“Real Time” host Bill Maher is tossing his thoughts into the debate surrounding referring to the coronavirus as the “Chinese virus.”
President Donald Trump has taken heat — as some have accused him of racism — for calling the coronavirus the “Chinese virus” on multiple occasions. He has defended calling it by that label, suggesting he uses the term “because it comes from China, it’s not racist at all,” he said at a previous press briefing.
“You can’t yell at someone for breaking a rule you just made up,” Maher said during his show, later asking, “So why should China get a pass?”
During his “New Rule” segment late Friday, Maher began by listing off other known viruses that have been labeled by where they came from, including the Zika virus, West Nile virus, Spanish flu, and MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome).
Maher continued:
“Seriously, it scares me that there are people out there who would rather die from the virus than call it by the wrong name. This isn’t about vilifying a culture, this is about facts. This is about life and death.”
Maher spoke about the “PC police,” then added, “It’s not racist to point out it’s batshit crazy to eat bats.”
“So when someone says, ‘What if people hear ‘Chinese virus and blame China?’ The answer is ‘We should blame China.’ Not Chinese-Americans. But we can’t stop telling the truth because racists get the wrong idea. There are always going to be idiots out there who want to indulge their prejudices, But this is an emergency, don’t we have bigger tainted fish to fry?”
He continued:
“We can’t afford the luxury anymore of non-judginess towards a country with habits that kill millions of people everywhere. Because this isn’t the first time. SARS came from China. And the bird flu. And the Hong Kong flu. The Asian flu. Viruses come from China just like shortstops come from the Dominican Republic. If they were selling nuclear suitcases at these wet markets, would we be so non-judgmental?”
Watch the video below:
Maher concluded in talking about “[closing] down the Farmer’s Market from Hell”: “They need to use that iron fist and pound it down like the rest of the world depends on it, because it kinda does.”
Confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.S. passed 500,000, as there are over 501,600 cases, as of Saturday morning. Across the globe, there are more than 1,700,000 confirmed coronavirus cases.