- COVID cases in India are surging at a terrifying rate, highlighting the importance of vaccines.
- In the US, vaccine demand is declining, with some locations having extra doses and unfilled appointments.
- A survey found that 18% of American adults are hesitant about getting the vaccine, while 22% say no.
- Vaccine hesitancy is seen among different groups, including Black Americans and Republicans.
- Misinformation and doubts about the vaccine, spread through conservative media and anti-vaccine groups, contribute to hesitancy.
- Common myths about the vaccine, such as microchipping, are easily debunked.
- It is important to address vaccine hesitancy and provide reassurance to encourage more people to get vaccinated.

- The video discusses various conspiracy theories surrounding the COVID-19 vaccine.
- It debunks the claim that microchips are being implanted in people through the vaccine.
- The speed at which the vaccine was developed is explained, highlighting the prior research on other coronaviruses.
- The video addresses concerns about the mRNA technology used in the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, clarifying that it does not modify DNA.
- False claims about the vaccine causing infertility and containing cells from aborted fetuses are debunked.
- Misleading headlines and data from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) are discussed, emphasizing the need for caution and verification.
- The video mentions the temporary pause of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine due to rare blood clot concerns, which actually demonstrates the safety measures in place.

- Vaccine skeptics claiming vaccines are dangerous are proven wrong by the rigorous analysis of vaccine safety
- Serious side effects like anaphylaxis are incredibly rare, mostly occurring in individuals with severe allergies
- Most people can expect mild symptoms or no side effects after receiving the vaccine
- COVID has killed over 500,000 people in the US alone, while the vaccine has not caused any deaths
- Politicians, celebrities, or athletes urging people to get vaccinated may not effectively convince the vaccine hesitant
- It is important for individuals to personally communicate and provide information to convince hesitant individuals
- Avoid dismissing or judging those with doubts and make an effort to convince them with patience and understanding.

- COVID cases in India are surging and vaccine demand is declining in the US.
- Vaccine hesitancy is seen among different groups, including Black Americans and Republicans.
- Misinformation and doubts about the vaccine contribute to hesitancy.
- Common myths about the vaccine, such as microchipping, are easily debunked.
- It is important to address vaccine hesitancy and provide reassurance to encourage more people to get vaccinated.
- The video discusses various conspiracy theories surrounding the COVID-19 vaccine and debunks them.
- The speed at which the vaccine was developed is explained, highlighting prior research on other coronaviruses.
- Concerns about mRNA technology, infertility claims, and vaccine safety are addressed and debunked.
- The temporary pause of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is mentioned, demonstrating safety measures in place.
- Serious side effects are rare, and most people can expect mild symptoms or no side effects after vaccination.
- Personal communication and understanding are important in convincing hesitant individuals.

John Oliver explains why some people don’t want to get the Covid-19 vaccine and how they might be reassured. (Even you, Mike in Baltimore.)

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-♪ ♪ -♪ ♪ But we are actually gonna dive straight in with our main story tonight, which concerns the COVID vaccines.

The end result of the world's greatest scientists working around the clock to save countless lives, immortalized in a card we'll all definitely lose in a month.

Vitally important, but also too big to fit in any standard wallet?

Way to fumble at the 1 yard line, science.

And look, not that we needed it, but this week saw yet another reminder of just how dangerous COVID is, with cases in India in particular surging at a truly terrifying rate.

India set a world record for daily COVID cases of over 400,000, and that is probably an undercount.

And obviously, the world should be doing everything it can to help India right now, but our best way out of this mess long-term is clearly vaccines.

And it's worth remembering, we in the U.S.

We currently have access to a lot of vaccines, and more than half of U.S.

Adults have now gotten at least 1 dose, which is great.

The bad news is, some vaccination locations have already gone from having not enough supply to not enough demand.

According to the CDC, the daily average for vaccinations has dropped 20 percent since the start of the month, a worrying trend.

Vaccine demand declining in South Carolina.

