Penn And Teller Explain Why Anti-Vaccination Is Bullshit In 90 Seconds


If you’ve got any common sense, you’ll be rightly annoyed by the building wave of parents refusing to vaccinate their kids at the moment. So far it has caused an outbreak of measles at Disneyland and it’s likely to cause more outbreaks as rates of vaccination in kids continues to fall. Magicians, comedians and champions of common sense, Penn and Teller, decided enough was enough, and will now show you why the theories behind anti-vaccination are bullshit.

The theory that forms the backbone of the anti-vaccination movement is that vaccines can cause autism. A 1998 study published in a medical journal “found” a link between vaccines and autism, saying that 1-in-100 children were at risk. The journal later retracted that information after it was found to have been falsified. The author of the study was reportedly set to benefit from lawsuits that relied on his data, but the damage was already done: the “anti-vaxxer” movement was in full swing.

In Penn and Teller’s 2010 show Bullshit! the pair debunk myths that seem to weave their way in and out of mainstream thinking. The above clip sees them take the theory of anti-vaccination, and say that even if vaccinations do cause autism in 1-in-100 kids (which they obviously don’t), vaccination is still necessary to protect kids from a whole bunch of other awful things that modern medicine cured ages ago.

Please. Don’t be an idiot. Vaccinate your kids.


The Cheapest NBN 50 Plans

It’s the most popular NBN speed in Australia for a reason. Here are the cheapest plans available.

At Gizmodo, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.