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The Last Of Us is the biggest new show on television after a stellar run with it’s 2 games, The Last of Us Part 1 and 2 on Playstation. As a big fan of the games I was so pumped to watch the show, but it didn’t take long for my medical eye to catch some glaring errors. I know how much care and love Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin have put into this project, but I still have to be a stickler about things such as how cordyceps fungus actually works, the recovery time needed from traumatic wounds, and so much more. I actually broke this video down into 4 sections of medical review: the truth about cordycepps, Joel’s superhuman abilities, laughable first aid, and general medical info gone wrong. I know my critiques may annoy some devoted fans, but rest assured I’m a big fan too and just want this to be done right! Follow the light.
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Why didnt you react to the game
Dr Mike you missed rectally…meds can be given rectally too 😂
It went to surgery to create the dilemma the game has been foreshadowing. The game's creators aren't medical experts.. also it's based in a fictional world. So in that world.. the cure (in the game, it was called a vaccine, but in the show, it was called a cure, an intentional change, to state it would have worked) would have worked essentially. The game/that world provided the full scope of the situation. So the question of whether the fireflies wouldn't be able to make a cure and distribute it is irrelevant. Joel did not consider any of that when he went on a rampage.
COME ON MIKE!!! You’re wrong for that first scene 💔💔💔💔💔 Spot on though! You’re still wrong for that 🥴
in an apocalyptic world you would hope most people would have adopted proper first aid skills in order to survive, especially a 50ish year old seasoned survivor and a teen who was brought up in a military base and trained to become a soldier
Edit: how tf were they expecting to perform a highly sterile brain op while having Ellie's hair all long & loose? Surely you're supposed to shave the scalp first lmao
I think we need to remember the characters didn't have 5 years of medical training. I think people just do what they remember or think is best…cause you need to do something instead of nothing to give that injured person a chance
My guy roasting Ellie like she's a professional doctor or something like she's 14 years old you uncultured swine
The thing about all the scenes of Ellie doing medical stuff with Joel and Sam that we need to remember is that she did not go to a proper school. She went to FEDRA school which she mentioned did not teach things besides wats important to obey FEDRA. She didn't even know what a siphon was or wat antibiotics were. She's just a kid, so it makes sense why she would think that the thing with Sam makes sense for the character in world.
Game Theory did a video on why / if Ellie was immune a couple of years ago – I'd actually like to see Mike's reaction to that video to see if the conclusion MatPat reached is correct.
My sister, actually just had a procedure just recently where they placed the IV in her forearm. Attending said she does it often to reduce impairment of movement in the elbow… I'd never heard of that before.
AND,
Sacrifice the Ellie. haha. Yeah, I'm really not sure. It's one of those tough moral calls you have to just live with the rest of your life…
What about the rise of blood pressure whilst playing the game. I am unwell 😅
LMAO THE SCENE WHERE HE TAKES OUT THE BASEBALL BAT I WAS SCREAMING 😭 LIKE JOEL, THATS RULE NUMBER ONE
I hate whenever people in apocalyptic scenarios decide to "get some medicine". They go, find a medicine cabinet, take out everything, and are happy with what they got, as if any of that is more than just some painkillers.
I would not sacrifice Ellie under these conditions. As pointed out they don't know what they are doing, they are about to kill the only source of a potential cure/vaccine, they didn't even run basic tests, they don't have most standard equipment to even do what they're suggesting, and let's say they were even successful – due to their horrible conditions and lack of resources a vaccine couldn't survive long enough to be distributed if they could even make enough to consider distribution to the population. Also if they get close but fail, they killed their only test subject, they can't try again. I would not sacrifice her because they are doomed to fail, they won't save anyone.
✨WHOPPER WHOPPER WHOPPER WHOPPER✨
That scene with Bill and Frank broke my heart. It was so sad.
