Vaccines: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

vaccines

or as the funny doctor and his family say it. shot-shot shot-shot shot-shot shot-shot church Seriously, there will be a slight pinch now Vaccines are one of humanity's most incredible achievements and have saved millions of lives. and there was a time when a new one was cause for great celebration dr. Jonas Salk discovers a vaccine that promises to end childhood, paralyzing and killing the enemy of polio. Anxious parents are excited and grateful as they respond to one of the largest mass inoculations and medical trials. It is true that people lined up to receive the polio vaccine as if it were an iPhone, although for the record polio was never the most devastating enemy of childhood because it was and will forever remain accidentally seeing his father's penis , but its success is enough.

Small groups are 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'm all for vaccines but I want smaller doses over a longer period of time because you take a baby and I've seen it and I've seen it and I've had my kids take care of it for a long period of time for two or three years. , the same exact amount, but you take this beautiful little baby and you pump the milk out of him. I mean, it seems like it's meant for a horse, not a kid who's on the campaign trail raising questions about vaccines and that's a sentiment he also expressed online with a tweet saying that toddlers aren't horses. and that that is a statement that PolitiFact qualifies, yes.

I mean, I guess technically we have to give him that. but you agree and look, look, you know this, you know this, it is not wise to follow health care advice from a man who has voluntarily sought care from this doctor who seems to be in a sin, you are frogs in the middle of the night for Fox the Boxer E

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ics let you know, but it's not just Trump who is skeptical and those concerns have driven some people to extremes, for example, in 2011, some parents made headlines by taking what they saw as the most natural route to immunize your children. kids Catherine was talking about parents who are using lollipops, saliva and cat-soaked clothes from complete strangers and deliberately infecting their children, okay, okay, so leaving out the grossest parents who infect their children with lollipops from strangers, that graphic has an unfortunate misspelling because swapping spit and passing pulse sounds like the TED talk where Kid Rock would give you a break as a teenager.

What's happening? I know you'll want to trade something under the hood, but if you don't throw a raincoat at that devilish dog, it's going to be saved as nonsense for you, idiot, this was a quality moment, we just had a quality moment and, While it's important to remember that the vast majority of parents make sure their children get vaccinated on time, the voices of those who don't carry out any Internet search on vaccines will quickly lead you down a terrifying rabbit hole and murmur of doubt. background can understandably make some parents nervous. I'm worried about how many vaccines you need, remember we have to give our kids right away some kind of debate about whether I will do them, but I'm debating the age, when should I get it?

There is so much information there that I don't know who to ask. I don't know if you know that there is no such thing as an unbiased source at least 10 percent of parents delay or skip some vaccines about 1 percent don't vaccinate at all, you know, parents are given so much information that it's hard to know what do if you get vaccinated, if you eat the placenta, if you let the children cry and the answer to those, by the way, is yes, no and absolutely because the more they try now, the more prepared they will be to see us.

This is us when they are older and this atmosphere of confusion about vaccines has caused real problems. There are now 11 states where the number of unvaccinated children is increasing, and in small pockets across the United States the numbers can be surprisingly high. In Minnesota's Somali community, the childhood measles vaccination rate dropped to just 42 percent, and that had some very real consequences. Measles once eradicated in the U.S. is now exploding in Minnesota's Somali community, where many parents don't get vaccinated. The virus is so contagious that if you are exposed to it and do not have the vaccine, there is a 90% chance that you will contract it.

They may have permanent brains. damage they may have blindness or deafness and that is why we would not vaccinate if this were just a Raschi disease, this is exactly a very serious disease and that is how serious it is in that community, the number of measles cases so far this year has already surpassed the total number in the entire United States

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year and that's terrible because the only thing Minnesota should have more than any other state is Garrison Keillor and the people disappointed by the Mall of America, oh so it's just a bigger mall and 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 workshops, so

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we'll see why these beers persist and what the consequences of succumbing to them may be.

Before I start, I understand why vaccines can scare people. Vaccines can mean getting injected with a needle full of scientific juice, although almost all medical practices sound scary when you break them down that way. An appendectomy means removing one of your organs by stabbing it. II, antibiotics are poisons that are used to kill things that live in you and even exercise means burning your insides hard. My point is that the human body is a veritable Carnival of Horrors and, frankly, I'm embarrassed to have one and what a lot of the fear surrounding vaccines stems from. From its 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 that suggested a link between autism and the MMR vaccine.

The study was just 12 kids and it was done 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 that he distorted the data and acted in ways unethical. He has lost his medical license. The Lancet article has been retracted, it is true that Wakefield caused quite a stir before his legacy was tarnished and his title revoked, he is basically the Lance Armstrong of doctors, but even though Wakefield's conclusions have Having been discredited many times, he not only denies any wrongdoing but also gives talks about the alleged dangers. of the MMR vaccine, in fact this is him in 2011 speaking to the Somali community we saw earlier in Minnesota and presumably ending his speech with "trust me, I used to be a doctor and to be fair, Wakefield is not the only voice raising the voice". alarms about vaccines have company from across the political spectrum, from one Robert F Kennedy jr. left for Alex Jones, wherever it fits, even for this guy, he can't do it, you can't force people to do procedures they don't want, parents have to be the ones making the decisions about what's best for Mike. for our children it can't be the government saying it's against the Nuremberg laws, yes, it's Rob Schneider doing an improvised performance of his famous character, the annoying guy, who is wrong because, despite his misunderstanding of, between other things, what are the Nuremberg Laws. and what constitutes an acceptable hat 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's 20 minutes of my life I'll never get back. arguing that vaccines don't cause autism with Deuce Bigalow's male gigolo, yeah sure, it's funny, it's funny, but wait lady, let's not tarnish Deuce Bigalow's good name just because of something his portrayal of Rob Schneider said, it's like implying that William Wallace didn't. I don't trust the Jews or that Officer Nordberg is a murderer, so there's no time to separate them now. The good news is that these days very few people will say they are completely against vaccines. Instead, as the president, they will say I'm not against vaccines, but and that's what comes after that, but what we need to look at

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because an example is, hey, I'm not against vaccines, but yes in favor of safe vaccines and that can often refer to concern about scary-sounding ingredients, like thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative. for years RFK jr.

He has led a crusade against this, in fact, this same year he gave a speech in which he said this for 33 years I have been working to get mercury into fish, no one has ever called me a fish and since I want to eliminate mercury from vaccines, I shouldn't do it. Calling yourself any vaccine is fine, for starters, who would be embarrassed to be called anti-fish? Fish are stupid and how do I know look at them, just look at this idiot and it's not just him, look at this too and while we're at it, what's up with this idiot?

Here's another idiot for you. I'm pretty sure these dunks didn't make it past the third grade and I think we can all agree that this sucker doesn't exactly cure cancer, oh that's it, come at me. fish, oh I'm sorry you can't, kanya, because and that's because after 500 million years you still haven't figured out how to breathe air, fish, it's easy, I'm doing it now, even you don't know me, fish, get it From here you know the most important thing, in fact, much more important: it is worth knowing that the mercury that has been used in vaccines is not the same type that is harmful to fish, plus, as with the MMR vaccine, There have been multiple large studies that have found no link between thimerosal and autism and, perhaps most importantly, since the early 2000s, as a precaution, it has been removed as a preservative from all recommended infant vaccines except flu shots, and even there are three versions of thimerosal available, so I essentially spent time and energy solving a problem that never existed, it's like spending years struggling to get marshmallows out of Lucky Charms because some people think minions can choke to death, they force our marshmallows to dissolve and the minions don't exist and if they did, I would want them to choke to death because those little guys will murder us, open your eyes and see if you're thinking, wait, wait, if it wasn't harmful, why did they remove it?

Well, there was intense public concern that was amplified by the people. like then-congressman Dan Burton making arguments like this I have not yet found any scientist who says there is no doubt that mercury in vaccines does not contribute to autism now they will say that there is no scientific evidence, there are no studies or anything that proves it yet , but turn it around, there are no studies to disprove it either, okay, okay, proving a negative result is an impossible standard and that's also a slippery slope because it means I can tell you that you, Dan Burton, are an ass.

