Watch John Oliver Call Out Bogus Scientific Studies
John Oliver picked apart America’s fascination with scientific studies in the ‘Last Week Tonight’ on Sunday. “Hugging your dog is bad for your dog” and “drinking a glass of red wine is just as good as spending an hour at the gym,” the British comedian said. “There is a lot of bullshit currently masquerading as science.”
Just in the last few months, studies emerged that drinking coffee may reverse liver damage, prevent colon cancer, decrease risk of endometrial cancer and increase risk of miscarriage. “Coffee is like God in the Old Testament,” said Oliver. “There’s no Nobel Prize for fact-checking,” he added.
Oliver asserted that the media often omits important facts. One study from from last year concluded that driving dehydrated was just as dangerous as driving drunk. Of course, there were numerous red flags with the study – it was performed on only 12 men, of whom 11 reported data; and it was funded by the (wait for it) European Hydration Institute.
“In science, you don’t just get to cherry-pick the parts that justify what you were going to do anyway,” he said. “That’s religion. You’re thinking of religion.”
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