Vaccines: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

vaccines or as the fun doctor and your family practice books it shot-shot shot-shot shot-shot shot-shot church seriously there'll be a slight pinch now vaccines are one of humanity's most incredible accomplishments and they've saved millions of lives and there was a time when a new one was a cause for huge celebration dr. Jonas Salk discovers a vaccine that promises to wipe out childhoods crippling and killing enemy polio anxious parents are thrilled and grateful responding to one of the greatest mass inoculations and medical annals it's true people lined up for the polio shot like it was an iPhone although although for the record polio was never childhoods most crippling enemy because that was and will forever remain accidentally seeing your father's penis but suffice it by their success small groups are both skeptical and vocal about vaccines which is nothing new but these days their voice has been amplified by the human megaphone that is the President of the United States I am totally in favor of vaccines but I want smaller doses over a longer period of time because you take a baby in and I've seen it and I've seen it and I had my children taking care of over a long period of time over two or three year period of time same exact amount but you take this little beautiful baby and you pump I mean it looks just like it's meant for a horse not for a child that is totaled from on the campaign trail raising doubts about vaccinations and that is a sentiment that he's also expressed online with a tweet reading tiny children are not horses and that that is an assertion that PolitiFact rates yeah I mean I guess technically we've got to give him that but you agree and look look you know this you know this it is not wise to take health care advice from man who has willingly sought care from this doctor who looks like he sneaks into a sin you're frogs in the middle of the night to Fox the boxer elastics you let you know that but but it is not just Trump who is skeptical and those concerns have driven some people to extremes for instance back in 2011 some parents made headlines by taking what they saw are they more natural route to immunizing their children Catherine were talking about parents who are taking use the lollipops saliva and puss soaked clothing from complete strangers and deliberately infecting their children okay okay all right so setting aside the grossest of parents infecting their kids with lollipops from strangers that graphic has an unfortunate misspelling because swapping spit and passing pulse sounds like the TED talk that Kid Rock would give you a teenage shot what's wrong I know you're going to want to swap some straight past the hood but if you don't throw a raincoat on that devil dog it's going to be stored silly for you buckaroo this was quality time we just had some quality time and while it is important to remember that the vast majority of parents are making sure that their children get vaccinated on time the voices of those who don't carry any internet search about vaccines will quickly lead you down a frightening rabbit hole and the background hum of doubt can make some parents understandably nervous I'm concerned about how many vaccines you need remember we have to give our children at once some kind of debating whether I will do them but I'm debating the age when should I have them done there's just so much information there I don't I don't know who to ask I don't know if there's you know there's no such thing as an unbiased source at least 10 percent of parents delay or skip some shots around 1 percent don't vaccinate at all right you know parents get so much information it is hard to know what to do should you vaccinate should you eat the placenta should you let kids cry and the answer to those by the way are yes no and absolutely because the more they try now the more they'll be prepared to watch this is us when they get older [Applause] and this this atmosphere of confusion about vaccines has caused real problems there are now 11 states where the number of unvaccinated kids is on the rise and in small pockets all over America the numbers can get startlingly high in the Somali community in Minnesota the measles vaccination rate for children dropped to just 42 percent and that had some very real consequences measles once eradicated in the u.s. is now exploding in Minnesota Somali community where many parents won't vaccinate the virus is so contagious that if you're exposed to it and you don't have the vaccine there's a 90% chance you'll contract it they can have permanent brain damage they can have blindness or deafness and so we wouldn't vaccinate if this was just a Raschi illness this is a very serious disease exactly and this is how bad it is in that community the number of measles cases so far this year has already outpaced the total number in all the US last year and that is terrible because the only thing Minnesota should have more of than any other state is Garrison Keillor and people disappointed by the Mall of America oh so it's just a bigger mall and it has to build-a-bear workshops that's amazing this memory will last me a lifetime as will these two bears for two different build-a-bear workshop so tonight we are going to look at why these beers persist and what the consequences of succumbing to them can be and before we start I kind of get why vaccines can creep people out vaccinations can mean getting injected by a needle filled with science juice although pretty much every medical practice sounds terrifying when you break it down like that an appendectomy means removing one of your organs through stabber II antibiotics are poisons used to murder things living in you and even exercise means forcefully burning up your inside my point is the human body is a true Carnival of Horrors and frankly I'm embarrassed to have one and what much of the fear surrounding vaccines stems from their supposedly