Skip to content

vaccine

concept · in 50 videos (2014–2026)

Shots that protect against infectious disease; John says more children than ever are vaccinated, 80% in low-income countries in 2017. Hank says COVID vaccines cut the chance of death and warns that scary stories turned vaccines into a tribal fight, while John notes the only current TB vaccine is 102 years old.

Videos by year: 2014: 2 · 2015: 4 · 2017: 5 · 2018: 4 · 2019: 1 · 2020: 5 · 2021: 12 · 2022: 2 · 2023: 1 · 2024: 3 · 2025: 4 · 2026: 7

Also known as: vaccines, vaccination, immunization

Threads

Also named in the threads: Hank: living with ulcerative colitis (2007) · Maternal Center of Excellence: the brothers' Partners In Health project in Sierra Leone (2019) · John's weekly 2021 vision board (2021) · John: the Maternal Center of Excellence will see some 5,000 births a year for decades (2026)

Often together

What comes up in the same parts of the videos; the number is how many parts.

COVID-19 pandemic (17) · child mortality (8) · tuberculosis (12) · United States (18) · malaria (4) · extreme poverty (4) · progress (4) · Earth (4) · global health (3) · maternal death (4)

What the videos say

The most important statements of each year; all statements.

2014

  • 2014-07-15 · Exciting Announcements and Mosquito-Borne Illnesses — John says some of his anxiety centers on physical health; when giving him vaccines for the trip, his doctor told him to read the CDC pages on the places he'll visit, which was a terrible idea. (playful) — 00:01:06
  • 2014-09-09 · Bill Gates and John Green Discuss Global Health — Bill Gates: Gates says getting every vaccine to every child is really hard: vaccines must be kept cold, and most poor children live in rural areas with poor roads and few trained workers. — 00:00:37
    • Bill Gates: Gates says vaccination rates are still under 30% in pastoral regions where people move around, about 75% in the rest of Ethiopia, with a plan to reach 90%. — 00:00:53
    • Bill Gates: Asked how we know care drove the drop, Gates says poor countries' statistics are poor except child deaths; deaths were very high, and vaccines against a few infectious diseases cut them a lot. — 00:01:18

2015

  • 2015-01-27 · Will Life Get Better for the Poor? — John says hundreds of millions of people have left absolute poverty in the last 25 years, child mortality has been cut by half, and more kids than ever are vaccinated. — 00:00:16
    • John says in the rich world fewer than 1% of kids die before age 5, almost no one gets malaria, few lack vaccines for want of refrigeration, and serious child malnutrition is extremely uncommon. — 00:00:28
    • John says in the other world 1.5 million kids die yearly of vaccine-preventable diseases, there are about 200 million malaria cases a year, and over 25% of kids are stunted by malnutrition. — 00:00:44
  • 2015-02-03 (said on 2015-01-30, implied) · Beards, Birds, and the Paper Towns Release Date: Question Tuesday! — John says not all children should be vaccinated: immunosuppressed kids, e.g. with leukemia, and infants can't get some vaccines, which is precisely why everyone else should get vaccinated. — 00:02:39
  • 2015-09-22 · Is Poverty Necessary? Looking back at the Millennium Development Goals — John: The 66% child-mortality target will be missed, but global child mortality has more than halved since 1990; for example, measles vaccinations prevented about 15 million child deaths. — 00:02:02
  • 2015-11-27 (said on 2015-11-26, implied) · Never Satisfied: The Story of Humans ¦-/ — Hank says antibiotics and vaccines have saved billions of lives, yet people treat them as merely nice rather than being emotionally moved by no longer dying as humans used to. — 00:01:04

