It’s our 100^th issue of the IINews, and for this issue we decided we were long overdue for an interview with cartoonist Ted Goff…  

When I meet people at vaccination conferences and they see on my name badge that I’m the Editor of the IINews, they often light up, excitedly asking, “Oh, do you do those cartoons?!!” And I say, “No, I write a lot of the articles, but the cartoons are done by Ted Goff – he’s a full-time cartoonist.” And I see them pretend not to be disappointed that I’m not the guy, the one with the cartoon magic. So, for this edition, it’s time to talk with the man himself, Ted Goff.

Because the IINews is sponsored by STChealth, a place where CEO Mike Popovich can often be heard saying “Ideas Start Here,” we’re always curious about how ideas come about, including those for our monthly cartoon. First, you should know that when Ted is coming up with cartoons, it isn’t just one idea for every issue, but that he drafts three potential cartoons for each issue – he calls them “roughs” — then the editorial team chooses the one that is most fitting and/or most charming. When we asked Ted about his coming up with the “roughs,” he told us this:

“The writer P.G. Wodehouse said that he would start by putting a blank piece of paper into a typewriter and then saying swear words at it until an idea came to him. I don’t say swear words, but I sit down and start saying things like, ‘This is impossible.’ ‘This is not going to work.’ ‘I don’t know why they’d hire me for this.’ And I go on like that until an idea comes along.”

As for the mechanics of the process, Ted explained that he no longer works on a paper sketch pad, but rather on a digital drawing pad. Even so, that’s not where the cartoon actually starts. Rather, Ted begins with a list of topics taken from the notes about the upcoming content of the next IINews, and then he begins to spin those into concepts for the verbiage or the images. He said, “If I start by doodling, then it quickly gets too goofy.”

Ted Goff

Speaking of goofy, being a cartoonist is not something that ever pops up on lists of Hot Careers for the Coming Decade. We wanted to know how Ted decided to go into it:

“I remember my first cartoon as a kid. It was of President Kennedy and I showed to my big brother who declared it ‘Stupid.’ But, even as kid, I used to cut out photos from the newspaper and then add captions. Later, I drew for my high school paper and my college paper. I eventually went to work at Gillette in the credit department and liked it – I liked the people and the camaraderie — but after five years, I decided to quit and try to be a cartoonist. A terrible idea, but it worked.”

And, that idea/career has kept Ted working for over four decades. In addition to his corporate work, Ted has sold cartoons to the likes of the Wall Street Journal, Saturday Evening Post, Better Homes and Garden and a long list of trade journals, magazines and businesses. As for the low points in his long career, Ted recalled one sad coincidence: “I had done a cartoon for the inhouse newsletter of a very large, very well-known company. In one cartoon I did for them, there was my drawing of someone who died at their computer. It turned out that the same day the cartoon went out to everyone at the company, one of their employees did die at their computer. So, as it turned out, my cartoon wasn’t so funny and the company issued an apology.”

When our editorial team began to think of how we might celebrate the cartoons for our 100 issue, we decided that we would invite Ted to do two things:

One, we’d suggest that he look back at all his “roughs,” the sets of possible cartoons that he does each month, and from all those that were NOT chosen for publication, to pick the one that he most wanted everyone to see in the IINews. That’s the one we started at the top of this edition.

Second, we asked him to choose his three favorites from all those that did get published. We’ll end with those, right after Ted response when we asked what his Top 3 had in common: “I was surprised when each of these was picked. I prefer drawing goofy cartoons and these are among the goofiest.”

To mark this 100th issue of IINews, we’re excited to share a special virtual book: 100 Issues of Immunization Insights: The IINews Cartoons. This collection brings together many of the cartoons that have accompanied our stories over the years—capturing the lighter side of immunization work and celebrating the people behind it. We invite you to browse the collection and revisit the moments that have made IINews both informative and enjoyable.
Click here to view the Virtual eBook

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Last month, leading up to our 100^th issue, we interviewed our Stats Guru Bill Davenhall (https://stchealth.com/2025/07/15/the-data-pioneer/). For this month, Bill came up with the charming idea to think ahead to the 200^th issue…

STATS OF THE MONTH

Wishing You Were Lake Woebegone?

By Bill Davenhall, Geomedicine Science

Question? What will I be writing about in the 200^th issue of this newsletter in 2033?

Answer: Probably the statistical averages of things  that matter the most to people concerned about health.

For those folks who will remember  The Prairie Home Companion, the famous radio weekly broadcast by Garrison Keillor, who for 42 years reported each week what was happening in his fictious Minnesota town of Lake Wobegon (“A place where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average”), it’s often been said that this weekly radio program planted “hope seeds” in every town in America — communities wanting to believe that their hometown could be like Lake Wobegon and its people, both average and special.

“Average” is a just one of many statistical measures of  the center of a collection of numerical data – but to many others it’s an important indicator of how well things are going. Averages about school grades, incomes, baseball (batting), daily temperatures, historical stock prices, and, yes, even health statuses including outcomes, accessibilities, and expenditures. Even the premiums you pay for any kind of insurance you purchase is typically based on averages as it determines likely risks and losses. In healthcare, however, if a medical doctor says a test result  is “average” – we usually regard that as a very favorable result. Many factors however will alter that average depending on your current situation and therein lies the Lake Wobegon Effect!

I visited the Office of the Actuary for the National Health Expenditure program (in business since 1947) , a national accounting process that is used worldwide to track the costs of all the healthcare delivered within a country. It’s an exhaustive collection of data that helps generate the averages about how much money is expended  for healthcare, including the monetary amounts, sources, and beneficiaries. It’s not all hope, but facts, along with estimates and projections as to where the average are headed. The goal of this accountability program  to report on and help estimate and predict what will happen. The program also provides guidance in preparing for the future. I think of the collection of data  from the NHE program as “very informed averages”.

So, my big story in the 200^th issue of this newsletter will perhaps be to comment on a per-capita healthcare expenditure of $20,600 in the United States by 2033.  That will translate into a national total of 7.1 trillion dollars (USD). Disappointed, elated  or don’t really care or need to know?

To help manage this expectation I have prepared a table of what I think every State might hope for  as their “health budget needs” for 2033. Of course, a budget impacted by many things or events that can alter this number dramatically: another pandemic, economic or natural disaster, the lack of immunizations, new medical discoveries, disease outbreaks.

But it’s hard to move away from the use of averages in spite of the issues of accessibility, population. demographics, or various disease rates within certain populations.  Averages will certainly remain to be used to discuss the fairness of the geographic distribution of a nation’s Personal Health Expenditures. Below I prepared a table of the expected (per capita)  expenditures for Personal Health Expenditures in 2033 –  on average and subject to all the variable factors The table below provides the estimated amounts of expenditures that will need to be adjusted for “local conditions” such as demographics and health status – and will seem either too small or too large for a particular state of interest. They may also  help you set an expectation of what you might have available to spend on all your health initiatives.

Then, In 2033, you and I will get to see how good or close these estimates actually turned out to be!

I always appreciate 2^nd opinions.