Dr. Mike beats 20 Anti-Vaxxers?
Proudly pro-vaccine Dr. Mike places himself on the proverbial hot seat, surrounded by vaccine sceptics—it's both rather insightful and sometimes pretty painful to watch.
Posted on March 30, 2025, on YouTube by Jubilee, the Surrounded video presents an exchange between vaccine advocate Doctor Mike and 20 vaccine sceptics—though actually there are only 17.
With over 8 million views to date, this so-called debate brings little to no scientific standing to the table, from either side. It would have been much more meaningful to get Dr. Mike in the ring with another doctor, like Dr. Paul Thomas or Dr. Suzanne Humphries—her recent appearance with Joe Rogan gathered over 2 million views on YouTube.
Who is Dr. Mike?
Russian-born American YouTuber, social media influencer, ex-professional boxer and family physician, Mikhail Oskarovich Varshavski (aka Dr. Mike) was voted "the Sexiest Doctor Alive" by People magazine in 2015. Together with BuzzFeed’s article of the same year “Um, You Really Need To See This Hot Doctor And His Dog”—highlighting both Dr. Mike and his husky, Roxy—these articles catapulted his media exposure and following, which today reaches over 20 million people across all platforms. His self-titled YouTube channel was launched on August 19, 2016, and initially focused on medical education and debunking misinformation. Currently he has an estimated net worth of around US$15 million.
During the debate, Dr. Mike shares that he offers his time 2-3 days a week at a hospital and that he is not paid to be a doctor. He also maintains that he has never received financial compensation from vaccine manufacturers for giving vaccines.
Dr. Mike graduated medical school in 2014, and would have learned little to nothing about vaccines during his studies. He does not present himself as an expert on vaccines but as a board-certified family medicine physician and content creator focused on improving health literacy.
He was an outspoken defender of “evidence-based science” from the outset of COVID-19 on his crusade against misinformation and fake news. In May 2020, he posted a fact-checking video dedicated to debunking the first “conspiracy” Plandemic documentary, produced by Mikki Willis. Dr. Mike’s most successful YouTube video to date is Real Doctor Reacts to Grey's Anatomy, viewed over 32 millions times.
Surrounded by antivaxxers
For the debate, Dr. Mike flew to Los Angeles and graciously volunteered his time so he could share the most accurate information on vaccines with the selected sceptics. His prevailing premise and ending statement is that “vaccines work and save lives.”
Lasting three hours in total, the video was edited down to the 90 minutes that were posted on YouTube.
Below are the four claims made by Dr. Mike:
Anti-vaccine lies cost lives
Vaccine acquired immunity is better than natural immunity
RFK Jr. is a public health threat
Anti-vaxxers are both victims and villains of misinformation
Each claim is given 20 minutes of discussion time within the circle of antivaxxers surrounding solitary Dr. Mike. Whoever gets to the chair in front of him first, sits down to speak. The antivaxxers all have a red flag that they can hold up when they want their time back. When 9 red flags out of 16 are raised, the conversation is abruptly ended and the next antivaxxer gets their turn to grab the seat. Two of the vaccine sceptics never interact with Dr. Mike.
Intermittent fact-checking statements pop up on the screen, by Straight Arrow News (SAN) who provide “unbiased, straight facts.” More on that later…
Initially, the first speaker screamed “paid actor” to me, but I could be wrong. There was just something a bit fake with her performance—or maybe she was just trying too hard. About one hour later, she would come back to face Dr. Mike and proclaim:
“The reality is if we don’t get vaccinated with Jesus, we will face God on Judgement Day.”
No better way of making a vaccine sceptic seem bat-shit crazy than references to God. Though actually it’s kind of ironic—remember that numerous US courtroom walls have written “In God We Trust” and that those words are featured on every US dollar bill. But science has no place for God, and neither does this debate. She did look a little intense and possessed at times…bless her!
Over the course of the video, most of the antivaxxers get their chance to speak with Dr. Mike on his various claims. From those exchanges, here are some of my favourite quotes from Dr. Mike:
Anti-vaccine lies cost lives
“Kids die when they’re not vaccinated — zero children died [of COVID] because we immunised so many.”Vaccine acquired immunity is better than natural immunity
“Because you don’t have to survive the actual illness.”RFK Jr. is a public health threat
“He’s made statements that HIV doesn’t cause AIDS. He’s spreading misinformation. He’s a villain. He doesn’t understand science.”Anti-vaxxers are both victims and villains of misinformation
“I view someone as an antivaxxer, that knows the data exists as it is and then spreads things that are not true, or stretches the truth in a way to make things valuable for them. The people that I have seen being antivaxxers, I think that they're being villains by spreading that misinformation, cuz they're leading people to make bad decisions about their healthcare.”
