John Oliver made his much appreciated Season 8 return on Last Week Tonight and not a moment too soon. After all, a lot has happened in the past month, and it’s been almost a year since Oliver handed out much needed advice on COVID-19. Unfortunately, it is still very much with us, so Oliver sort-of made it the subject of his deep dive, but not before putting his thoughts on Netflix’s sultry, sexy Regency England-set hit, Bridgerton, on display for all. He did so in a backhanded way while acknowledging that “if you want to see a British person do something hot or interesting,” then Bridgerton is there for the taking. He added his one-sentence take on the series: “Lots of jizzing in blankets on that show.” He’s not wrong! (My regards to the Duke.)
However, Oliver needed to get serious, so he dove not into COVID-19 but brought a dire warning for “the next pandemic,” which no one wants to think about but should consider. After all, the world saw multiple epidemics (Swine Flu, Ebola, MERS, and Zika) in the decade prior to our current pandemic, and not too many people listened to those warnings. So, Oliver made a lengthy dive into how humanity’s disruption of the Earth’s landscape, particularly through deforestation, has almost guaranteed that we’ll unearth new diseases, and the time is now to prepare for more payback from Mother Nature:
“If we’re not very careful, the next pandemic could be even worse… So for the good of future generations — and in all likelihood, us in a few years’ time — we really need to remember how we feel right now and invest accordingly, because the truth is you never know where the next pandemic is going to come from.”
Urbanization and “wet markets” are other key cradles for emerging diseases, and Oliver notes that “it does being to seem like we’re actively trying to start pandemics.” There’s surely no way to help shut down all of humanity’s most disastrous vices because “draconian measures are just not going to work,” acknowledges Oliver. In other words, black markets will exist if wet markets shut down, but he sure hopes that mankind will at least consider that the COVID-19 situation could happen again, and that nations will take some preparatory action. Watch the full clip above.
