--- 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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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. ## 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. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5653990/john-oliver-last-week-tonight-bias-medicine/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5653990/john-oliver-last-week-tonight-bias-medicine/"},"headline":"John Oliver, Larry David and Wanda Sykes Give Medical Bias the Last Week Tonight Treatment","datePublished":"2019-08-19T09:12:24.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:47:04.408Z","description":"“We are disbelieving black women to death,” Oliver argues","url":"https://time.com/5653990/john-oliver-last-week-tonight-bias-medicine/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Television","Late Night Television","John Oliver","Last Week Tonight"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5653990/john-oliver-last-week-tonight-bias-medicine/","name":"John Oliver, Larry David and Wanda Sykes Give Medical Bias the Last Week Tonight Treatment"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Lynsey Addario on Why Pregnancy is Still Deadly for Many Women","description":"Photographer Lynsey Addario shares her work on maternal health.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/abi9c8vF/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-12-13T17:55:59.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/abi9c8vF.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5653990/john-oliver-last-week-tonight-bias-medicine/","duration":"PT2M49S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5653990/john-oliver-last-week-tonight-bias-medicine/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```