] - thus a normal Monday release. 
**However it was not released until well past midnight in mainland US, and even an hour after midnight in Hawaii. 
**So in principle this comic was first released on a Tuesday in all parts of the US. 
**But since Randall himself list this as released on a Monday, his date will be used here.
***It was however probably still Monday on {{w|Baker Island}} a US atoll, lying almost on the {{w|International Date Line}}.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:COVID-19]]
[[Category:COVID-19 vaccine]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Scientific research]]
[[Category:Conspiracy theory]]