Cannabis is Safer than COVID

“If you’re not vaccinated at this point, you’ve decided the risk of getting COVID exceeds the benefit of getting the shots.”

John Carlson (morning host of KVI-AM (570) radio and a co-founder of Washington Policy Center)
published May 12 ’21 on Seattle Times’ Opinion page

It is a warm and sunny day in Woodinville as I began to write this and that, in itself, sets this brief piece up to be an oddity. That it will be brief is the other oddity. I was scanning some county-level vaccination data the other day and noticed something that led to the following scatterplot. A county in which I was once thinking of growing regulated cannabis — and one in which the population voted overwhelmingly in favor of the legalization of cannabis — also has one of the highest vaccination rates in the state.

I wasn’t sure whether or not I’d write this post until I saw the statement above quoted yesterday in the Seattle Times. I still can’t make sense of it. I suspect Mr. Carlson was misquoted. Then again, he wrote the opinion piece in question.

The possibility that a radio host actually meant to write what is quoted above worries me, as a radio host likely has an audience that they influence. Given that, I thought I’d talk a bit about vaccinations and infectious disease and ignorance and possibly even logical sentence structure.

Vaccination generally reduces the chance of infection and often also reduces the intensity of infection (and “disease”) for those who get infected. Both are good things if one is trying to shut down an epidemic (or pandemic). There are risks with vaccination. There are risks with getting infected. There are risks with people staying compliant with ever-changing Government suggestions and mandates and advice and guidance if such changes in the basic dynamics of civil life are allowed to continue on for extended periods of time.

I worked in the vaccine industry for a few years (and pharma for many more). Vaccines work. Infectious diseases can kill and maim and cause other harms. Such diseases do not do as much harm today largely because of vaccines and many rather noble efforts to make their benefits more widely available — often without cost. Vaccines are safer than disease. Vaccines are certainly safer than COVID (at least within 1 year of having received them).

Similarly, basic human rights (congregation?) are also important. The way this pandemic is being managed over time is doing some damage there. I just hope we all start working together better to end this pandemic soon. I hope we start acting like the folks living in the upper right sections of the chart below.

Given how the legalization of cannabis and the widespread vaccination of the population in the face of a life-threatening pandemic are both good things, I wondered if what I noticed about Jefferson County was just a fluke or if, perhaps, a dim light was shining on one of the underlying truths that control the universe (and that many people associate with one or more Deities).

Is there something out there that connects having an appreciation for the benefits and harm-reduction potential of cannabis with being the type of citizen that will work with the herd to combat a serious public health threat? Is there something that reinforces the obvious truth that Cannabis is Safer than COVID? (A shout-out to Jared Allaway and his wonderful “Safer Shirts” initiative)

Here is what I found when I looked at how the counties ranked on both measures:

I’m not going to read too much into the positive correlation between voter preference for legal cannabis and willingness (or ability) to get vaccinated. (R-squared = .553, for what it’s worth). My formal education did it’s best to drum into my head that CORRELATION DOES NOT IMPLY CAUSATION. I accept that as truth. I also accept the logic that if it walks like a duck and sounds like a duck and looks like a duck, it’s probably a duck.

This chart suggests the possibility that there may be some relationship between whatever mental state leads a voter to support the legalization of cannabis and whatever mental state (or ancillary factor) that leads to the apparent reluctance to be vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus.

It could be something else — older people living in Jefferson and/or San Juan counties? More hippies? Richer people? Folks that want to see America’s decline accelerate? Folks that live where wild magic mushrooms are plentiful? I don’t know.

What I DO know, though, is that low vaccination rates imply — at minimum — either a lack of neighborliness and/or sense of community and/or sense of compassion for others OR an ignorance of simple public health information that is basically inexcusable in any civilized adult.

I’d love to hear any theories you might have. Is this apparent relationship causal or coincidental or caused by some confounding factor not taken into account in the scatterplot? If you think it’s causal, what do you think might be the causal link? IF you think it’s a confounding, what do you think the confound might be?

I’d love to hear your comments.

(Please know that I’ve looked at quite a few county-level variables to see what seems to track along with these two. A dialogue on what people think is going on here might be fun.).