to autism now that is a theory that gained traction in the late 90s thanks to a study published in the medical journal The Lancet suggesting a link between autism and the MMR vaccine the study was of just 12 children and it was by this guy Andrew Wakefield and if you're wondering why I didn't say dr. Andrew Wakefield this is why follow-up studies of hundreds of thousands of children could not find any evidence that the MMR vaccine causes autism and investigations into Wakefield's original paper revealed he distorted the data and acted unethically he's lost his medical license The Lancet paper has been retracted it's true Wakefield's made a big splash before having his legacy tarnished and his title revoked he's basically the Lance Armstrong of doctors but but but even though Wakefield conclusions have been debunked many times he not only denies wrongdoing he actually still gives talks about the supposed dangers of the MMR vaccine in fact this is him in 2011 talking to the Somali community that we saw earlier in Minnesota and presumably ending his speech with trust me I'm a used to be a doctor and to be fair Wakefield is not the only voice raising alarms about vaccines he has company from across the political spectrum from a Robert F Kennedy jr. on the left to Alex Jones wherever the he fits in to even this guy he can't make you can't make people do procedure that they don't want the parents have to be the ones to make the decisions for what's best for Mike for our kids it can't be the government saying that it's against the nuremberg laws yes that is Rob Schneider performing an impromptu rendition of his famous character the annoying guy who is wrong because because despite his misunderstanding of among other things what the Nuremberg Laws are and what constitutes acceptable headwear for a grown man Snyder has spoken out against mandatory vaccines for years even once calling this California state Assemblywoman to debate the issue prompting her to post on Facebook be honest that is 20 minutes of my life I'll never get back arguing that vaccines don't cause autism with deuce Bigalow male gigolo yeah sure so it's funny it's funny but so hold on lady let's not Sully the good name of deuce Bigalow just because of something that his portrayal Rob Schneider said that's like implying William Wallace doesn't trust Jews or officer Nordberg is a murderer so no time separate the two now now the good news is these days very few people will say they are completely anti-vaccine instead like the president they'll say I'm not anti vaccine but and it's what comes after that but that we need to look at tonight because one example is hey I'm not anti vaccine but I am Pro safe vaccine and and that can often refer to concern over scary sounding ingredients like thimerosal a mercury-based preservative for years now RFK jr. has led a crusade against it in fact just this year he gave a speech where he said this for 33 years I've been working to get mercury at fish nobody has ever called me any fish and because I want mercury out of vaccines I should not be called any vaccine okay well for a start what would anyone be ashamed to be called anti fish fish are stupid and how do I know that look at them just look at this idiot and it's not just him check this out as well and while you're at it what about this dimwit here's another bonehead for you I'm pretty sure this dunks didn't make it past the third grade and I think we can all agree that this doofus isn't exactly curing cancer oh that's right come at me fish oh I'm sorry you can't kanya because because and that's because after 500 million years you still haven't figured out how to breathe air you fish it's easy I'm doing it now even you don't know me fish get out of here you know what more importantly in fact much more importantly it is worth knowing that the mercury that has been used in vaccines is not the same kind that is harmful in fish on top of which as with the MMR vaccine there have been multiple large studies finding no link between thimerosal and autism and perhaps most importantly at all since the early 2000s as a precautionary measure it has been removed as a preservative from all vaccines recommended for infants except for the flu vaccines and even there thimerosal three versions are available so we essentially spent time and energy solving a problem that never existed it's like spending years fighting to get marshmallows out of Lucky Charms because a few people think minions can choke to death on them force our marshmallows dissolve and minions don't exist and if they did I would want them to choke to death because those little will murder us open your eyes and look if you're thinking well hold on hold on if it wasn't harmful why was it taken out well there was intense public concern that was amplified by people like then congressman Dan Burton making arguments like this I have not yet to find any scientist who will say that there's no doubt no doubt that the mercury in vaccines does not contribute to autism now they'll say there's no scientific evidence there's no studies or anything that proves that yet but turn that around there are no studies that disprove it either all right all right okay proving a negative is an impossible standard and that is also a slippery slope because it means that I can say to you you Dan Burton are a donkey you dress up donkeys in cheerleader outfits and you thought them if what you're into and you do it all and you are saying to me for weight there is absolutely no evidence of me doing that but I would say turn that around there's no evidence of you not doing that either please and this is not a road that you want to go down and the thing is the thing is that donkey is remarks actually get at why scientists can be at a real disadvantage in this debate because they by their nature are careful in how they present their conclusions science and English are not really the same language and so when a scientist says