Jimmy Kimmel Goes After Anti-Vaccination Movement

ABC talk show host Jimmy Kimmel decided to enter the anti-vaccination debate last week by sharing his opinion that “anti-vaxxers” are both misinformed and creating a dangerous environment for other children. This week he is standing his ground.

Citing the birth of his 8-month-old daughter, in a rare moment of seriousness, the Jimmy Kimmel Live host spoke about recent measles outbreaks before chiding, “The thing about doctors is, they didn’t learn about the human body from their friend’s Facebook page.”

Kimmel said:

I know if you’re one of these anti-vaccine people, you’re not going to take medical advice from a talk show host, and I don’t expect you too, I wouldn’t either. But I would expect you to take medical advice from almost every doctor in the world.

The thing about doctors is they didn’t learn about the human body from their friend’s Facebook page. They went to medical school where they studied all sorts of amazing things like how to magically prevent children from contracting horrible diseases by giving them a little shot… A little shot like that and poof, polio is gone.

This would all be okay if your kids were the only ones affected, but they’re not because unvaccinated kids put all children in danger, especially babies who are too young to get the vaccination shot.

He then gathered a group of doctors who had some harsh words for the “anti-vaxxers” though a PSA.

Watch: A Message for the Anti-Vaccine Movement:

The segment didn’t go over well with some on the other side of the issue, and Kimmel was soon inundated with negative responses on Twitter.

Rather than explain or apologize, Monday night the host turned those tweets into his very own “Mean Tweets” segment.

“So you see, people are taking a reasonable approach to this,” he joked about being portrayed as a puppet for big medicine on Twitter.

Kimmel then said he refused to present both sides of the argument for the same reason he wouldn’t present both sides of an argument that “pancakes make you gay.”

“They don’t, and there’s no point to discussing it,” he said. “If you genuinely believe that 99% of the doctors in this country are dishonest, then you need to see a doctor, ironically.”

Watch: Jimmy Kimmel’s Update on the Ant-Vaccination Discussion: