Bill Maher Believes People Should 'Want' to Get Coronavirus

[Yavin4]

I'm going to put Bill Maher on pause for a while. HBO should be ashamed of themselves for letting this quack on the air.

Bill Maher welcomed Dr. David Katz, a doctor and ex-instructor at the Yale School of Medicine, onto his show Real Time. Dr. Katz, who consistently flaunts his Yale ties despite the fact that they were severed in 2016, has become something of a right-wing darling after penning a controversial New York Times op-ed on March 20 titled “Is Our Fight Against Coronavirus Worse Than the Disease?” In it, Katz argues against the self-isolation policies put in place by most of the U.S., instead saying the country should isolate the elderly and infirm, which would thus “allow most of society to return to life as usual and perhaps prevent vast segments of the economy from collapsing.... a convincing refutation of Katz’s ill-advised piece was published in The New York Times from those currently at the Yale School of Public Health ...

https://www.thedailybeast.com/bill-maher-believes-people-should-want-to-get-coronavirus

--On Edit--
Here is the rebuttal editorial to Dr. Katz from Yale University health experts:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/23/opinion/letters/coronavirus-quarantine.html

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. You go first, Bill. I don't want to get it, but you're welcome to go for it.

[area51]

22. +1 n/t

[Baltimike]

29. that's exactly what I thought..."Go lick a railing" smh...nt

[Paladin]

2. Maher is nothing more than a right-wing pimp, now.

Those of you still watching his show need to stop it.

[JenniferJuniper]

5. Personally, I avoid telling others what they can and

cannot watch.

Maher is not a right-wing pimp. He is a comedian and a provocateur. But if you can only watch shows that support your world view, I agree, he should probably be avoided.

[Paladin]

12. Golly, you're so superior to me.

Please feel free to keep watching Maher's show, forever and ever. Thanks for teaching me such a valuable lesson.

[HarlanPepper]

14. +1

Well said.

[Paladin]

16. My shame knows no bounds. Please forgive me. (nt)

[HarlanPepper]

17. I'm sorry you feel that way.

[Paladin]

20. No sweat, man. Stay healthy. (nt)

[dem4decades]

3. Bill Maher is a sanctimonious idiot.

[democrattotheend]

4. I'd be willing to participate in a controlled trial

I read something on The Hill about a proposal by some Democratic members of Congress to recruit young, healthy people to test exposure to it as a way to potentially expedite a vaccine. I'd be open to participating as long as there is sufficient hospital capacity so I know I'll be able to get treated. I live in New York and Cuomo says 40-80% of us are going to get it eventually, so I'd rather get it out of the way now before it potentially mutates into something worse. I'm in my mid-30's with no conditions that make me especially vulnerable, and since I'm likely to get it at some point I would rather just get it over with.

[Voltaire2]

6. Herd immunity without a vaccine:

Minimum 60% of the population needs to get infected. 1% of that 60% will die, and that is conservative and ignores health care system collapse from too many patients.

That is approximately 2 million dead.

[Midnight Writer]

7. Bill Maher is a Libertarian, which often marches hand in hand with modern Conservative goals.

Libertarians (think Ayn Rand) have a Survival of the Fittest mentality.

It doesn't surprise me that he would advocate this.

[ProfessorGAC]

15. A Libertarian Who Has Given $3 Million To Dems?

That seems unlikely.

[Doremus]

23. His donation record means little.

There are many blue dogs who might support the same issues as he does.

He definitely has libertarian tendencies.

[ProfessorGAC]

24. SMH

[treestar]

8. So exaggerated

8 weeks off and the country would "collapse?" He's showing the economy is not strong at all if that's all it takes.

[pbmus]

9. Bill is starting to sound like a tea party conservative...

He should stay with making people laugh, not making people worry about money being spent to save our economy...his asking Nancy about deficits is only proof he knows nothing about our economy and listening to his Hollywood millionaires/billionaires who care very little about anything but themselves..

[crickets]

10. Well go out and get it yourself then, Bill. Let us know how that works out for you. Idiot. nt

[Quixote1818]

11. I work in the schools so I am probably going to get it next fall. I would prefer to get it now

and get it over with. But I if I wasn't in a high risk area I would not want to take a chance.

[uponit7771]

13. Maher #YouFirst ... If not then fuck you

[ProfessorGAC]

18. That's Not Quite What He Said

Also, I'm concerned that he's falling into the trap of despair with too many half-studies that create a sense there's nothing we can do anyway.
I think all researchers should stop publishing hypotheses and publish when there are independently corroborated conclusions.
Scaring people into, "What the hell, we're all going to get it anyway." Is counterproductive.
I fear Bill is getting absorbed into that attitude because there's too much sketchy information.

[uponit7771]

19. Got it, someone on his show should've been informed enough to tell him a testing, tracing and

... isolation programmed has worked for other countries and we can do it here if Trumps trade war wasn't screwing everything up.

[ProfessorGAC]

21. While I Agree...

...I don't think we have to worry about him defending Trump.

[Yavin4]

26. "all researchers should stop publishing hypotheses and publish when there are independently...

corroborated conclusions."

And that's the major problem here, aside from the virus. Seems as though everyone is operating on incomplete or historical data.

If we had a functioning president, he would be working with the WHO and our allies to collect comprehensive data through testing on the sick, the not sick, and the deceased. We need to know the critical factors that lead to death. Simply saying age and underlying conditions is not nearly enough when a 5 year old child in Detroit, MI died from it.

Coordinated international cooperation and studies through the WHOi is what we sorely need right now.

[Tink41]

32. That thought

Has been discussed among my friends and I. We get some weird "bug" in our heads "let's just run outside" and get it. It doesn't take more than a minute or so to come off that cliff.
That is the thought though, like why am I isolating if it's going to happen sooner or later. I do know the real reason, endangering others, overwhelming the system. I'm not too sure what puts us in that mindframe though. There is some talking point that does it.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

25. Fuck Bill Maher.

[Quixote1818]

27. Spanish Flu only hit about 30% of the US population. If we can't keep this below those figures

in this modern time then we have totally failed. The Herd mentality BS is just not fact based.

[milestogo]

28. Is he trying to be dumber than Trump?

Because this is a good start.

[Hekate]

30. Go lick a doorknob, dipshit

[Politicub]

31. Maher is trying to be edgy. It's predicable and boring.

He either doesn't know who his audience is, or he's trying to build a contrarian brand because he sees the writing on the wall.