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Penn and Teller on Vaccinations

UltraMiraculous

2.2K subscribers • 1 video on Rounds

YouTube
  • Recommended by 6 people, in Hacker News, across 5 different months.
  • Presented by Penn and Teller, as the video describes them
  • May be out of date. Uploaded 16 years ago, in an area where guidance changes.

For anyone, no background needed. Education, not medical advice.

7.3M views16 years ago6 recommendations

Immunity and infectionVaccinesInfectious diseasePublic health and policy

Penn and Teller use a physical demonstration to explain the concept of herd immunity and the importance of vaccination.

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Why it's here

6 people recommend this

What people say. Highly recommended as a simple, clear, and entertaining explanation of herd immunity and the safety of vaccines.

broodbucketin Hacker News • Recommends

On “Infectious disease doesn't care why you're unvaccinated”

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. link to this video
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tokenadultin Hacker News • Recommends

On ““You're not allowed science any more””

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. link to this video (short clip above, long clip below) link
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rogerbinnsin Hacker News • Recommends

On “CDC confirms first Ebola case diagnosed in US”

It is worse than that - even if her idiotic claims were true it would still be better to vaccinate. Penn & Teller ably explain link to this video
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iLochin Hacker News • Recommends

On “To Protect His Son, a Father Asks School to Bar Unvaccinated Children”

I think Penn and Teller1 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 link to this video
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rebootthesystemin Hacker News • Recommends

On “How an Amish missionary caused 2014's massive measles outbreak”

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: link to this video
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rixraxin Hacker News • Recommends

On “The Worst Measles Outbreak In The European Union”

URL: link to this video Penn and Teller on Vaccinations. This really drives home the point of herd immunity ( in ~ 90 seconds ).
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u/clostridium_deadClinician communityin r/publichealth • Mentions

Best explanation of the importance of vaccines
1View on Reddit

willvarfarin Hacker News • Mentions

On “Tamiflu: Millions wasted on flu drug, claims major report”

…and it) and all that wrangling about taking responsibility. I think most parents of suffers are really out to share around the burden of responsibility, rather than caring so much about the costs of care. The macro-problem is convincing people that the next time we are told to go get a jab, we should :( Here's Penn & Teller talking about Vaccines: link to this video Science isn't going to win over my wife as easily as all that. And I am very divided myself, however rational I try and be.…
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