Epidemiologists darkly joke that they can predict the next preventable-disease outbreak by drawing a circle around Whole Foods stores on a map. Jon Stewart took a similar tack in his Daily Show rundown of the resurgent measles virus in America, noting that some of the least vaccinated communities in the U.S. are wealthy liberal enclaves in California.
"This is Marin County!" Stewart said, mocking a woman in a TV clip who'd said her tony pocket of the San Francisco Bay Area is a liberal, thoughtful, "well-educated group of people" who may choose not to vaccinate "for a good reason." You see, Stewart said, "they're not rednecks, they're not ignorant — they practice a mindful stupidity." Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.J.) get their share of abuse for their vaccine comments. "Vaccine ignorance seems to have created some strange hospital bedfellows, uniting the fringe of left and right," Stewart said, and then he very effectively explained why vaccines are important using an extended, delightful zombie analogy. Watch below. —Peter Weber
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
The Louvre is giving 'Mona Lisa' her own roomSpeed Read The world's most-visited art museum is getting a major renovation
-
Honda and Nissan in merger talksSpeed Read The companies are currently Japan's second and third-biggest automakers, respectively
-
Taylor Swift wraps up record-shattering Eras tourSpeed Read The pop star finally ended her long-running tour in Vancouver, Canada
-
Drake claims illegal boosting, defamationSpeed Read The rapper accused Universal Music of boosting Kendrick Lamar's diss track and said UMG allowed him to be falsely accused of pedophilia
-
'Wicked' and 'Gladiator II' ignite holiday box officeSpeed Read The combination of the two movies revitalized a struggling box office
-
Jussie Smollet conviction overturned on appealSpeed Read The Illinois Supreme Court overturned the actor's conviction on charges of staging a racist and homophobic attack against himself in 2019
-
Quincy Jones, music icon, is dead at 91Speed Read The legendary producer is perhaps best known as the architect behind Michael Jackson's 'Thriller'
-
OJ Simpson, star athlete tried for murder, dead at 76Speed Read The former football hero and murder suspect lost his battle with cancer
