re: Last night I told my father-in-law that he is basically an idiot for encouraging boosters

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he is basically an idiot for encouraging boosters...for our family.

...he refuses to listen to the counter-arguments/facts

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Far be it for someone on a message board to give you family advice, but there may be a better approach.

Simply address the fact that ANY medical intervention, including vaccination, carries attendant risk. So the benefit needs to substantially exceed risk.

In the case of the boosters, the benefit is questionable. There is some benefit, but it's limited, and even more limited for young healthy individuals.

Through November CV19 boosters targeted Omicron (BA.1) along with original CV19 strains. But by the time the booster hit the public, the predominant circulating strain was no longer BA.1 (or BA.2 or BA.3). The predominant circulating strains were BA.4/BA.5. The 'new' BA.1 booster was fairly ineffective vs those.

But wait!
This month, a BA.4/BA.5 booster finally came available!
Great news, right?
Nope.

AS did BA.1, BA.4/BA.5 ran their course, are nearly gone, and have given way to new BQ strains.

Far and away the most prevalent CV19 strains (~85%) now are BQ.1/BQ.1.1.

It remains to be seen if the "new" (but already outdated) Dec2022 booster will be effective at all vs currently circulating CV19. The BA.1 booster your FIL was likely referring to, barely touches the BQ.x strains.

Perhaps rather than refer to the guy as an 'idiot,' just ask if he's aware of vax ineffectiveness vs current CV19 strains, and ask if he's aware of standard (rare but existent) vaccination risks such as Guillain-Barré.

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The problem is that doctors learn THE DOGMA of DOCTORING of the years from which they were trained. Some of those periods also taught cold separation from aspects of the patient.

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Being a doctor used to be more like being a chef. Now it's more like being a line cook following the standard recipe.

They aren't hired by the patients, they're hired by private equity or other non-doctors who make decisions based on economics and not on science. Oh, they open the valves and let some science seep in from time to time, but this is what happens when you have businessmen sniffing out where the high profit margins are and inserting themselves into the stream and polluting everything downstream.

All of us old folks will just roll with not being stupid.

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Maybe you should reevaluate your own thinking.

Or evaluate for the first time.

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so you are suggesting that younger people get their first clue?

hmm... I agree.

Virology and epidemiology..

I have been doing quite a bit of reading about viruses.It is mind boggling to me how complicated all that is.
People like Dr. Robert Malone and Geert Vanden Bossche have pHD’s in this,I can’t imagine.

From what Doctors can tell from the “Science and Data” they are allowed to see the age where the vaccine and boosters are do more good than harm is 65 years old and older.

Sounds like your FIL should take his vaccine and you and your kids should avoid it.

This opinion comes from Dr. Drew Pinsky’s podcast.

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Knowing all of this is true, how does one coexist with the jadedness that comes with knowing?

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All cynicism is 100% justified. Big Goob and Big Med-Pharm traumatized the world into playing Russian Roulette.

We're long past the quaint days of automatically trusting our MD and "healthcare" system. Previous presumptions and assumptions are all out the window (for nearly every past "trusted" institution.)

Due diligence, personal research and knowledge is now a requisite responsibility. (You can't help those who refuse your wisdom and knowledge. Been there, done that as well, my friend.)

Maybe instead of calling him a name, you should have just said something to him politely while reminding him that you are a world reknown epidemiologist?

If he's been a good pediatrician otherwise, I would just ignore that particular bit of advice. if he pushes the issue, I'd find another pediatrician.