Bill Maher Blows The Door Off The Internet With His Latest COVID-19 Comments

Since early 2020, comedian, journalist, and host of HBO's political talk show "Real Time With Bill Maher," Bill Maher, has been highly critical of the United States' response to the COVID-19 pandemic. On his show, Maher has often criticized Democrats and other left-leaning causes, though he has not supported Trump or his claims of election fraud in the past, per The Hill. 

While speaking with Deadline in January, Maher revealed that he had never been frightened of getting COVID-19 even at the beginning of the pandemic, and, especially now, believes that the country should be working harder to bring back a sense of normalcy. "I was never scared of it," Maher said. "I was always scared of the reaction to it, and as this has played out that only proved to be more true for me. I'm sure many people feel different, but that's me. It was never that virulent a threat, I thought, to people who were in good health."

Despite being critical of the medical community's response to COVID-19, Maher admitted during an episode of "Real Time With Bill Maher" that the COVID-19 vaccine might have been the reason that he did not get seriously ill after testing positive for the virus back in May 2021. "Did it help? Probably? I don't know. We don't know. Yes, probably. I don't know. You know, most people who got the thing never got very sick. Less than 4 percent went to the hospital — I know media doesn't like to talk about that!" Maher said, per The Hollywood Reporter.

On Friday, Bill Maher blasted medical officials for spreading misinformation regarding the COVID-19 pandemic during an episode of "Real Time With Bill Maher." The television show host claimed that certain protocols put in place, like lockdowns, had proven to be ineffective, which, to Maher, displayed the fact the medical community had been actively spreading misinformation despite knowing that certain protocols had no impact on the spread of the virus. 

"The same people, who in private care, always say 'get a second opinion' want to only allow one in the public debate," Maher said, per the New York Post. "The medical-industrial complex has not earned the right to claim monopoly status on information about this virus or medicine in general. ... "I'm not saying the medical establishment isn't trying to figure s–t out ... But how about just wrong. ... Wrong about lockdowns, wrong about kids, wrong about 'You couldn't get it if you were vaccinated.' ... Doesn't it make more sense to focus on helping the vulnerable stay safe and let the rest of us go back to living normal lives?"

To back up his belief about COVID-19 misinformation being spread by medical professionals, Bill Maher cited an alleged study from the John Hopkins Insitute for Applied Economics published last week that found that lockdowns had almost no effect on the spread of the virus. However, as Forbes points out, the study was not conducted by the school itself, but actually by economics professor Steve H. Hanke. Additionally, none of the scholars involved are medical experts and the project is only considered to be a "working paper," and not a study.

The internet isn't too happy with Maher's latest claims, with some even saying his show belongs on a more conservative network. "Yep won't be long before you need to tune in to Fox News to watch Bill Maher," tweeted one such person. Another wrote, "He's literally peddling debunked studies (Johns Hopkins) as if they are the end all be all of the discussion. He always had some wacky opinions, but he's turned into a full on looney tune."

Other people on the internet criticized the paper cited by Maher, with one tweeting, "It's an opinion piece with little to no facts backing it up. It only is getting attention because Fox News and Bill Maher have been talking it up as something that it isn't."