On Sunday, Last Week Tonight With John Oliver opened with a brief update on the coal magnate who’s suing the show after last week’s episode. Oliver said “I desperately want to talk to you about this tonight” but he has to wait until the suit is settled. Instead, we got a long segment on vaccines. Long story short, vaccinate your damn kids. Long story long, this is a topic I’ve ranted about many, many, many, many times; my other job is as a pharmacy tech, so seeing people get sick for no damn reason is an enraging part of my life. (And, to be completely clear, the store I work at doesn’t sell vaccines, not that I’d get a commission if we did. Vaccines aren’t a conspiracy to make money; the profit margin on vaccines is minimal to nonexistent for everyone involved.)
The Last Week Tonight segment went over the many reasons why herd immunity is important (Dana McCaffery didn’t have to die) and how the arguments against vaccinating don’t make much sense. But, gee, who are we to listen to? Thousands of doctors, or Facebook memes from our most science-illiterate relatives? As John Oliver puts it, “Memes aren’t facts. And if you won’t take it from me, take it from this very smart-looking cat.”
That cat looks smart.
