--- title: John Oliver Tackles Medical Bias on 'Last Week Tonight' description: John Oliver, Wanda Sykes, and Larry David teamed up to help fight reported bias in medical care on Sunday night’s 'Last Week Tonight.' canonical: https://time.com/5653990/john-oliver-last-week-tonight-bias-medicine/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-08-19T09:12:24.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:47:04.408Z og:title: John Oliver Tackles Medical Bias on 'Last Week Tonight' og:description: “We are disbelieving black women to death,” Oliver argues og:url: https://time.com/5653990/john-oliver-last-week-tonight-bias-medicine/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: John Oliver Tackles Medical Bias on 'Last Week Tonight' twitter:description: “We are disbelieving black women to death,” Oliver argues twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # John Oliver, Larry David and Wanda Sykes Give Medical Bias the _Last Week Tonight_ Treatment > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=1923bd31-4177-419f-83f2-c029d76083ed&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Lynsey Addario on Why Pregnancy is Still Deadly for Many Women [Watch (HLS stream): Lynsey Addario on Why Pregnancy is Still Deadly for Many Women](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/abi9c8vF.m3u8) (2:49)  _Published 2017-12-13. Photographer Lynsey Addario shares her work on maternal health._ by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Aug 19, 2019 9:12 AM UTC by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Aug 19, 2019 9:12 AM UTC John Oliver, [Wanda Sykes](https://time.com/5113192/monique-wanda-sykes-netflix/), and Larry David teamed up to help fight reported [bias in medical care](http://healthland.time.com/2013/05/24/medical-students-may-already-be-biased-against-obese-patients/) on Sunday night’s _Last Week_ _Tonight_. According to Oliver, several studies have shown that bias among doctors leads to a “woman-shaped blind spot in medicine.” For example, researchers found that women are seven times more likely to be misdiagnosed when they are having a heart attack. He also cited a study that claimed that medical [bias against people of color](https://time.com/5520558/artificial-intelligence-racial-gender-bias/) resulted in 83,000 needless deaths within the black community. [The U.S.](https://time.com/4508369/why-u-s-women-still-die-during-childbirth/) has the highest rate of [maternal mortality](https://time.com/5088014/maternal-mortality-pregnancy/) in the developed world and the rate is worse for black women, reportedly because doctors and nurses sometimes don’t believe them when it comes to pain or symptoms. “We are disbelieving black women to death,” Oliver argues. Wanda Sykes came on the show to lay out a three-point plan for improving the situation. First, she recommended doctors under go bias training. Then she said diversity was needed at real hospitals, “not just the ones made up by Shonda Rimes.” Finally, she urged patients to advocate for themselves and if that doesn’t work, to “bring a white man to repeat everything that you’re saying.” For those who don’t know where to get a white man, Sykes suggested the website [WhatsLarrysProblem.com](http://whatslarrysproblem.com/) where Larry David has recorded messages for any medical situation—as well as those magical words for anyone seeking help: “I’d like to speak to your supervisor.” See the video above. ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] I have photographed, I don't know how many births and its still an incredibly emotional experience for me. and it's completely clique but it sounds ridiculous but it's really a miracle to see a baby being born and I think it definitely helps to have the camera in front of my eye because I am obviously focused on getting the shot But the second that is over and the second that I put my camera down, I'm inevitably overcome with emotion. [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] I went to photographed maternal baths on Sierra Leone. And I went to the [ UNKNOWN ] government hospital. And literally, within an hour of arriving their, a woman blind to death on camera in front of me. Mama sees [ UNKNOWN ] you know this is a country where The statistics at that time were one in eight women had a lifetime risk of dying in childbirth. But it really happened, literally, the minute after I walked in. And it was so sad to me, because giving birth should not be a death sentence. [ MUSIC ] So many people ask me sort of like, what was your photo that changed the world? And I don't have that photo. But two years later Doctors Without Borders, MSF got in touch with me and I said, remember that story you did on Mamma Sessay? Well since then we have started an ambulance network in Bo District. They call with a satellite phone and an ambulance is sent. And the maternal death rate when down by 60 %. I think that people take child birth for granted. I think that most people assumed child birth is a thing that we've been doing since the beginning of time and of course a woman will survive child birth because the women who die are often unheard of. You know, the women who die, they die and no one hears of their death. 800 women a day die in child birth. Today that's not a small number. That is a huge amount of women, but for me the hope is I want people to see this is happening and I want them to feel as bad as I felt when I was taking the pictures because I want to move them into action and there are ways that people can get together to make change [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] I think it's important to feel and to get attached, to be emotional. One can never take for granted the things that we see. It's unbelievable. 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