Some providers left with extra doses and appointments are wide open.

Palm Beach County Health Care District says it is now facing 10,000 appointments for the county's vaccine sites remain unfilled since they opened this week.

We've got thousands of appointments available over the next few weeks, and no takers at this point.

A worrying amount of people are holding off on getting the free COVID vaccine.

And I'm not saying that you should immediately get something just because it's free.

I wouldn't recommend getting these old dolls on Craigslist just because they're free, they're weird, broken, and they will kill you in your sleep.

But these vaccines could save not just your life, but the lives of people around you.

And it's genuinely dispiriting that just a few months into the vaccine rollout, we are already at this point.

And the problem is, for the coronavirus, the herd immunity threshold is thought to be between 70 and 90 percent of the population.

But a survey found that while 60 percent of American adults have got or want to get the vaccine.

Another 18 percent say, maybe, and 22 percent say no.

And if you're thinking, well, hold on, if every maybe gets the vaccine, that still puts us at 78 percent.

Unfortunately, that poll doesn't take into account children who were not vaccinating right now and who make up around 22 percent of the population.

So we need to get the vaccine into as many adults as possible as soon as possible.

And that means You really need to get vaccinated.

And obviously, I mean the collective you, but also you, Mike, Mike in Baltimore.

I know you've got this on in the background at work on Monday, so listen to me.

Don't say you're gonna look into it later.

Here are a list of vaccine sites in your area.

And if you're thinking, I'm not sure I need it, Joe Rogan says I'm probably fine.

You might not get seriously sick from COVID, or indeed, sick at all.

But you could still inadvertently pass it to someone who could then die.

And before you say, well, vulnerable people should just get vaccinated then, the vaccines are only 95 percent effective, Mike, so they'll probably be okay, but maybe not.

Also, the more the virus circulates, the likely we'll see mutations that make it more dangerous, possibly helping it to evade the vaccine completely, putting us all the way back to square 1.

The point is, there is a problematic amount of vaccine hesitancy right now, even among people who you would really like to think would not need convincing.

We met Robert Gannon before he went in to visit his 77-year-old mother, Kia, who is on a ventilator right now in the ICU due to COVID.

I think she was being hesitant, just wanting to see how things played out.

What would it take for you to get vaccinated?

There is Perhaps no clearer sign of just how deep vaccine hesitancy runs than someone in that guy's position still questioning whether to get it, instead of asking, is there such a thing as too much vaccine?

Because if not, I'm gonna keep going back for injections until I'm around 80 percent Pfizer.

So given all of that, tonight, let's talk about the COVID vaccines.

Why people are hesitant, what their worries are, and how they might be reassured.

And let's start with the fact, you can't characterize any 1 group as uniformly vaccine hesitant.

Every group will have some who are excited and others who are anxious.

And different groups will be anxious for different reasons.

For instance, early on, you probably heard a lot about hesitancy among some Black Americans, which can be a real thing.

When the vaccine was first made available to both of you, did you both jump at the chance to get it?

I am Black first in this country, and that has with it a lot of baggage, to tell you the truth.

And so, my public health degree, the culminating experience that I did was related to the relationship between black people and physicians.

And that relationship has been a cantankerous 1.

And so those are the kinds of things that are deeply embedded and challenging to overcome, even within someone who's a scientist.

We've talked before on this show about the fraught relationship black Americans have with health care based on both current bad experiences and the history of incidents like the Tuskegee experiment where doctors lied to black men, allowing them to suffer from untreated syphilis over decades, or, as most U.S.

History students would describe it, something I have not heard of.

Although it does feel important to mention that that doctor did wind up getting the vaccine, and in general, Black vaccine hesitancy has dropped fast.

Another group you might have heard have high hesitancy rates are Republicans, and that is also true.

Around 30 percent of Republicans say they won't get it.

Because fears and doubts about the vaccine have flown around conservative media, with 1 of the most prominent super spreaders being this fucking guy.

Why are Americans being discouraged from asking simple, straightforward questions about it?

Questions like, how effective are these drugs?

Do you need a reason to turn on the vaccine?

Or enter the front doors of Madison Square Garden?

Oh, now they're telling us the vaccine has a delayed response.

If vaccines work, why are vaccinated people still banned from living normal lives?

So maybe it doesn't work, and they're simply not telling you that.

Well, you hate to think that, especially if you've gotten 2 shots.

But what's the other potential explanation?

Okay, it is genuinely weird to see someone hosting a show on a supposed news network and ending every sentence with a question mark, especially when answers to most of those questions are out there for anyone who cares to know.

So, for instance, that last complaint that the CDC still recommends wearing masks indoors when around vulnerable, unvaccinated people does not mean the vaccine doesn't work.

Clinical trials found that the vaccines are spectacularly successful at preventing people from getting serious disease.

As for whether they protect you from spreading the virus, the trials weren't designed to assess that, but evidence so far indicates that they drastically reduce transmission.

The reason we still see mask and distancing recommendations is that the CDC is being cautious and wants to be sure that it is not spreading bullshit around during a global pandemic like a frozen dinner duke with a TV show.

Anyway, I hope that answers at least 1 of your gape-mouthed bad faith wonderings, Tucker, you scrunch-faced fear baboon.

And the problem is, when people like Tucker raise questions without bothering to answer them, there is a lot of misinformation out there for people to then stumble on.

Anti-vaccine groups have been waiting for a moment like this to spread doubt, and the scary thing is, they don't actually need to convince people they're right.

They just need to convince people that no 1 is.

While few believe specific myths about the vaccine, larger numbers say that they didn't know whether particular myths were true or false.

For instance, only 4 percent of people believe the COVID vaccine is more deadly than the disease, but 25 percent say they don't know.

Because if anti-vaxxers can simply spread enough misinformation to cause people to throw up their hands and say, I just don't know enough to get the shot, they have already seriously fucked things up for all of us.

And to be clear, most people who are hesitant are not fanatics or conspiracy theorists.

Many are just trying to make the best decision for themselves and their family, like that pediatrician that we saw earlier.

You definitely know people like that in your life.

So, I'm actually gonna spend the rest of this piece trying to clear up some of the biggest myths flying around.

And some are pretty easy to debunk quickly, like the claims that Bill Gates is using the vaccine to put a microchip in all of us, something his wife had this response to.

I know my husband is not vaccinating people and putting a microchip in her arm, because that technology doesn't even exist, and he's never uttered the words out of his mouth, so...

That wasn't the reassuring pushback to a bat-shit conspiracy theory that I had hoped for, to be honest.

We're not microchipping people because the technology doesn't exist yet, and my husband hasn't said it out loud to me.

There are lots of things a husband won't say out loud to his wife, not dark things, just things.

Quiet thoughts a partner might not be ready to hear.

Like how sometimes, late at night, I think, wouldn't it be nice to live in an egg?

I can get an oval-shaped sleeping pod, nobody wants 1 of those.

Or maybe a normal egg and I'm small, it doesn't matter.

No opening, no windows, no way to ever know if it's morning or night.

So do you know what time it is all the time?

Sometimes it's warm, and that's when I feel safest.

Sometimes I can tell I'm being carried or moved about, and it's jarring enough that I'm nervous, but not so rough that I'm panicking.

And You can shake me, but do make sure not to do it hard, because remember, I'm fragile.

The point is, you can't say any of that to Melinda Gates.

Anyway, for the record, there are no microchips in the COVID vaccine.

That rumor is based on the fact that the Gates Foundation funded research years ago, which is frequently taken out of context.

In that study, researchers looked into creating an invisible ink that could potentially be injected along with a vaccine in order for populations like refugee kids to be able to retain vaccine records without paperwork.

Over time, the original context was lost, contorted, and kind of telephoned its way into becoming something-something Bill Gates microchips on Facebook.

A claim which, if you think about it for just a second, doesn't make sense.

Because if your main concern is that Bill Gates could use microchips to track you, he can already do that.

Now, another more reasonable sounding concern has to do with just how fast the vaccine came together.

I think the whole thing has been rushed through too fast.

It kind of came really fast, like the vaccine.

I just, I don't feel comfortable with taking it.

I think that they're using the public as guinea pigs.

Nobody wants to be a guinea pig, although I don't really know why.

You can eat a pepper while wearing the stem as a little hat, run around a tiny city made of cardboard, and best of all, you get to use the guinea pig bridge.

Guinea Pig Bridge Transporting guinea pigs From point A to point B Utilizing the latest Guinea Pig Bridge technology Yeah,

being a guinea pig has its upsides, that's all I'm saying.

But that is clearly not the concern that those people have.

Their worry is that we are being used as guinea pigs for a rushed, untested vaccine.

It is an understandable thing to worry about, even if some express it in less than ideal ways.

Testing, testing, testing, testing, and more testing.

It's important if you're gonna put something into your body that it's absolutely and totally tested.

His confidence, because I don't think I've seen anyone more self-assured than the man who just promised 6 words, said 7, and counted 5, all without even flinching.

That guy is so secure in his thinking, he could be wrong about numbers on camera twice and do it with an unbreaking smile.

But it is worth understanding exactly how the vaccine was able to come to market so fast, because researchers had been working on vaccines against other coronaviruses for years.

So, when COVID-19 hit, they had a significant head start.

Operation Warp Speed, as it was famously called, wasn't about rushing the science.

It was about significantly cutting through bureaucracy that could have otherwise slowed it down.

Did you ever imagine that we'd be able to develop a vaccine in 12 to 18 months?

We were able to compress the timeline So that things that we would normally do in a linear fashion, A to B, we actually start the F and the E at the same time as A and B.

They took steps that usually happen sequentially and save time by running them simultaneously.

And to be honest, I am envious of that level of efficiency.

I would save so much time every morning if I could shit, shower, shave, eat breakfast, kiss my family and brush my teeth all at the same time.

Unfortunately, I've only ever managed to do 3 of them at once, but I'm so close to that fourth 1.

Now, another concern that you may have heard or seen online is that the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are the first authorized to use messenger RNA, which is true, but that has given rise to speculation about what mRNA is capable of doing.

Basically, anyone taking these vaccines, they're all designed to do the same thing, is going to have neurological disorders within 1 year.

Most of the people taking the vaccine will be dead within 10.

You take the mRNA, it creates plaque in your brain, it gives you Alzheimer's, and I got the studies too.

So, hey, you think they just put fluoride in the water to dumb you down?

Man, Alex Jones is having a blast, isn't he?

No 1 else has as much fun while making the world a worse place to live in.

It's like he invented a jet pack that sprays everyone beneath him with human shit.

But the thing is, there is absolutely no evidence or credible studies supporting any of what he just said.

As for the claim that mRNA vaccines modify your DNA, it is very important to know that the vaccine's mRNA does not enter our genome.

It does its work far from the cell's nucleus, which is where your DNA is.

But the fear of what the vaccine contains or what it could do to you seems to be common.

Some evangelicals are concerned that it contains cells from aborted fetuses, which it does not.

Others worry that it could change the body's inner workings.

You might have had a friend tell you that they are worried that the vaccines cause infertility.

Those rumors were fueled by a blog post which falsely claimed that Pfizer's vaccine contained ingredients capable of training the female body to attack a protein that plays a crucial role in the development of the placenta.

First, experts say of that claim, it's a myth, it's inaccurate, there is no evidence to support it.

And there is already pretty good proof that Pfizer's vaccine doesn't cause infertility because during the trials last year, multiple women became pregnant, and the only 1 who suffered a pregnancy loss was given the placebo.

And look, the final myth you may have heard is that the risks from the vaccine are somehow greater than the risks of COVID.