2017

  • 2017-02-07 (said on 2017-02-02, implied) · Good News, YA Books, and Bears: It's Question Tuesday — John: Advanced trials of an Ebola vaccine showed a 100% effectiveness rate. — 00:00:21
  • 2017-02-14 · Human Life Is Getting Better. Faster Than Ever Before. — John says that in 1998 more than 10 million children under 5 died and over half of kids in low-income countries were not vaccinated. — 00:00:22
    • John says that today 80% of kids in low-income countries are vaccinated, fewer than 10% of people live in absolute poverty, and fewer than 6 million children will die this year (2017). — 00:00:36
    • John says saving children is often inexpensive: many vaccines cost less than a dollar, and vaccination is the number one reason child mortality has declined. — 00:02:15
    • John says we must keep closing the vaccination gap between rich and poor countries, improve infant health care and improve nutrition beyond preventing starvation. — 00:02:32
  • 2017-08-22 · The Causes of Cholera — John says cholera is gone for most of the world not because of antibiotics or vaccines (a vaccine gives up to six months of protection) but because of sewers and water purification. — 00:00:58
  • 2017-09-19 · Why Cities? — John: While much has been lost, John is grateful to live in a world with telescopes, vaccines, YouTube and books. — 00:03:35
  • 2017-11-21 · Two Love Stories — ask: John says we are surrounded by injustice and microbes and must never become complacent, which is his way of saying get your flu shot. (playful) — 00:02:37
  • …and 1 statement more in 2017 — all statements of 2017

2018

  • 2018-02-13 · What Can't a Billion Dollars Buy? — Bill Gates says two things magnify impact: inventing a new tool (a magic seed or vaccine) and a delivery system, such as good primary health care or educating farmers. — 00:02:28
    • John says this is why the Gates Foundation invests in better toilets and new vaccines, but also in primary health care systems. — 00:03:04
  • 2018-08-21 · SYSTEMS!!!! — John: A few weeks ago John needed a tetanus shot after, trying to harvest green beans, he accidentally "harvested part of his abdomen". (playful) — 00:00:03
    • With weaker systems, the same tetanus shot means bad roads, an understaffed clinic, and perhaps an ineffective vaccine left unrefrigerated for lack of electricity. (hypothetical, hedged) — 00:02:41
  • 2018-10-30 · Watch My Dumb Dancing — ask: Hank got a flu shot at the same visit; flu shots are good for you and viewers should get theirs; the needle is tiny now. — 00:02:50
  • 2018-11-02 · Let Us Now Praise the Panda Person — John says such exploration found the counterintuitive fact that injecting a weakened form of a virus protects against that virus. — 00:01:27

2019

  • 2019-04-16 · Doing Somethings — John says the same holds for getting a flu shot, engaging in philanthropy or planting seeds in his garden: doing nothing feels like the default, not a choice. — 00:00:58
    • John says the flu shot is safe. — 00:01:27

2020

  • 2020-04-10 · Things I'm Finding Encouraging — Hank: The first episode interviews a man who this week (week of 6 April 2020) got his first injection of an experimental COVID-19 vaccine, one of 45 people in that trial, and surprisingly chill about it. — 00:03:40
  • 2020-11-10 · On Immunity, Inoculation, and Individuals — John says the book achieves something remarkable: a page-turny history of vaccines, disease and our fears about them that is not centered on individuals. — 00:00:29
    • John says Jenner's work did not end smallpox: by the end of the 19th century vaccination was safe and effective, yet in the 20th century smallpox killed over 300 million people, mostly in places impoverished by colonialism. — 00:02:55
    • John hopes a new vaccine is coming and says that, if it is, we should build not a statue of one person but monuments to the open cooperation of thousands that achieves shared immunity. — 00:03:24
  • 2020-11-13 · How We Teach: Individualist Stories — Hank's example: of the smallpox vaccine you should know that smallpox was very bad but we cured it, that a vaccine like today's attenuated-pathogen vaccines did it, and that someone figured it out; the first two are facts, the third just a story. — 00:00:44
  • 2020-11-20 · Would I Take a COVID Vaccine? — Hank says yes, he would take a COVID vaccine. — 00:00:00
    • Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and others have had really promising results in their phase three COVID vaccine trials. — 00:00:00
    • The description says that with vaccines to be distributed within 30 days (by 20 December 2020), staying home and wearing masks is even more valuable: we are now buying time for a visible goal. — video description
    • It looks like we are getting lucky: infection confers some lasting immunity, and vaccines exposing the immune system to non-infectious bits of the virus do too. (hedged) — 00:00:29
    • It is unknown whether or how much the vaccine prevents spreading the disease; it probably does substantially, since vaccinated people test negative. (hedged) — 00:01:01
    • Politicians don't develop vaccines, and the rules for testing vaccine safety did not change at all in the last year: scientists deliberately changed nothing. — 00:01:30
  • 2020-11-24 · personal risk · societal risk — John: Safe and effective COVID vaccines are coming. — 00:03:24
  • …and 5 statements more in 2020 — all statements of 2020

