Dr. Paul Offit on The Colbert Report

7 Responses to “Dr. Paul Offit on The Colbert Report”

1. Sullivan February 1, 2011 at 20:04 #

   Yep, I misspelled my own pseudonym…

   It is interesting to see vaccine-skeptics turned into a comic persona in Mr. Colbert. He has most of the talking points down.

   It’s been interesting watching AoA ramp up in preparation for this. They obviously wanted to fill google news with as much anti-Offit material as possible before the Colbert Nation bit went live.

   It’s the story of the past decade. So much energy. Wasted.

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2. bensmyson February 3, 2011 at 01:11 #

   I watched it of course and wonder what “Hooping Cough” is. Was he just mispronouncing Whooping Cough? Of course Googling “Hooping Cough” reveals all kind of things. A couple of sites said its a misspelling of Whooping Cough. Obviously he wasnt reading from a teleprompter or notes, so he mispronounced it right?

   Funny, the man can’t say woooo.

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3. brian February 4, 2011 at 03:28 #

   bensmyson, it’s not really surprising that a layman doesn’t pronounce a medical term the way that a trained pediatrician would–Offit would differ from a layman’s interpretation of many facets of medicine. I pronounce the word as Offit does, in a manner that is considered quite reasonable and correct, although there are regional differences including in UK vs. US usage:

   http://www.macmillandictionary.com/pronunciation/american/whooping-cough

   http://hotword.dictionary.com/how-do-you-pronounce-whooping-cough-and-why-is-it-called-that/

   http://www.forvo.com/word/whooping_cough/

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4. bensmyson February 4, 2011 at 03:43 #

   It was a joke Brian, lighten up.

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5. brian February 4, 2011 at 04:23 #

   Funny, the man can’t say woooo.

   The man doesn’t believe woo.

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6. sharon February 4, 2011 at 05:00 #

   I know I should probably stay out of this, but just for the sake of presenting an international perspective, after all it’s an international disease, in Australia we pronounce it Hooping too. Though still spell Whooping.
   bensmyson you remind me of a lady who chastised me for spelling immunisation with an s, instead of a z. According to her I was misspelling the word. Not where I come from. Perhaps the z thing is USA specific? Happy to be corrected.

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7. Marlyebone March 6, 2011 at 14:46 #

   Most WH words followed by an O are pronounced with a hard-H sound (with the usual 80/20%), so we each need to decide if it is a who word or a when word. English is a crazy language (remember ghoti=fish).

   In the northeast USA, it was WHO!

   I figure it has become a choice that is familial, regional and generational.

   Reply