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Last Week Tonight considers the conflicting information around vaccines

By Leighann Dicks

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Last week, I told you to stay tuned to see if Last Week Tonight gets sued for its coal segment that ignored a cease and desist from Murray Energy.

Well, you probably know by now that indeed, the show is facing a lawsuit. This week, John Oliver began the show by addressing this, but the show’s lawyers advised against saying too much about it. We all just get to see it play out in court (bummed that Court TV isn’t still around to give us a special on this, honestly).

So, this week gave us a return to the very-relevant-but-not-hyper-current subject matter that Last Week Tonight often goes for. I really appreciate these episodes, because I feel like they bring to light some important issues that aren’t getting as much attention.

News fatigue is very real, and sometimes it’s nice to just turn our attention to something that hasn’t recently been beaten into the ground by cable news, ya know?

This week’s focus is vaccines, particularly their alleged link to autism. If it feels like this topic has been floating around for a while, it has. Oliver points to the study published by Andrew Wakefield in the late 90s that included just 12 subjects.

Scientists have been unable to find similar results in subsequent studies, and since then, it was shown that Wakefield manipulated the data. Wakefield’s medical license was revoked, the study was retracted. Still, though, Oliver points out that the idea that vaccines and autism are related remains alive and well.

Oliver concedes that maybe people now aren’t as willing to say outright that the are against vaccines, but it seems there’s always a “but” attached.

For example, the idea that we should space out vaccines has been touted by politicians like Donald Trump and Dr. Bob Sears. But, in an interview, Dr. Sears admits there isn’t any evidence that this is effective (he says, “I never claimed there was”) or should even be recommended.

The idea of further gapping out vaccines over time is purely theoretical, but the way it is spoken about doesn’t exactly emphasize this. Sears says it’s a good idea because it can make parents more comfortable, but Oliver retorts that he’s a pediatrician, not “a flask of whiskey tucked into a Baby Bjorn.”

Further, people have discussed the idea that there should be fewer antigens in vaccines, the active part of them that helps us build immunity to the disease they’re trying to prevent. Oliver points out, citing a Science magazine article from this year, that we’ve actually already done that.

Sears’ statement, “Vaccines don’t cause autism, except when they do,” seems intentionally confusing. If we have all this information floating out there and a doctor says this, what are we to believe? Oliver has this to say in response:

"Don’t worry: opportunistic quacks writing books that fan the flames of people’s unfounded fears don’t cause a legitimate public health hazard – except when they do."

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The Centers for Disease Control, for example, have written that spreading out shots puts kids at risk for diseases in those gaps between vaccines. So, it seems that this strategy might defeat its own purpose.

Oliver illustrates his point about herd immunity – which we can gain through collective vaccination – by playing a clip from a documentary about measles in France, complete with creepy children singing “Frère Jacques”. Scientists traced 15,000 cases of measles documented in one year back to one unvaccinated child.

A super-contagious disease like measles spreads extremely quickly. If people who could get vaccinated don’t, kids who can’t be vaccinated, like those with compromised immune systems from leukemia or other diseases, are put at much higher risk for infection.

In the end, a lot of the issues here are the result of too much information (pretty common in the age of “fake news”), to the extent that people don’t know what to believe. Parenting is scary, and it can be easy to opt out if forgoing vaccinations seems like the safer option for your child.

Oliver suggests we try and anchor ourselves to what we do know to be true through research.

Next: Last Week Tonight found Lord Buckethead and brought him to NYC

He uses his own son as an example. If Oliver, a person who is self-admittedly afraid of everything, can make the decision to fully vaccinate his son on the recommended schedule, he believes that you can, too.

Also, if you get a shot at watching the full episode, the “And Now This” segment about the backyard train at WNEP Scranton is both wholesome and funny. It’s an internet comment section in phone-in form. Recommended viewing, for sure.

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