2021

  • 2021-03-19 · How Will Post Pandemic Behavior Change? — Hank has just gotten his first vaccine shot, is feeling good, and wonders what pandemic behaviors to keep. — 00:00:00
  • 2021-03-26 · Why I'm Worried about 2021 — Hank says that sometime in the next month 25% of people in the US will be fully vaccinated, many of them the most at-risk. — 00:00:29
    • Vaccines and behavior changes share two goals: keep the individual from getting (very) sick and, more importantly, slow spread through fewer people shedding the virus, the real goal of public health advice. — 00:00:58
  • 2021-04-06 · How Do You Do, Fellow Kids? — John: The COVID vaccines approved in the US and much of the world are safe and effective; over 100 million people have received them, and they dramatically reduce personal and societal risk. — 00:01:27
    • If everyone were fully vaccinated tomorrow, COVID-19 would be at most a minor problem for humans. — 00:01:56
  • 2021-04-13 · My Truly Mortifying Self-Talk — John goes to 'manifest' his second vaccine shot; Sarah drives because he is too nervous. — 00:00:00
    • Pausing the story for the shot, John reports they are now double vaccinated. — 00:00:29
    • The moral of the story: get vaccinated as soon as you can. — 00:02:59
  • 2021-04-23 · Young People and the COVID Vaccine — Hank: In the US everyone over 16 can now get a COVID vaccine; over 200 million doses have been given and around 40% of people have had at least one dose. — 00:00:00
    • Immunity from getting COVID is much less effective at preventing future infections than the vaccines, so having had or planning to get COVID is no substitute: you need a vaccine. — 00:02:10
  • 2021-05-28 · Aliens — Hank: Things we really don't understand have happened often in human history and are often the first step to discovery: we guess and test, which is how we got COVID vaccines, smartphones and in-depth knowledge of the Big Bang. — 00:01:17
  • 2021-06-11 · My Greatest Tool Against Vaccine Misinformation — Hank is thankful to the many thousands who worked harder than ever for 15 months to ready the vaccines, built testing, administered shots and cared for the sick. — 00:02:43
  • …and 22 statements more in 2021 — all statements of 2021

2022

Also named in: After 15 Years on YouTube, THIS IS THE MOST AMAZING THING

2023

  • 2023-08-08 · TAKE IT UP A NOTCH — John says they have both seen comments blaming Hank's cancer on a vaccination, on working too hard, or on his ulcerative colitis. — 00:01:56

2024

  • 2024-03-12 · How We End TB — In a comment, John says the only current TB vaccine is 102 years old and only prevents severe illness and death in young children; much better vaccines are needed. — creator comment
  • 2024-06-14 · Some Reasons why People Suck — Hank first meant the video to lament that improving solar is easier than getting one simple decision, but now sees that as the most human thing, like making a vaccine versus getting everyone to take it. — 00:06:23
  • 2024-11-22 · Populism, Media Revolutions, and Our Terrible Moment — Hank says the measles vaccine and FDA rules on raw milk are easy to attack but the evidence says they don't deserve cancelling; he worries systems are being cancelled. — 00:25:54
    • Hank says some systems are ripe for cancellation for bad reasons, like people's dislike of needles making injections seem bad. — 00:29:24

