Maher Slams DeGrasse Tyson While Discussing Vaccines: ‘This Is Not Your Field, You’re Not a Doctor’

DEGRASSE TYSON: “So that means we’re incapable, as a species, of truly understanding risk. That — that — and this goes to vaccines, okay? I don’t wanna, like, poke the bear here, but —
(Laughter)
But what I’m saying is — “
MAHER: “The bear believes in vaccines, just being skeptical of all medical interventions, as everyone should.”
(Applause)
DEGRASSE TYSON: “Well, except — wait a minute. Except 99 out 100 medical interventions, you are not saying, ‘I need a second opinion.’ If you have tuberculosis, you don’t need a second opinion.”
MAHER: “It’s not 99 — it’s not close to 99%.”
DEGRASSE TYSON: “It’s easily 99%, because if you break the femur, you don’t get a second opinion on that.”
MAHER: “Yes, I agree. But that is not most things that happen to people. Lots of thing that happen to people. And I’m thrilled you never have this happen in your life, and I hope you never do, but trust me, most people at a certain point in their life will need a second opinion.”
DEGRASSE TYSON: “The second opinion, yes, but that’s after you’ve been through 99 other — I’m trying to put credit back to doctors, where our life expectancy is three times what it was 150 years ago. And everyone before, 150 years ago, ate organic.”
MAHER: “But lower than the rest of — “
DEGRASSE TYSON: “ — and half of them died before they were 35. Science matters.”
MAHER: “Of course it does.”
DEGRASSE TYSON: “Sometimes you don’t sound that way. That’s what worries me.”
(Applause)
MAHER: “Actually, you’re the guy — you’re the guy who doesn’t understand why the WNBA team can’t beat the Lakers. You’re supposed to be the scientist and you can’t even admit that. And as far as medicine goes, I could talk to you about this all day, but, again, we do have a party to get to.
(Laughter)
But this is not your field, you’re not a doctor.”
DEGRASSE TYSON: “No, but I’m a scientist. Excuse me!”
MAHER: “That’s not a doctor.”
DEGRASSE TYSON: “Hold on.”
MAHER: “That’s not a doctor. You know what, when I get a goiter on Uranus, I’ll call you.”
(Cheering and Applause)
DEGRASSE TYSON: “No, don’t call me. But when it is time to assess risk, that’s something that comes out of the world of probability statistics, and scientists are trained in that. There’s a documentary on PBS.org right now that talks about what it means to accept the risk. Like in a vaccine, if you don’t want to get a vaccine, that’s like walking around with a baseball bat. But then if you hit someone with it, that’s bad. There’s a social contract to not infect other people.”
BRAZILE: “He is into his science moment. I’m ready to drink wine.”
(Cheering and Applause)
MAHER: “Thank you, everybody.”