That is a perception fed by the constant circulation of misleading headlines about people falling ill or dying after getting their shot.

For instance, you may have seen this story that was widely shared about 23 people in Norway dying within a week of getting the shot, which does sound scary, but that headline is missing some pretty major context.

While those people did die, at that point in Norway, the vaccine was being administered to the oldest or sickest people.

And a certain percentage of them were statistically going to die that week, vaccine or no vaccine.

On average, 400 people die every week in nursing homes in Norway.

And when the World Health Organization reviewed those incidents, they didn't find any unexpected or untoward increase in fatalities, which does make sense.

The vaccine protects against COVID, not the concept of mortality.

It is weird that I have to clarify this, but you are, in fact, going to die 1 day, Mike.

Yeah, Mike, stop listening to what Joe Rogan tells you.

He's a fucking moron, and those are his words, not mine.

That also goes for stories that you might see hyping up scary-sounding data from VAERS, the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System.

It's a database that collects stories of medical events following vaccinations.

But any layperson has to treat data coming out of it with extreme caution.

Because reports can be entered by anyone and are not routinely verified.

1 doctor once claimed that the flu vaccine turned him into the Hulk, and that report was accepted and entered into the database, which is completely absurd.

Although, admittedly, it can turn you into Captain America, the only superhero whose origin story is a metric ton of experimental Nazi steroids.

And look, if we're just gonna share random, unverified side effects, I might as well show you this truly shocking video about what might happen to your mom.

So my mom got the vaccine because she's a health care worker.

And she told me she's experiencing some side effects.

Mom, what's that side effect you said you're experiencing?

And look, I'm not saying VEAS is useless.

The reason the CDC collects this data is so, if a pattern does emerge, actions can be taken.

That is exactly what happened with the Johnson & Johnson shot.

The CDC found a potential pattern of rare blood clots and paused the rollout under an abundance of caution.

And while some vaccine skeptics pointed to that as evidence that they were right about vaccines being dangerous, in reality, it kind of proves the opposite.

That the safety risk of vaccines is rigorously and publicly analyzed, not secretly buried and somehow leaked to the human football's neon scream hour.

And none of this is to say that there are no side effects to the vaccines.

Serious ones like anaphylaxis are incredibly rare.

4.7 cases per million for Pfizer, 2 and a half cases per million for Moderna.

And you should know, those also occur mostly in individuals with a history of severe allergies.

The fact is, the vast majority of people can expect at most, Typical cold or flu symptoms in the first few days after their shot, or maybe just a sore arm, or maybe nothing at all.

For what it's worth, I actually got my second shot this Thursday, my arm hurt a little bit for a day, but that's basically it.

I will admit, the following afternoon, for a couple of hours, I did feel a little bit like a boss-ass bitch, but that passed quickly.

And anyway, the key thing to remember is that no side effect of the vaccine is worse than the alternative, COVID.

A disease that has killed over 500,000 people in the U.S.

Alone, while once again, to date, the vaccine has been proven to kill exactly 0.

So, it is more than natural to have questions, but There are reassuring answers out there.

And anyone just throwing out questions without acknowledging that probably has another agenda entirely.

But the problem is to get anywhere close to herd immunity, we badly need to convince anyone who can be convinced.

Well, some Republican lawmakers, to their credit, have tried to reassure their voters, although occasionally, those attempts have looked like this.

The world still astounds you Each time you look at a star ♪ I'm Senator John Kennedy.

And not just because it is the worst thing to come out of a Kennedy's mouth since the back of a Kennedy's head, but also because the truth is, that probably didn't convince anyone.

In researching this piece, experts repeatedly told us that the vaccine hesitant generally don't respond well to hearing from politicians, celebrities, or athletes telling them to get the vaccine.

I would love to think that I could end this piece having carefully laid out some data with a triumphant call for people to get vaccinated, featuring a mascot of some incongruous animal-like, I don't know, a vaccine cicada.

You don't think that that's something that I would be interested in doing?

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Covid Vaccines: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)