Bill Maher pushes back against Fauci, pandemic-related mandates

"I feel like COVID is still the dominant issue of our lives right now and it should not be anymore," the "Real Time with Bill Maher" host said as the HBO series prepared to kick off its 20th season Friday night. "And I think the big discussion on our show Friday night when we go on, is should we continue with the COVID policies we've had in the past," the TV personality added.

"Don't sit there in your white coat and tell me, 'Just do what we say,'" said Maher, who is fully vaccinated but questions the wisdom of the orders given by the Biden administration and health authorities.

"That's not a criticism of them like they're being corrupt, although there certainly is plenty of corruption in the medical establishment," said Maher in an interview with Deadline on Friday. The "Real Time" host made his remarks when asked if he believes Fauci, who is the senior health advisor to the White House, or the medical establishment "really know what they are doing."

"But I've always maintained that the big overarching theme should be that people look back and say, 'Oh, look how far we've come medically.' Yes, that's true. We're not putting wooden teeth in our mouth like in the George Washington era, and of course we have antibiotics and lots of vaccines and lots of other things that have been miraculous. But in general, we still don't understand too much about how the human body works," Maher stated.

The host charged that the medical community has been wrong "a lot" throughout history, citing their past use of toxic and carcinogenic substances like mercury as tooth fillings as one of many examples.

"They drilled mercury into my teeth when I was a child. Now, of course, we don't do that anymore, but do you really think in 50 years people will look back and say, 'Oh, yeah, we had it all figured out in 2022'? No, they will be appalled at things we're doing right now," quizzed Maher.

Maher said that he has never been "scared" of the pandemic, and that what alarmed him even more than the pandemic itself was the reaction to it.

"I was always scared of the reaction to it, and as this has played out that only proved to be more true for me," he told Deadline. "It was never that virulent a threat, I thought, to people who were in good health."

"Now, some people can't help that they're not in good health. We should, of course, protect the vulnerable, but it was mostly a disease of the very old, which every disease is a threat to, and people who have comorbidities, which mostly is due to lifestyle," he said.

As for vaccines, Maher, who got jabbed last year – but later tested positive in May – said that "they just prevent you from dying, which is a great part of it, let's not undercount that. But if they don’t prevent you from transmitting it and they don’t prevent you from getting it why are we still treating this disease the way we always have?"