I had a stroke 5 and a half years ago, while on immunosuppressants for my out of control Ulcerative Colitis, I was in a coma for 2 weeks and got a fungal infection in my cerebral spinal fluid. It was Aspergillus Fumagatus, in the scene where the researchers are discussing fungal infections they mention it! No ones ever heard of it usually so to hear them mention it in a global tv show was amazing!
Now we know how to put pressure on someone's neck to suffocate them immediately, and that eating human flesh is safe. Very educational video 10/10
1:05 What was he supposed to do considering there was a guy coming to finish them off? Of course he tried to take her so they could escape.
1:40 She had to be mobile so there's not much he could do.
3:00 Yup, that was stupid to do xD
3:25 There wasn't exactly a lot she could do to make this sterile. She was doing what she thought was necessary. She's just a kid with zero knowledge. She literally had no idea.
The whole thing with Joel… He's a video game character, of course he's unbeatable. Because they couldn't show "few months later" sign every time he's hurt. Especially in that game sequence.
15:45 The cordyceps that's inside of her not the ones in infected people.
16:10 That's pretty obvious. The fungi is literally breaking through the skull in later stages. Their fungal brain is pretty exposed. But yeah, them instantly jumping to a surgery is irresponsible and stupid.
But in general what annoys me in that reaction is the fact it's build on two things – the fact how people behaved in a situation where there was no option to do what's "perfect" and that game mechanics are unrealistic in real life which is kinda obvious.
Although I understand that from a medical professionals pov it’s annoying to see medically inaccurate depictions in Tv shows, I feel like many of the scenarios in TLOU felt very natural from a character standpoint. Like Ellie has very little medical knowledge, so she doesn’t know where to inject the medicine. And even though I screamedNOO!! At Joel pulling out the broken baseball bat, I don’t think it’s far fetched that a person who’s in a stressful situation, high on adrenaline and probably in shock would do that.
We were screaming about the bat from Joel 😂 we thought that Frank had Parkinson because of the paint scene and his hand shaking.
I love your vieos
Great work on the last point. The Game Theorist channel has a very interesting take on Ellie's immunity, any chance Dr. Mike can react to their video?
I saw someone mention the theory that the fungi wouldn't have had enough time to travel through the umbilical cord, but that cutting it with the same knife she used on the zombie (aka with zombie blood on the blade) was the source of her "vaccination infection". Any thoughts on that, Dr. Mike?
I’m glad we have medical aid in dying in the 11 states, I just wish we had it in all of them. It’s slowly coming around and has changed a lot but it’s still a very touchy topic.
Mike sounds jealous a bit that pedro pascal can do so much
16:11 have u SEEN clickers
Just an example of treating a fungal infection…
I have severe acne and dry skin as it is. And sweat quite easily.
I had one on my back, developed from working in hot conditions while wearing a tight heavy cotton shirt, the friction and sweat combined created a fungal infection.
It was treated with a course of Flucloxacillin for 2 weeks, and Daktacort (Miconazole/Hydrocortisone) (A steroid ointment) for a further 2 weeks. Cleared up lovely.
I think the moral and ethical dilemmas faced at the end of tlou, are entirely the fault of the game/show producers. I think the whole situation was needlessly complicated either by deliberate but poorly explained in universe firefly decisions, OR (given the thoughtful character and world creation throughout the story) due to a series of shocking oversights into the rational decisions overlooked by the firefly’s.
If they wanted us to carry their plot water for them, then I for one would prefer they not do it at the expense of two of my favorite game characters. That’s not to condemn the ending they obviously want us to wrestle with, but just the seeming yet inexplicable lack of care they showed in order to serve up this version of it.
Also I love this game/show and just am shocked by what seems like several balls being dropped in the closing acts.
I think Joel was justified getting back Ellie, Ellie was never told by the fireflies about the surgery
Doc, while it technically IS the trolley problem… it's not JUST the trolley problem… rather it cleverly posses two complicated questions, that when combined, leaves a fundamentally unanswerable human-defining paradox: {"Do the needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few, the one?"} and {Regarding 'parental love,' what would you do (do too much) to protect your child… in that evaluation?"} Hence, the story-telling masterpiece that is TLOU! Having said this, I completely appreciate EVERYTHING you contributed here… as the medical stuff was completely over my head at every turn. Thank You!
