Bill Maher's latest commentary is downright dangerous

[killaphill]

This dismissive attitude is what is going to get more people killed.

Link to tweet

I know YouTube is pulling dangerous content. Perhaps Twitter (and HBO) should consider the same....

[struggle4progress]

1. "I've never really learned any microbiology, as you can see whenever I yammer about the subject"

[Shermann]

2. Pretty mild centrist viewpoint in my opinion

He didn't advocate armed protesting or anything, he's just trying to keep it real and entertain a bit.

[outis]

3. I agree. nt

[lame54]

7. In the end his message was exactly the same as...

The Governors
Take a walk
Get some vitamin D
Nobody has asked you to never leave your house

[Newest Reality]

4. Oh my...

That was terrible. He doesn't seem to know the big difference between bacteria and viral contagion. That's not very intelligent there Bill.

He spent most of his time talking about the bacteria that we come in contact to all the time. We are very adapted to that and the problem is when the bacteria reproduces enough to cause trouble in our systems, and even then, it is the toxins that the bacteria excrete that usually make us ill. We then use antibiotics for that, which means, all super bugs aside, we have a treatment and cure. A healthy immune system also matters in that respect.

Yes, I agree, that commentary, (notice he was at home, not the studio) was dismissive, dangerous and rather dumb ass, too.

To Bill, you first man. Get out there and expose YOURSELF and quite missing the point here.

[Caliman73]

16. His lack of understanding is a problem but not THE problem.

He is conflating being cautious in the face of a new disease to having Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

Humans are wired to balance fear with the drive to be outside and social. It is the reason we didn't stay in the caves or sitting around the fire, not hunting or doing anything. It is the reason that people picked up the pieces after the Black Death killed almost 30% of the worlds population. The reason we kept going after the 1918 Flu killed between 50 and 100 million people. We adapt and survive and we get on with life. We actually did something good to stop a new disease from killing off 10s of millions of us and he is bitching that it is too much because we already live in a world full of microbes.

Your suggestion at the end is spot on. It is easy to bitch and tell people to "go outside" from your gated mansion. Go outside Bill! Go to one of those protests against the shelter in place and hang out without your mask or protection. Your immune system must be awesome, test it out and tell us how it goes.

[Trumpocalypse]

5. Maher is becoming a useful idiot of late

[misanthrope]

11. He's exposing the weaknesses in his science knowledge

as he is prone to do from time to time. Dating Cara Santa Maria did him no good at all.

[TreasonousBastard]

6. He's right. Back when we first learned about bacteria, good Victorians were obsessed and there...

was a huge industry protecting us from germs.

He's not saying be stupid and eat raw chicken, he's saying that we are born to become immune to common microorganisms, and even to depend on things like gut bacteria.

Obsessive fear of germs is as nuts as no fear at all.

[Blue_true]

19. None of us know how deadly covid19 will be.

People during the Black Plague didn't know how deadly it would be, or during the Smallpox epidemic, or the 1918 Pandemic. What people did know was that people around them were getting sick and dying. Those people didn't have instant news like we have today, they weren't able to compare what they saw to what was happening around the world. But what was common is that people came to really fear those past pathogens as they extracted their daily toll.

My guess is covid19 will only become a truly feared pathogen if it kills upward to 200,000-300,000 people in this country, with no end in sight. Without social distancing and lockdowns, we could have already been past 200,000 dead. In fact, the concept of social distancing is one of the innovations that came out of the 1918 Pandemic, physical isolation from epicenters was used during the Black Plague by the wealthy or well-placed.

Maher could be right. Or he could be seriously wrong. Smart asses like Elon Musk have been made to look foolish by covid19. Maybe the world is over-reacting, or maybe it is not over-reacting and if it lowers it's guard, a beast of a pathogen not seen in modern times will make it pay.

[mr_lebowski]

8. He's kinda not wrong ... I would not vote to take it down ...

I said from the beginning this whole 'nobody has any immunity' thing people were saying was inaccurate. Of course people do, otherwise it would have a 100% fatality rate. He's right on that account.

And the best solution is not to isolate forever, it's to come up w/a vaccine. IOW, make your immune system stronger.

This commentary doesn't constitute dangerous speech, IMHO.

He's basically saying don't become a total friggin germophobe over this whole thing.

[Caliman73]

9. Dumbass.

Maher sounds like we do this all the time. That was really stupid. We live with bacteria and viruses in our daily lives. We know that our immune systems can manage most of the infectious microbes out there. What we didn't know, and still don't know, is just how deadly this new virus is/was. We do not have ANY treatment or protection from it and it was killing people at a high rate. We have managed to mitigate the threat BECAUSE we slowed social contact. Once a vaccine and/or treatment is found, then we will go back to ignoring Coronavirus.

What happened here is that governments, especially ours and Italy's and Spain's, did not react quickly enough and a bunch of people got sick and died. More people than live in the town I live in GONE in a matter of 6 weeks. We loose people to flu and guns, and tobacco, but those are things that we know about and there is a consistency. Trump keeps harping on the idea that 2.2 million people could have died if "I didn't... (I can't listen to him for too long). THAT 2.2 MILLION was a conservative estimate of the people who could have died in that same span of time if we HAD NOT done social distancing. We are likely to hit over 100,000 deaths or more now that we are listening to idiots like Maher and relaxing the distancing guidelines.

[comradebillyboy]

10. Mahr has evolved into a dangerous crank...

[Spider Jerusalem]

12. Maher is an anti-science crank who doesn't believe in the germ theory of disease

he's claimed Pasteur "recanted" on his deathbed (which didn't happen): https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Bill_Maher#On_medicine

He's also an anti-vaxxer.

[ProfessorGAC]

13. On Brother

The purity test of allies is boring!

[Trumpocalypse]

20. Not a purity test

And Maher is not an ally.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

22. +1

[Raine]

26. Agree nt

[Quixote1818]

14. Herd immunity will kill 2 million people. He is a dumbass! nt

[jimfields33]

17. I'm curious about the Sweden study. I can't wait for it

They should have more deaths but don’t. 2,769 as of today in Sweden. Poor France has a tremendous amount and they are locked down tight. The virus makes no sense.

[Blue_true]

24. France is 7 times larger than Sweden in terms of population.

Sweden has fewer large cities than France, I don't know about public transit in both places. Also, Swedes are generally healthier than the French. So it is somewhat difficult to compare the two. A better comparison to both countries would be Germany. Germany is 9 times larger than Sweden, with lots of big international cities, yet it has just over twice the dead as Sweden (6,700 to 2,700). Would Germany had been much worse had it not locked down? I don't know how Germany compared to France on the basic health of it's citizens, my personal observations would say Germans are typically healthier and have better fitness discipline than the French.

[Maru Kitteh]

15. Bill Maher is an occasionally funny piece of shit.

He has been for a long time. Wouldn't break my heart if he developed Covid.

You first Bill. You first.

[dailytroubadour]

18. Bill has become

a waste of human flesh. It is well past the due date to tune this man out. Game over.

[BlueTsunami2018]

21. Why is this dangerous content?

Objectively, he’s correct. We can’t hide from viruses, we can’t do a whole lot to prevent them from occurring and we can’t shelter in place forever. Our own immune systems are the best way to fight these things in the absence of a vaccine. I don’t see him calling for a return to normal or a quick opening of everything.

He’s not calling it a hoax, he’s not saying it isn’t serious, he isn’t suggesting cockamamie treatments. Why is this dangerous content to you?

[Blue_true]

25. I actually favor opening things up, but requiring mandatory wearing of masks and safety glasses or

goggles when in public places. I think that would allow us to slow roll the virus (hold down the number of dead to close to lockdown levels). You are right, we can't stay locked down forever, in fact, I believe that we are close to the lockdown breaking point and even blue state governors need to start figuring out how to safely reopen(as opposed to republican ones, who don't seem to give a shit about people and are willing to accept lots of dead to try to juice their economies).

[lunasun]

23. Guy looks pretty old . If he knows so much about the immune system I wonder if he remembers

that as you grow older, your immune system does not work as well. It becomes slower to respond. This increases the risk of getting sick.
Frivolous attitude could get himself infected but yes I suppose others who listen and feel like they too have an immmune system that is working @ highest level 100% protecting them from any harm