2025

  • 2025-02-25 · EVERYTHING IS TUBERCULOSIS — In a comment, John says the century-old BCG vaccine prevents severe TB in young children but is not very, possibly not at all, effective in adolescents or adults. (hedged) — creator comment
    • In a comment, John says a better TB vaccine is needed and the main reason there is none is lack of investment in illnesses that mostly affect the poor. — creator comment
  • 2025-02-28 · We Will Eradicate Measles — Hank says not everyone can be vaccinated: very ill children are not recommended to get the measles vaccine, yet we still want to protect them. — 00:01:15
    • Hank says the measles vaccine, though very good, protects only about 90% of people after the first dose, so a second dose is needed, nearly twice as complicated. — 00:01:15
    • Hank says Roald Dahl, author of many of his favorite stories, lost his daughter one year before the measles vaccine was introduced. — 00:04:36
    • Hank says eradication is hard because measles is so infectious that even a very good vaccine needs two doses, and two doses are hard to deliver everywhere on Earth. — 00:05:02
    • Hank says, hating it, that what pushes back hardest against phony vaccine-danger stories is not his angry videos but children falling ill and dying, which makes vaccination rates rise again. — 00:05:31
    • Hank predicts countries will hover around 95% measles vaccination, dipping below into outbreaks and climbing back to 96, until measles is eradicated. — 00:06:08
  • 2025-04-25 · How We Form Opinions — Hank says variolation turned out to be a positive step whose imperfection inspired the path to safe vaccines and the eradication of smallpox. — 00:02:55
    • Hank says vaccines were once outside the ideological divide until scary stories made them a fight; vocal political pro-vaccine advocacy now gets more Democrats but fewer Republicans vaccinated, because it is tribal. — 00:06:02
    • Hank wants open minds about vaccines and electric cars, which have been extremely beneficial to his life, and about whether TikTok is bad and how to handle the coming demographic transition. — 00:07:44
  • 2025-11-04 · The Real Question — John says at the meetings he heard about exciting new tests, a potential vaccine and shorter, easier-to-tolerate treatment regimens, which encouraged him. — 00:01:56
  • …and 4 statements more in 2025 — all statements of 2025

2026

  • 2026-03-17 · Tuberculosis and Hank's Shingles — John says pursuing the shingles vaccine left the TB vaccine much further behind; in the years we might have had one, many millions of people have died. — 00:02:26
    • John says the story shows the strange incentives in creating vaccines for poor countries' diseases when they conflict with health problems of wealthy countries, whose governments can spend lots on vaccines. — 00:02:26
  • 2026-03-20 · I'm Sick Because of the Social Structures of Early Hominins — Hank says eradicating VZV would be very hard: it lies dormant for decades, so unless everyone stays vaccinated for its whole life cycle, it will break back out through shingles. — 00:06:16
  • 2026-08-25 · The Great Thing about Infectious Disease — John: No one alive remembers 1890, and John worries we are collectively starting to forget life before vaccination, antibiotics and clean water. — 00:01:56
    • John says the vaccines used against measles, mumps, rubella and others are safe and effective. — 00:04:23
    • John calls it curious that, five years after a vaccine dramatically cut serious illness and death, people on average trust preventive health less than before COVID. — 00:04:52
    • The 2,000th baby has been born at the Nerdfighteria-supported the Maternal Center of Excellence in Sierra Leone since it opened in February; all will have access to vaccination at Koidu Government Hospital or local clinics. — 00:05:21
  • 2026-08-28 · Why the Deadliest Virus Was the Easiest to Kill — Hank says smallpox's antigens are very stable, so people got it only once and a vaccine could give very long-lasting immunity. — 00:03:53
    • Hank says bringing smallpox below one might take vaccinating about 80% of exposed people, while measles needs something like 95%, which is much harder to reach. (hedged) — 00:05:50
    • Hank says scientists learned to keep the smallpox vaccine active without cold, which made worldwide delivery much easier; many vaccines still need cold. — 00:08:45
  • 2026-09-08 · The Life Expectancy Lies That Won't Die — John says human health has improved tremendously thanks to clean water, sewers, vaccines and antibiotics, benefiting young children and pregnant women most, but all humans. — 00:04:52
  • 2026-10-20 · Correcting a Mistake in Everything Is Tuberculosis · 50 x 50 Science — John: Promising TB drugs and vaccines are in development, and people are starting to imagine curing TB within four to six weeks or less, which would be a huge change. — 00:06:19
  • …and 7 statements more in 2026 — all statements of 2026