I love how Dr Mike talks about his view since he’s a doctor
yeah out of this entire show full of living dead mushroom zombies the most unrealistic part to me was after Joel got stabbed and how well he was able to fight and then basically seem perfectly fine the next episode lol.
I literally had to bite my tongue so much watching the show so I wouldn’t annoy my dad who watched it with my with all the medical inaccuracies
The only thing I’ll say in regards to how people know it attacks the brain is that (perhaps more so in the games) they do talk about the first cases before outbreak day and that patients were hospitalised, tested and observed and they found out pretty quickly that the cordyceps attacks the brain (in the world of the game anyway). It’s also why clickers looks the way they do – it’s supposedly the cordyceps growths breaking through the skull, hence why they’re blind too. Again, not saying this is accurate in an actual life scenario, it’s just how the games have explained it previously
I mean it would make sense for them to know about Cordyceps when it's literally the reason they're in an apocalypse…
There are certain brain fungi that are incurable, I can't remember the name to boot but it's certain fungi that go through the nasal canal, warmer climates, around swamp water
I'm not sure it was the bite that caused Ellie to be immune at birth. I don't this it would have traveled fast enough to cause harm. I feel the fact that her mom used the knife that she killed the infected with, to cut the umbilical cord, would have been more of the reason.
Watching this series and this video has been such a weird experience for me on account of my name being Ellie. If I turn on anything relating to the last of us for background noise (like a video of the gameplay) I always answer and divert my attention because I think I’m being called! Still cool though! Love the vid ❤😂
As far as them knowing about the fungus, they have been living in a 20 year pandemic. Even after a few years of the Covid pandemic, the basics of corona virus's became common knowledge. It seems reasonable in the 20 years, when things like the tool that identifies infected individuals were developed, that everyone who survives partially does so by learning all they can about what's killing everyone else.
Edit: I am not defending not doing the initial tests. Ellie is new information, and they don't know what they don't know without finding out. It's dumb to go right to the kill option without exploring all others.
If Cordyceps took over the world I Iived in for last 20yrs, I'd make sure I knew everything about them. Knowledge is Power!
React to the CW Arrow injuries
Well wait, Let's say it's a post apocalyptic world and someone gets stabbed, most likely experiencing internal bleeding… What can that person do? You just told us what not to do but I'm assuming you're basically dead because you can't close the internal effected area right? Even if you had Antibiotics of some kind you're still not gonna survive right?
I also noticed they hadn’t prepped Ellie for surgery at all. If they were going to do brain surgery they would’ve shaved some or all of her hair.
16:03 the doctor is in his 40s, meaning he was a resident before the outbreak happened. Make sense why a 20 something year old resident would know nothing about immunology.
16:20 Doctor you were so triggered by this. 😂 So funny, I watched it on repeat.
Mike I have literally been waiting for this video to come out for like three weeks now and I just knew it!
Agree with Joel's desicion to save Ellie, those scientists/doctors had no idea what they were doing and were rushing into it.
Save Ellie + all humanity!!! Hair looks awesome btw 😍
> How have they become experts in cordyceps when I don't know [peewoop] about cordyceps?
Well I think it's plausible for something like that to be general knowledge, given they've lived for 20 years with cordyceps pandemic. Even a couple years with covid has made the population much more aware about coronaviruses.
As a layman audience member, the dialogue and circumstances surrounding Ellie's operation seemed ridiculous to me. Thank you for explaining the medical and scientific reasons why it actually is ridiculous. I get that the writers wanted to set up a thematic conflict between saving one person and saving many, similar to the trolley problem in ethics, as you point out, but there was probably a way for them to serve that theme without throwing science under the bus. It makes me wonder if their intention was to imply that the doctor is actually a quack who invented this scenario for reasons yet to be shown.