we have no evidence that there's a link between vaccines and autism what they're really saying is you know we are as positive as someone can humanly be that there's no link and one thing that I sometimes do when I'm talking to parents is say I'm as confident that there's no link between vaccines and autism as I am that if I was going to walk off this building that I would not be able to fly right and that is about as clear as you can be and for the record if your doctor does believe they can fly run because they are either crazy or they are are Kelly and if your if your pediatrician is are Kelly that things are actually the least of your problem and I know I know that some will say that the real problem is that scientists have been paid by pharma companies to hide the problems with vaccines you can find countless memes online about how the whole system is corrupt some of which feature a very smart looking cat and and I'm not saying that there are not problems with Big Pharma there absolutely are we have discussed them before on this show but on the rare occasions where there have been issues with vaccines they have been pulled and fast and I know that that explanation will still not satisfy some there are going to be some truly toxic comments below this video alongside the usual ones about how I look like an owl who can't get a date for prom Oh or that I probably live alone surrounded by jars I'm too weak to open by myself and I think you're laughing too hard at that and those comments will link to the hidden truths about vaccines and demand to know why I didn't look into them and you know what we did look into a lot of them and the problem is I can go point by point by point and be talking for hours tonight and this will still never end it's like whack-a-mole as one theory goes down another pops up and I kind of get the insistence that there must be a link at the age children are supposed to get the MMR vaccine happens to be the same age that diagnosable signs of autism can begin to appear but correlation is not causation that is what scientific studies are for and remember they are really clear that link is not there and the problem with spending more and more time and money trying to prove that link is that it takes resources away from studying actual causes and treatments just listen to the mother of one child with autism who started a foundation precisely because she wanted to find out the causes we have dozens of studies I think we were right to look at whether vaccines might be a cause of autism but there comes a point where there is so much evidence none of which shows any link between vaccines and autism that you have to say enough yeah that's right it's like that Einstein quotes is sometimes see on the Internet the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results except Einstein didn't say that because and it seems I cannot stress this enough means aren't fact and if you won't take that from me take it from this very smart looking cat but again that that hyung of doubt it's hard to shake off and some parents agree with the president and they favor hedging their bets and skipping or spacing vaccines out just in case 93% of pediatricians say they've been asked by parents to do just that and one of the places that that idea may be coming from is a pediatrician named dr. Sears not bill sees the famous doctor and author but his son Bob Sears dr. Bob has made a name for himself with what can seem like a sensible sounding approach to address wide parents concerns what I've put together is what I call my alternative vaccine schedule it's a way to get a baby fully vaccinated that in a manner that spreads the shots out a little bit and that sounds like a decent compromise because it's the middle ground position right the problem is is the middle ground between sense and nonsense it's like saying it would be crazy to eat that entire bar of soap so I'll just eat half of it now the enthusiasm for spacing vaccines out stems from some parents belief that children these days get too many shots too soon perhaps best summed up by this meme of a dog full of needles and I will say if that's how they were given I would oppose that but let's break that fear down because while it is true that children do receive more shots than they used to the number of antigens in those shots or the substances that induce the immune response has greatly decreased and it's a drop in the ocean compared to the thousands of foreign antigens our child usually encounters every day just watch a child for five minutes and see if they don't eat their friend's boogers put their entire mouth over the water Balcon or try and kiss a raccoon they just found in a dumpster while playing hide and seek my point is children are disgusting I even see it himself as of may be that his approach is not based on scientific research so where is that where is the published peer-reviewed evidence to support the notion of a quote overload if you follow the CDC recommended schedule where where does that exist Chris I don't think there is any such research and I actually never claimed there was I certainly have put out there very clearly in my writings that my precautions on spreading out vaccines are theoretical it's a theoretical benefit to kids and it's a choice that I think a lot of parents feel more comfortable about and might actually bring more parents to vaccinate if they can spread the shots out more than the regular schedule right except your job is to make sure children don't get deadly diseases not to make parents comfortable because you're a pediatrician not a flask of whiskey tucked into a BabyBjorn dr. Bob sometimes seems to be trying to have it both ways because while he says he is pro-vaccine and that he doesn't explicitly tell parents to skip or delay important shots his book just happens to include an alternative vaccine schedule and a selective vaccine schedule and on that one you can get vaccinated for measles as