UltraMiraculous
6 HN recommenders · recommended in 6 months, 2013–2018
1:31 · 7.3M views · Aug 20, 2010
A short clip of Penn and Teller arguing, in blunt and profane language, for vaccination and against anti-vaccine claims. It covers risk versus benefit and herd immunity.
HN commenters share it in vaccine threads as a quick, entertaining explanation of vaccination in layman's terms.
7 comments from Hacker News
URL: this video Penn and Teller on Vaccinations. This really drives home the point of herd immunity ( in ~ 90 seconds ).
The problem might very well be that our level of scientific education isn't in step with the realities of the world we live in. If someone wants to get a good grasp for the entire "story" of vaccination they have to have a basic understanding of evolution by natural selection. Fully 42% of the US population does not "believe" in evolution, which is further proof of the level of ignorance we are dealing with. I put "believe" in quotes because evolution by natural selection is not something one believes, that's nonsense. It is something one accepts or rejects based on over 150 years of evidence across a range of scientific disciplines. Perhaps this might help: this video
There are a lot of comments here about the issue of how to communicate risk of different personal medical choices to patients who do not themselves have medical training. It is a tough problem. Professional stage magicians, and avid skeptics, Penn and Teller had an episode of their cable television series Bullshit report on the issue of risks and benefits of vaccination. Maybe a clip from their TV show (with language that many families would find inappropriate for viewing with their children) will help communicate the risk and benefit ratio of vaccination more clearly than documents written in a more clinical tone. this video (short clip above, long clip below) [LINK]
The paper saying that the MMR vaccine causes autism (which is where the whole concept came from) was fraudulent, so it's not just "well, a side effect is better than the disease", it's total misguidance. Also, here's an amusing Penn & Teller clip that shares your view. this video
I think Penn and Teller[1] did a good job of explaining vaccinations in layman's terms (though I doubt anyone here actually needs an explanation of how or why vaccinations work.) [1] this video