‘Last Week Tonight’: John Oliver Pleads Viewers To Combat Misinformation On COVID-19 Vaccine, “Please Just Try As Hard As You Can”

Brandon Choe
·2 min read
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After a one week break, John Oliver came back to Last Week Tonight via “the void” to deliver his informative segment dispelling myths about the Covid-19 vaccine.

The United States is currently experiencing a steep drop-off of coronavirus cases and an increasing vaccination rate. Through steady vaccine supplies, the US is avoiding the fate of other ill-equipped countries like India, which recently broke the world record of over 400,000 daily COVID cases. More than half of American adults have gotten at least one dose of the vaccine and hope for normalcy seems to be on the horizon.

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However, Oliver noted, there has recently been an alarming amount of people simply not wanting to get the vaccine. He cited a 20% decline of vaccinations from the start of April and played a series of local news clips in which vaccination sites across the United States are having issues filling their appointments. This is also a pressing issue due to the fact that vaccines have a certain shelf life.

This problem, Oliver said, stemmed from the amount of misinformation propagated online by anti-vaxxers, people who oppose vaccinations.

Oliver expressed sympathy for hesitant communities of colors who, in the past, have had sour histories with vaccinations (e.g. Tuskegee Syphilis Study) and instead turned his lens onto conservative groups, familiarly, this time, onto Tucker Carlson.

A montage rolled of the Fox News host endlessly asking banal, rhetorical questions while squinting into the camera, expressing skepticism about the vaccine’s efficacy and the authority of the CDC.

He immediately tears into Carlson, saying the Fox News host “doesn’t need to convince people he’s right – he just needs to convince people that no one is.” Oliver takes Carlson to task over his vaccination skepticism, after which he calls him a “frozen dinner duke with a TV show” and a “scrunched faced fear-baboon.”

Oliver tried to clear up myths surrounding the vaccine, such as the false viral claim that Bill Gates is attempting to insert microchips in Americans and mRNA in the vaccine will harm the body and cause infertility.

He notes that he received his second shot earlier in the week and attested he did not experience any major side effects.

The host ended his segment with a calm call to action this week, urging viewers they are individually responsible for getting vaccinated and to pacify other people’s qualms about the vaccine.

“I’ve got two words for you,” Oliver said as he imitates an anti-vaxxer from earlier in the segment. “Please just try as hard as you can.”

Watch the video for the segment above.

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