If you tuned in to Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, you caught some shots at Putin, another montage of WCBS 2 News’ 11 PM features, and John Oliver’s main story about lead poisoning. The segment, which is about 20 minutes long, goes through the national lead poisoning problem that’s in the headlines regarding Flint, Michigan, but also extends further as funding for the U.S. Deparment of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes.
John Oliver cites a video Sesame Street produced in 1996 to teach children how to deal with lead poisoning. Since it’s apparent that this is a public health issue, Oliver brought Elmo and Oscar on the show to sing about it. Oscar provides some important insight, pointing out that according to a study in Environmental Health Perspectives, every dollar spent on lead paint hazard brings returns of at least 17-1. Elmo chimes in, “Just because something’s hard doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try.”
This isn’t the first time Oliver’s collaborated with puppets. He brought on some Sesame Street-esque puppet to talk about America’s prison systems, he hung out with Cookie Monster in a web exclusive, and he was in Jon Stewart’s “Patriot Street” segment. Let’s hope these collaborations never end. Let’s hope “First we all have to care” reaches the ears of representatives (Oliver calls out Mark Meadows, Tim Walberg, and Jason Chaffetz specifically) trying to reduce the necessary funding.
(via Vulture)
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