John Oliver Tears Into the Rise of Anti-Vaxxers

”This atmosphere of confusion about vaccines has caused real problems.”

In the latest installment of Last Week Tonight, John Oliver discussed the rise of vaccine skeptics in America and the dangerous pieces of misinformation that have contributed to the anti-vaccine movement. 

“Despite their success, small groups are both skeptical and vocal about vaccines—which is nothing new,” Oliver said. “But these days their voice has been amplified by the human megaphone that is the president of the United States.”

He then played a clip of then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump supporting alternative vaccination schedules that spread out the periods between required inoculations. Despite the obvious reasons why one should avoid taking medical advice from President Trump, Oliver noted that the alternative schedule idea has gained popularity as some kind of compromise between science and skeptical parents.

“The problem is that it’s the middle ground between sense and nonsense,” he continued. “It’s like saying, ’It would be crazy to eat that entire bar of soap, so I’ll just eat half of it.'” 

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THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

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