late as ten years old and on top of that every once in a while he'll drop a line like this you may may statement I like to make on vaccine there and autism is that vaccines don't cause autism except when they do and I know that sounds like equivocating but don't worry opportunistic quacks writing books that fanned the flames of people's unfounded fears don't cause a legitimate public health hazard except when they do and what the benefits of dr. Sears in plan are as he says theoretical the dangers of spacing vaccines out are very real the CDC says spreading shots out puts children at risk of developing diseases during the time that shots are delayed and some of those diseases are dangerous measles alone was responsible for over a hundred and thirty thousand deaths worldwide in 2015 partly because it is ridiculously infectious I'm talking happy' by pharrell infectious I just said that and it's already stuck in your head now I'm happy there you go that's how infectious measles is and one way we can keep needles at bay is through something called herd immunity that is the concept whereby the more people who are vaccinated the harder it is for a disease to spread but the margin for safety there is a lot smaller than you may think most experts say that the herd immunity threshold for measles is around 95% but when in France that dropped to 89% a few years back this is what happened in 2007 there were around 40 cases of measles across France then in 2008 a ten-year-old girl returned from holiday in Austria she went back to school and played with some friends several days later the girls became ill the measles infection spread from district to district inspecting the susceptible population in 2011 there were almost 15,000 cases at least six people died okay so that clip proves two things to us one a decrease in herd immunity can have devastating consequences and to anything is terrifying if you play children's singing frère Jacques underneath I guarantee you that true just look at what happens when you add that music underneath this stock footage that we found there is no way that those kids are not about to be decapitated by a stock pile no way if you're thinking well you know that that is a chance I'm willing to take it and I'm just making this choice for my child the thing is you're not you're putting at risk kids like Rhett Crouch he was diagnosed with leukemia at age two and his immune system was weakened so much he couldn't be vaccinated meaning if he picked up a serious disease it could be fatal and I'll let his mom take it from here when he was first diagnosed he was pretty much pulled out of society we avoided highly concentrated groups of people when we went out we were masks I mean we really did limit his exposure and we just were so excited for the day when he could start kindergarten so he could have that sense of socialization and community and learning a year into remission and back in school Rhett will soon be healthy enough to be fully vaccinated but until then his life depends on herd immunity exactly so by getting vaccinated you're helping and protecting those who are most vulnerable like sick people and newborns too young to be vaccinated and why would you choose not to do that I believe Jesus Christ himself put it best when he said do you seriously need some sort of wise quote to convince you on this one just like don't be a dick and look I know I honestly know but for some people this is still hard but but what can help is to try and anchor yourself to what we know to be true about the risks of vaccines and when it comes to autism again there is no link and even when it comes to other serious side effects like a severe allergic reaction it is literally according to the CDC close to one in a million and I know that in a way that's not actually helpful because every parent thinks their child is one in a million but if it makes you feel better your child's odds of being convicted of murder and eventually executed by the state are only one in a hundred and nineteen thousand and twelve yes and if that makes you feel even worse just cheer up maybe your child will be one of those murderers that never gets course maybe they're very smart clearly and you know maybe one of the biggest problems here is that when people hear about vaccines so much of the emphasis is on non-existence or wildly unlikely harms and and we tend not to talk about the very tangible good that they do after all nobody is going on facebook to post didn't get polio again today so less and maybe we kind of should because it is easy to forget the benefits of vaccines are enormous what we have seen in the industrialized world is essentially all of the major epidemics they've vanished mums today have every expectation that their beautiful little baby will live and not be polished off by de faria by Tiffany's even occasionally by meals now that is the transformation in young lives that vaccines are brought and that is a really good point only slightly undercut by him using the phrase polished off because it's talking about babies not a rack of ribs here's the thing it really comes down to this it is likely done at some point you may hear scary vaccine stories from other parents or on the internet and it is hard not to be terrified when you encounter it and that is partly because Parenthood in general is terrifying believe me I'm someone who is scared of literally everything the dark the light Heights depths confined spaces wide open spaces strangers intimacy spiders and a sudden and mysterious lack of spiders but all of that but for what is wrong and if this helps at all I have a son he is 19 months old he was born prematurely following a very difficult pregnancy and I've worried about his health and I'm still worried about it helped a lot but we are vaccinating him fully on schedule and if I can overcome the temptation to listen to the electoral shouting of my terrified lizard brain then I believe that everyone can

