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Bill Maher vs. the Flu Vaccine - Well Blog - NYTimes.com October 13, 2009 , 12:17 pm
Bill Maher vs. the Flu Vaccine
By Tara Parker-Pope
Bill MaherMonica Almeida/The New York Times Bill Maher
The talk show host Bill Maher is best known for his pointed political commentary. But lately he has been dispensing surprisingly unscientific medical advice about flu and the vaccine that prevents it.
Mr. Maher recently told his Twitter followers that people who get flu shots are ?idiots.? On his Friday HBO show ?Real Time With Bill Maher,? he explained his opposition to the flu vaccine during an interview with Bill Frist, a heart surgeon who was a Republican senator from Tennessee.
Mr. Maher questioned letting someone stick ?a disease into your arm,? wrongly implying that the flu shot contains a live virus. The flu shot is a killed vaccine. (Only the nasal mist vaccine contains a weakened live virus.)
He said he did not believe that healthy people were vulnerable to dying from the new H1N1 virus. This contradicts statements from the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that young, healthy people from ages 5 to 24 appear particularly vulnerable to this flu. About a third of the 76 children who have died of H1N1 since April have had no underlying health problems.
Bill Maher vs. the Flu Vaccine
By Tara Parker-Pope
Bill MaherMonica Almeida/The New York Times Bill Maher
The talk show host Bill Maher is best known for his pointed political commentary. But lately he has been dispensing surprisingly unscientific medical advice about flu and the vaccine that prevents it.
Mr. Maher recently told his Twitter followers that people who get flu shots are ?idiots.? On his Friday HBO show ?Real Time With Bill Maher,? he explained his opposition to the flu vaccine during an interview with Bill Frist, a heart surgeon who was a Republican senator from Tennessee.
Mr. Maher questioned letting someone stick ?a disease into your arm,? wrongly implying that the flu shot contains a live virus. The flu shot is a killed vaccine. (Only the nasal mist vaccine contains a weakened live virus.)
He said he did not believe that healthy people were vulnerable to dying from the new H1N1 virus. This contradicts statements from the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that young, healthy people from ages 5 to 24 appear particularly vulnerable to this flu. About a third of the 76 children who have died of H1N1 since April have had no underlying health problems.