You dress donkeys in cheerleading outfits and thought about them if you like and do it all and you tell me by weight there is absolutely no evidence that I did that, but I would say turn it around, there is no evidence from Please don't do that either, and this is not a path you want to take, and the point is that the donkey comments really explain why scientists may be at a real disadvantage in this debate because they are, by nature, careful. In the way they present their conclusions, science and English are not really the same language, so when a scientist says we have no evidence that there is a link between vaccines and autism, what they are really saying is that you know we are as positive as anyone can humanly be. be that there is no link and one thing I sometimes do when I talk to parents is say that I am as sure that there is no link between vaccines and autism as I am that if I were to leave this building, I would would not be able to fly properly and that's about as clear as it gets and for the record, if your doctor thinks you can fly, run because either you're crazy or you're Kelly and if your pediatrician is Kelly, those things are actually the lesser of your problems and I know some will say that the real problem is that pharmaceutical companies have paid scientists to hide problems with vaccines.

You can find countless memes online about how the entire system is corrupt. which features a very smart looking cat and I'm not saying there aren't problems with big pharma, there absolutely are, we've discussed them before on this show, but on the rare occasion that there have been problems with vaccines, they have retired and fast and I know that explanation will still not satisfy some. There will be some commentsreally toxic below this video along with the usual ones about how I look like an owl who can't get a date to prom. Oh, or that he probably lives. alone, surrounded by vials, I'm too weak to open it alone 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 test them and you know.

What we did do is research a lot of them and the problem is that I can go point by point and talk for hours tonight and it will never end. It's like whacking a mole. When one theory collapses, another appears and I somewhat understand the insistence that there must be a link in the age at which children are supposed to receive the MMR vaccine. It turns out that it is the same age at which diagnosable signs of autism can begin to appear, but correlation is not causation, that is what scientific studies are for and remember that they are very clear that the link does not exist and the problem with spending.

Every time more time and money trying to prove that this link takes resources away from studying the real causes and treatments. Just listen to the mother of a child with autism who started a foundation precisely because she wanted to discover the causes why we have dozens of diseases. I think we were right to look at whether vaccines could 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 is enough, yes, it is true, it is like that.

Einstein quotes are sometimes seen 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 I can't seem to emphasize this enough, the media is not a done and if you won. Don't believe that, take it from this very smart looking cat, but again, that doubt is hard to shake and some parents agree with the president and are in favor of hedging their bets and skipping or spacing out vaccinations just in case 93 % of pediatricians say that parents have asked them to do just that and one of the places where that idea may come from is a pediatrician named dr.

Sears does not see bill the famous doctor and author but his son Bob Sears dr. Bob has made a name for himself with what may seem like a sensible-sounding approach to addressing parents' concerns. What I have put together is what I call my alternative vaccine schedule. It is a way to fully vaccinate a baby in a way that spreads. the shots move away a little and that sounds like a decent compromise because it's the middle position, right, the problem is the middle ground between sense and nonsense. It's like saying it would be crazy to eat that whole bar of soap, so just eat half of it now.

The enthusiasm for spacing out vaccines comes from some parents' belief that children today get too many vaccines too soon, perhaps It can be best summarized in this meme of a dog full of needles and I will say if this is how they applied them. I would be opposed to that, but let's break that fear because while it is true that children are receiving more injections than before, the amount of antigens in those injections or the substances that induce the immune response has decreased considerably and is a drop in the ocean compared . to the thousands of foreign antigens that our child usually encounters every day, just watch a child for five minutes and see if he doesn't eat his friends' boogers, put his whole mouth over the water balcony or try to kiss a raccoon which he just found in a dumpster. while playing hide and seek, my point is that children are disgusting.

I even see it himself, as it may be that his approach is not based on scientific research, so where is the peer-reviewed published evidence to support the notion of citation overload? you follow the CDC recommended schedule, where does that exist? Chris. I don't believe there is such research and, in fact, I never claimed there was. I have certainly made it very clear in my writings that my cautions about vaccine distribution are theoretical. a theoretical benefit to children and is an option that I think many parents are more comfortable with and might actually attract more parents to vaccinate if they can distribute the vaccines beyond the regular schedule, except your job is to make sure that children don't get deadly diseases so as not to make parents feel comfortable because you're a pediatrician, not a bottle of whiskey stuffed into a BabyBjorn dr.

Bob sometimes seems to be trying to have it both ways because, while he says he is pro-vaccine and doesn't explicitly tell parents to skip or delay important vaccinations, his book simply includes an alternative vaccination schedule and a selective vaccination schedule. and in that case, you can get the measles vaccine up to the age of ten and also every once in a while he'll drop a line like this, maybe you'll say what I like to do about vaccines there and autism is that vaccines don't cause autism. except when they do and I know that sounds misleading but don't worry, opportunistic quacks who write books that fan the flames of people's unfounded fears do not cause a legitimate danger to public health except when they do and what the benefits are. . from dr.

