Florida COVID cases, death rate drop to among lowest levels in US
'Fox Across America' host Jimmy Failla with reaction on 'Fox & Friends First.'
"Real Time" host Bill Maher railed against ongoing COVID restrictions, declaring the pandemic "over."
Maher kicked off the show's panel discussion Friday night by expressing relief that Dr. Anthony Fauci has given the green light on Halloween since it's been Maher's "position since the beginning of this."
"Just resume living," Maher told his audience. "I know some people seem to not want to give up on the wonderful pandemic, but you know what? It's over. There's always going to be a variant. You shouldn't have to wear masks. I should be to … I haven't had a meeting with my staff since March of 2020. Why?"
"I know some people seem to not want to give up on the wonderful pandemic, but you know what? It's over."
‘Blue states are a pain in the a--’ with their coronavirus rules, Bill Maher says. (HBO)
"Also, vaccine, mask, pick one! You've got to pick. You can't make me mask if I've had the vaccine," Maher added.
The Atlantic staff writer Caitlin Flanagan told Maher she had "broken up with COVID" after the first year of the pandemic, comparing it to an "abusive" boyfriend.
"And I got the vaccine. I walked out of the CVS. I hadn't been that thrilled coming out of the drugstore since I got the birth control pill in 1981," Flanagan quipped. "I've had cancer. I'm triple vaxxed. If it gets me, fair play to it because it will put up a fight against me but I'm not staying in my house again."
"I got the vaccine. … I hadn't been that thrilled coming out of the drugstore since I got the birth control pill in 1981."
Caitlin Flanagan. (The Atlantic)
Maher then pressed his guest, Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., since "it's the Democrats" that keep enforcing COVID restrictions.
"I travel in every state now, back on the road, and the red states are a joy and the blue states are a pain in the a--. For no reason," Maher said.
"One of the critical things that's being discussed right now by President Biden, one of the things we have to recommit ourselves to, is supporting vaccination around the rest of the world," Coons responded. "There's still a lot of countries that are very, very minimally vaccinated because if a variant develops out in the world that is able to defeat the vaccine, we are all the way back to the beginning. So in the United States, in most of the western world, we're ready to be done with this, but we're not done until the world is safe and we're not safe as a world until the world's vaccinated."
"If a variant develops out in the world that is able to defeat the vaccine, we are all the way back to the beginning."
Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2020. (Associated Press)
"Except the world recognizes natural immunity. We don't," Maher pushed back, "because everything in this country has to go through the pharmaceutical companies. Natural immunity is the best kind of immunity. We shouldn't fire people who have natural immunity because they don't get the vaccine. We should hire them. Yes?"
"If someone is having tested with antibodies," Coons conceded.
"Well, OK. But you know, people who've had it – I've had it," Maher said. "I mean, I shouldn't be tested anymore. I got the vaccine."
"And if someone's willing to be a fireman, if someone's willing to be a policeman, if someone's willing to go into a burning building and says, 'I'm just not that afraid of COVID and I don't want to take the vaccine,' that should be enough," Flanagan interjected. "You shouldn't be losing a job, you shouldn't be furloughed without pay, the guy that saves lives because he doesn't want to take the vaccine. It's ridiculous."
‘Stupid' messaging
The HBO star complained about the "messaging" regarding COVID, pointing to people he had seen outside "alone walking with a mask," stressing "it's so stupid."
"It's an amulet, you know? A charm people wear around the neck that wards away evil spirits. It means nothing," Maher said. "I mean, can't we get people to understand the facts more?"
"It's an amulet, you know? A charm people wear around the neck that wards away evil spirits. It means nothing."
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Maher went on to slam Democrats over a poll that showed "41%" of them believed unvaccinated people have "over 50%" risk of hospitalization when it's actually "0.89%," adding that it's "0.01%" for vaccinated people.
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"So in both cases, the correct answer is less than 1%. They thought it was over 50. How do people, especially of one party, get such a bad idea? Where did that come from?" Maher asked.
Coons reiterated that "we frankly shouldn't let up on the urgency of still promoting vaccination" so that "we can enjoy reopening our society."
‘Take our chances’
But Maher pushed back on the lack of "consensus" on how many people have actually died from COVID, pointing to the recent passing of former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who Maher pointed out had cancer and Parkinson's disease but died of "complications from COVID."
"We're looking at people with complicated health histories a lot of the time," Flanagan said. "We're looking at obesity as an issue but no one wants to say it because it's body positivity. And we're looking at poverty. That's what we need to be focused on, people who live really close together. But there's a lot of people within different poor communities so don't want to take it. We just have to take our chances, be thoughtful and careful and go back out there and make sure that people who live in dense housing have complete access to the vaccine. And if they don't want to take it …"
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"We have to get back to life," Maher agreed. "I mean, you might look at the sporting events that are … all three sports are playing now including basketball, which is inside. Nobody seems to be having super-spreader events. I mean, you know, it was great. It was so much fun having a pandemic but, you know, buh-bye."
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