Chernobyl Doctor Fact Checks the HBO Series | Vanity Fair

she's gone he's looked like someone really you know a painter or artist was doing this without any solid knowledge or experience [Music] my name is Alicia Pyrrha I was one of the first medical responders after Chernobyl accident I spent less 16 years working for the FDA to develop drugs against radiation exposure now I am going to review clips from Chernobyl if you're serious okay let's watch in this clip boss tells one of his subordinates that if he is not going to follow his orders then he will be fired the two of you disagreed then you don't have to work here and you won't it won't work anywhere ever again I'll see to it this clip is very realistic approximately 2 months after the explosion I spent a total of about 30 days examining patients who live in the most contaminated areas in Ukraine we were told very strictly not to tell the population that anything is wrong our job was to tell them that everything is good and if we say opposite then we will lose our jobs and we would never get them back in this clip a worker from the nuclear power station starts bleeding shortly after the explosion ah this scene is not realistic irrigation will lead to bleeding if patient developed acute radiation syndrome with a bone marrow failure but this would occur in the first weeks never on the spot in this clip population of prebate is evacuated by buses [Music] people were told that they're leaving only for three days but they never came back not all the bosses came on time children and adults were all outside their houses waiting for the buses they were playing in the radioactive sand and the showers of radioactive particles were falling on the ground I've heard this story from one of the mothers whose child I treated two years after a variation from leukemia in this clip Juliana offers stable iodine to a secretary to protect her from thyroid cancer stable iodine will keep your thyroid from absorbing radioactive iodine take one a day for as long as they lost but tease him I died will protect from thyroid cancer only if it's given in the right time it's not clear how soon after the exposure Juliana offered the Secretary to take iodine the maximum amount of time potassium iodide would be effective is about 12 to 18 hours after the exposure the Soviet government started handling potassium iodide to children 10 days after the explosion and at that point it was totally useless effort people went to the pharmacy where potassium iodine was over-the-counter and not knowing the dose they just fed their children with the pills if the dose or regimen is exceeded the normal it cause acute ulcers in the stomach in Kiev I was called to the emergency room where parents brought children bleeding from this stomach due to incorrect dose of potassium iodide in this clip the man is told to put on homemade armor we make these from let's go up put it on on your balls never go hunting no well today is your lucky day you mean that ugly Armenian and the tents Darla's to do animal control animal control yeah they're radioactive they have to go let is one of the most used metals that protect from radiation and using this local armor would help to protect local area animals we're highly contaminated and nobody took care of them to wash them off so there was a fear that they will spread the radiation around in this clip Juliana goes to the library and tries to obtain some technical information yes I need to see the following documents they're listed as permission only comrade she can have that one this is how Soviet government thought less knowledge more silence and less panic my boss asked me to collect information about radiation to make a presentation in front of medical personnel at the largest hospital in Kiev just to give them the basic ideas about radiation and what to expect how to treat patients nobody had any training in radiation neither at the medical school nor during our careers I entered the National Medical Library in Kiev and stared in disbelief on the empty shells with no books I also librarian to provide me some books or journals about radiation and the answers was they received an order from the above to take all the books and journals of the shelves that contain a word radiation in this clip a nurse weren't a pregnant woman not to visit her husband for you what do you tell you I have a pass we can't be here it's not safe I am here to see my husband facili ignite an Co he's a firefighter from Chernobyl I know who you think you is you can't I have permission i-i've you can see him for 30 minutes not a minute more and you cannot touch him in any way do you understand room 15 you're not pregnant are you no people with acute radiation sickness they are not radioactive they are not contagious to adults to pregnant women or children the firefighter did not wear his contaminated clothes and was showered after this - he would not be in contagious or dangerous to anybody who is around him in that room inside the plastic touching him this false beliefs had a very dangerous outcome many children were evacuated to Moscow and many families in Moscow who were offered to host these children they rejected because they claimed that these children are contaminated or they call them dirty and they don't want them in their household in this clip the villa comforts her dying severely burn husband she's gone I don't think that this is a realistic to have all this degree of burns and coloring and intensity all over the body I did not work as a burn clinic however my colleagues who did work in Moscone Hospital number six provided me with a pictures of radiation burns and I never seen anything like portrayed in this these look like someone really you know a painter or artist was doing this without any solid knowledge or experience in this clip Ileana explains what happened to Ruud Mila and her baby do you know the name Vasili in a tango he was a fireman he died two weeks after the accident I've been looking in on his widow she gave birth a girl the baby lived for four hours they said the radiation would have killed a mother but the baby absorbed it instead we live in a country my children have to die to save their mothers someone has to start telling the truth it's a medical fiction that fetuses can absorb radiation there is no science behind it's not like my opinion I would say there is no science behind saying very inaccurate thing that fetus would absorb the radiation and die but protects his mother but you know yours her watch who were watching this clip they believed my colleagues called me asking if this is true because it was so not convincing but it was there it was emotional and dramatic and that what people felt it was ironic to me that next statement that came from Oriana was we need to tell the truth this is a postscript to the series [Music] the number of 93,000 is largely inflated it's difficult to make a direct comparison between race of cancer before and after Chernobyl the diagnosis is much better people are undergoing screening which was not a case before so in order to have correct number statistically significant the large epidemiological studies needs to be done and properly assessed sometimes it's matter to get the medical facts correct we cannot undo the past but we can learn from the past and if it's ever a nuclear accident our response to people from contaminated areas should be based on science not on fear

Channel: Vanity Fair

Views: 8,243,201

Rating: 4.9430475 out of 5

Keywords: vanity fair, chernobyl, expert reviews, vanity fair reviews, chernobyl review, alla shapiro, vanity fair hbo, radiation expert, science in movies, chernobyl expert, chernobyl hbo, chernobyl series, chernobyl true, chernobyl false, chernobyl science, chernobyl radiation, chernobyl vanity fair, chernobyl facts, chernobyl doctor, fact checking chernobyl hbo, chernobyl accident, chernobyl truth, chernobyl medic, chernobyl responder

Id: m1GEPsSVpZY

Length: 13min 24sec (804 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 19 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/Tontonsb]

For anyone interested how they actually looked like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=um1-Ub5BGac

[u/233C]

"Listen to the experts!" and "nobody can ignore the science!".

But let's just ignore the fricking World Health Organization, or the United Nation Scientific Comittee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation, which is just the equivalent of what the IPCC does on climate change.

[u/Goddes_Mercy_Me]

The part about ludmillas baby is true. I recently read "Voices of Chernobyl" and her testimony is in it and her baby did live for only 4 hours and was very radioactive whereas she wasn't sick from radiation at all. Edited to fix a typo

[u/captainsofindustry1]

You thank you for correcting me. I apologize