Sears' plans are, as he says, theoretical, the dangers of spacing out vaccines are very real, the CDC says distributing vaccines puts children at risk of developing illnesses during the time vaccines are delayed, and some of Those diseases are dangerous. Measles alone was responsible for more than one hundred and thirty thousand deaths worldwide in 2015 in part because it is ridiculously contagious. I'm talking about "happy" by infectious pharrell. I just said that and it's already stuck in your head. Now I'm happy. There you have it, that's how infectious measles is and one. The way we can keep needles at bay is through something called herd immunity, which is the concept that the more people who get vaccinated, the harder it is for a disease to spread, but the margin of safety is much smaller than what most experts think. that the herd immunity threshold for measles is around 95%, but when in France that figure fell to 89% a few years ago, this is what happened in 2007, there were around 40 cases of measles throughout France and in In 2008, a ten-year-old girl returned. from the holidays in Austria she went back to school and played with some friends a few days later the girls got sick 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 well, so demonstrates the clip Two things for us: one, a decrease in herd immunity can have devastating consequences and anything is terrifying if you play frère Jacques' children's song underneath.

I guarantee you it's true. Just look at what happens when you add that music underneath this footage we found there. There's no way those kids aren't about to be decapitated by a pile of reserves. No way, if you think about it, you know that's an opportunity. I am willing to take advantage of it and I am simply making this decision for my son. The thing is, you're not putting kids like Rhett Crouch at risk. He was diagnosed with leukemia at age two and his immune system was so weakened that he couldn't get vaccinated, meaning that if he contracted a serious illness, it could be fatal. and I'll let his mom handle this when he was first diagnosed, he was pretty much removed from society, we avoided highly concentrated groups of people when we went out, we were masks, I mean, we really limited his exposure and we were just I'm really excited about the day when I can start kindergarten so I can have that sense of socialization and community and learning a year after remission and back to school.

Rhett will soon be healthy enough to be fully vaccinated, but until then his life depends exactly on herd immunity. So by getting vaccinated you are helping and protecting those who are most vulnerable, such as sick people and newborns too young to be vaccinated, and why would you choose not to? I think Jesus Christ himself said it best when he said: do you really need anything? Kind of a wise quote to convince you of this, like don't be an idiot and look, I know, I honestly know, but for some people this is still hard, but what can help is trying to anchor yourself to what we know it is.

It's 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, according to the CDC, it's literally close to one in a million and I know which in a way that isn't really helpful because every parent thinks their child is one in a million, but if it makes you feel better, the chances of your child being convicted of murder and eventually executed by the state are only one in one hundred and nineteen thousand and twelve, yes. and if that makes you feel even worse, cheer up, maybe your kid is one of those murderers who never gets a course, maybe they are clearly very smart and you know, maybe one of the biggest problems here is that when people listen so much about vaccines.

The emphasis is on non-existence or tremendously improbable harm and we tend not to talk about the very tangible good they do. After all, no one will go to Facebook to post if they didn't get polio again today, so even less and maybe in a way they should Doing so because it is easy to forget that the benefits of vaccines are enormous. What we have seen in the industrialized world is essentially that all the major epidemics have disappeared. Moms today have every expectation that their beautiful baby will live and not be wiped out by Tiffany's, even occasionally at meals, now that's the transformation in young lives that vaccines bring and that's a really good point. , only slightly undermined by him using the phrase polished because it's about babies, not ribs, here's the thing.

It really comes down to this, you're probably going to hear scary stories about vaccines from other parents or on the internet at some point and it's hard not to be terrified when you come across this and that's partly because parenting in general is scary, trust me. . I am someone who is afraid of literally everything: the dark, the light, heights, depths, confined spaces, open spaces, strangers, intimacy, spiders and a sudden mysterious lack of spiders, but all of that, except for what is wrong and if this helps at all, I have a son, he is 19 months old, he was born premature after a very difficult pregnancy and I am worried about his health and I still am, it helped a lot but we are fully vaccinating him on time and If I can overcome the temptation to I hear the election cries of my terrified lizard brain then I think everyone can.