Comedian and talk show host Bill Maher has weighed in on the response to the Covid-19 pandemic, mocking some of the absurd measures taken by the US government.
“I get it that we didn’t know exactly what was happening at the beginning of Covid, and some mistakes were inevitable. But four years on [and] I’m tired of hearing, ‘Well, we didn’t know.’ No, we didn’t,” the comedian declared, adding, “But some people guessed better than others.”
“And the people who got it wrong don’t seem to want to acknowledge that now,” he then noted, as his audience remains quiet in a move that could be perceived as disagreement. “Some people said closing schools for so long was pointless and would cause much worse collateral damage to kids and they were right.”
“Four years ago The Daily Beast ran a story with the headline, ‘Bill Maher Pushes Steve Bannon Wuhan Lab COVID Conspiracy Theory,’ which was typical of the mainstream media at the time,” Maher decried.
“Of course, it wasn’t a conspiracy theory and it wasn’t owned by Steve Bannon, and now everyone, including the Biden administration, admits there’s at least a 50-50 chance that the virus could’ve begun in the lab in Wuhan, that was doing gain of function research on that virus,” Maher elaborated, adding a “Duh!” to drive the point home.
“But I don’t see a lot of retractions being printed,” he then lamented. “Yeah, when Covid hit, we did a lot of stupid things because America never reacts, it only overreacts.”
Maher would then go on to list some of the ridiculous measures adopted at the peak of the pandemic, as members of his audience seemingly begin to feel more comfortable laughing at the comedian’s remarks.
“Ubers look like those Orthodox Jews who wrap themselves in Saran wrapin case their plane flies over a grave,” he mocked. “We washed the mail. We played baseball in front of cardboard cutouts, and ate in parking lots or with inflatable dolls.”
He went on, “They closed the ocean. We bang pots and pans to show our love for nurses and our hatred for people trying to get a baby to sleep. For two years we had to get nostril f—ked every time we left the house.”
“Serious people talked about having sex through glory holes and, if you don’t know what a glory hole is, I wouldn’t look into it,” Maher joked, sharing an image highlighting articles from pro-LGBTQ sites Advocate and Pink News that respectively reported on the findings of British Columbia Centre for Disease Control and New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene‘s recommendations to use glory holes for safe sex during the pandemic.
“We were told to wash our hands every five minutes, and ‘don’t ever touch your face, and if you absolutely must go to the beach, for the sake of all that is holy, wear a mask.'”
“Outside? Because the last thing you would want to do when a disease is afoot is get fresh air, and sunshine, and vitamin D,” Maher mocked. “No, much better to stay locked up, stressed out, and day drinking.”
The talk show sarcastically continued, “And if you do get Covid, remember: natural immunity is always the worst kind. So even if you’ve had the disease you need a shot.”
“Yes, some very bad ideas were embraced as the conventional wisdom. Ideas that haven’t aged well, and a lot of the dissenting opinions, that were suppressed and ridiculed at the time, have proven to be correct,” Maher asserted.
This isn’t the first time Maher has been vocal about his stance on Covid-19 — to the dismay and frustration of his woke, liberal audience. In July of 2021, Maher criticized the CDC’s reversal of indoor mask policies — which stipulated that both the vaccinated and children should also wear facial masks indoors.
“I was hoping that when we came back we’d be done talking about the pandemic but, of course, now the Delta variant has everyone crazy,” a frustrated Maher declared at the time, later adding, “The CDC put out new mask guidelines now, which is, you know, it’s all just so f—king confusing.”
He explained, “Indoor, outdoors, vaccinated, not vaccinated, masks, not masks. So now we’re back to wearing the mask from the front of the restaurant until the waiter brings the breadsticks. It’s called science, people. Sometimes I think we have to cover our faces so other people can cover their ass.”
A few months later, In January of 2022, the talk show host faced scrutiny after declaring that he was done with the facial mask policies introduced in America.
“It’s just gone on too long. Nobody cares anymore. […] I don’t want to live in your paranoid world anymore, ” Maher declared. “It’s silly now. You have your mask, you have to have a card, you have to have a booster. They scan your head like you’re a cashier and I’m a bunch of bananas. I’m not bananas, you are!”
Later on, Maher would double down and shift his criticism towards vaccines, noting that these did not prevent people from getting Covid-19, as initially promoted, and explaining how this fact is a counterargument to the notion that getting inoculated keeps others protected.
“What’s so different from where we were two months ago the last time I sat here is that we now know the vaccine does not stop you from getting it. I found that out when I got it,” Maher declared, elaborating, “It doesn’t stop you from getting it and it doesn’t stop you from transmitting it.”
He further explained, “It stops you from dying when you do get it. I’m not saying it’s not a good reason. I’m just saying that’s a huge difference and it counteracts the argument that we need the vaccine to protect other people.”
“It just protects you. It doesn’t protect you from me, doesn’t protect me from getting it. It protects you. So, it’s just really about you now,” Maher said at the time.