Science for My Mother

I'm a scientist and science lover. Undergraduate researcher to technician/lab manager to graduate student. My mother is not a scientist. She hasn't taken a basic science class in over 30 years. My mother is not stupid. Despite what I thought during my teen years, she's actually quite intelligent. She reads books, newspapers, and websites, working to stay educated and aware of the world around her.

You can imagine my surprise when I learned that my mother had never gotten a flu shot and thought that they are a bad idea. I asked her why she thought they were a bad idea.

"Because they're injecting you with something."
"Because I rarely get sick and would be really mad if I got the flu from one."

I asked her if she knew what was actually in the flu shot. She said no.
I asked her if she knew why the shots were given. She said no.
I ask her if she wanted to know. And she said of course.

We went on to have a conversation about the immune system. About innate and adaptive immunity. About memory cells. About what is actually in the syringe. I was auditing an immunology course at the time, so I was reveling at getting to use all my newfound knowledge. My mother has almost no biology background on which to hang these facts, so it was a thirty-thousand-foot overview. She kept asking questions, about how things worked and why people were against receiving the shots.

By the end of the conversation, I hadn't convinced her to get her flu shot - which is fine, that wasn't the goal. But now she has a more informed opinion. She has more information to think about and is basing her actions on facts rather than attention-grabbing headlines.

That's good enough for me, and that's why science communication matters.

March 10th, 2014 Update: Mama finally stumbled across this blog. Turns out she did end up getting a flu shot :)