Channel: LastWeekTonight

Views: 22,603,210

Rating: 4.7716851 out of 5

Keywords: last week tonight vaccines, john oliver vaccines

Id: 7VG_s2PCH_c

Length: 27min 15sec (1635 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 25 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/indianred]

We in India have still not eliminated polio completely. So we can't afford to spend time on this vaccines cause autism nonsense.

[u/miami-dade]

"the human body is a true carnival of horrors..."

Hearing him say that reminded me of when he was Dr. Xenon in that episode of Rick & Morty.

[u/Lord_Grundlebeard]

Best line:

I'm someone who is scared of literally everything. The dark; the light. Heights; depths. Confined spaces; wide open spaces. Strangers; intimacy. Spiders; and a sudden and mysterious lack of spiders.

[u/CohenMarshall]

I'm allergic to the pertussis vaccine. When I got my first vaccine as an infant I almost died. I was in critical condition for weeks after the vaccine. If I come in to contact with someone who has pertussis, I could die. please please please vaccinate your children.

[u/Imthecoolestdudeever]

I fear for how ridiculously short sighted and ignorant our population has become.

[u/MetallicYoshi64]

The vaccines segment was all good and fine, but god, I can't wait to see how the lawsuit goes over.

[u/JarJarBrinksSecurity]

This whole vaccine-autism thing really boggles my mind. When it first came around, I thought only the stupidest people believed it. Then I found out the girl I had a crush on believed in all of this. This girl was 3rd in our high school, constantly made the deans list at Uni, and was one of the brightest people I knew. But the fact that she was so adamant about this whole thing really made me switch perspectives on her.

[u/toeofcamell]

What are you going to do listen to thousands of doctors or a soccer mom on Facebook?

[u/son_of_noah]

Its not just celebrities, its spiritual leaders too. My mom had me and my brothers vaccinated almost every doctors visit but ever since her temple started anti vax reteroic she's been hardline against it to the point of even telling me not to get her grandson vaccinated. I bring up the fact she had me vaccinated but she just tones it out, this whole thing is out of hand.