Notice he doesn’t use the word “health.”
After an hour and nineteen minutes, Dr. Mike chooses someone to debate for 10 minutes on a claim of their choosing—Tom is selected, a vaccine sceptic that lives in the region where Dr. Mike works.
Tom’s claim: There really is no safe vaccine
Dr. Mike: It really depends on your definition of safe. Vaccines are largely safe. Their benefits outweigh the risks. There is no completely safe activity.
This as a red herring fallacy—it occurs when someone introduces a seemingly relevant argument to distract from the original point being discussed, rather than addressing the specific claim about vaccine safety itself.Tom and Dr. Mike end up talking mainly about Tom’s specific case around the COVID-19 vaccine—which he rejected for his child, but who was vaccinated anyway under the authority of the mother.
The actual claim “there really is no safe vaccine” is not explored in any kind of meaningful manner, but the answer would be “no, there isn’t.” But nothing on the face of the Earth is completely safe, right?
Overall, the conversations remain civil and courteous, sometimes passionate, though at times Dr. Mike looks rather bored and disinterested, while failing to actually answer some straightforward questions. He’s definitely skilled in the art of talking without actually saying much.
Some other noteworthy quotes from Dr. Mike are listed below, in no particular order:
“We test vaccines an incredibly higher amount than pharmaceuticals.”
I would laugh if it wasn’t so tragic…
“Nature sounds really good but there's also a little bit of a fallacy in that, so like in nature people walk barefoot but we don't choose to walk barefoot, because we don't want to get tetanus infection from the floor and get cuts on our feet.”
Tetanus infection from the floor? WTF?
“I have to say that nature is absolutely violent. Nature created bacteria, nature created viruses, nature also gave us an immune system and the ability to create vaccines and treatment for those issues.”
Of course nature can be violent. However, he’s implying that bacteria and viruses are bad, but without them there is no life!
Propaganda disguised as fact-checking?
Below are three of the most egregious examples of misleading information presented as fact, courtesy of SAN.
“Contracting COVID-19 carried a risk of more severe side effects than vaccine side effects.“
No comment.
“Multiple studies support the conclusion that the risk for developing myocarditis is [seven-fold] higher for those infected with COVID-19 than those who got the COVID-19 vaccine.”
”Myocarditis in SARS-CoV-2 infection vs. COVID-19 vaccination”
Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine. August 29, 2022
Considering the manipulation around the very definition of “vaccinated” and the fact that this is a meta-analysis, there are several limitations and methodological considerations that warrant further scrutiny before presenting this conclusion as “fact”.
“A landmark study led by the World Health Organisation and published by The Lancet in 2024 found global immunisation efforts saved 154 millions lives over the past 50 years. The majority of lives saved, 101 million, were those of infants.”
“Contribution of vaccination to improved survival and health: modelling 50 years of the Expanded Programme on Immunization”
The Lancet. May 25, 2024
This “landmark study” was a modelling exercise by Imperial College London, funded by the WHO, to quantify the impact of their Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI), set up in 1974. Published in the prestigious British medical journal, The Lancet, the article presents data from 22 mathematical models using different approaches and relying “on its own set of assumptions and limitations.” The WHO has a vested interest in defending its position that vaccines save lives. Also, both Imperial College London and the WHO receive substantial funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation—who also must protect its multibillion-dollar investment.
The Lancet article has become PR fodder in the pursuit of defending vaccines’ life-saving quality. In all mainstream scientific discourse on vaccines, this is now cited as factual evidence of the millions of deaths prevented by the miracle of vaccination.
This antivaxxer doesn’t look convinced.
Overall the quality of the content was not at the level necessary for a real debate for and against vaccines, but then it was probably never intended to be—the required calibre of scientific and historical literary simply wasn’t present in the room.
Dr. Mike must be pretty bummed that “dangerous” RFK Jr. is now leading the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Watch Dr. Mike’s 15-minute summary of his experience, posted April 6, 2025. Here he claims that you’re 65 times more likely to be struck by lightning than have a vaccine-related adverse event—quoted allegedly from the HHS government website.
Below is the full 90-minute video of the exchange: