politics

Maher is one of those older guys who thinks they figured everything out 30 years ago and doesn't need to try any more. The epitome of a lazy, entitled boomer.

"Explain to me how the vaccine is bad."

"OMG dude you're so dumb for not knowing."

"Okay... So just tell me what's so bad about them?"

"Dude, just stop being stupid."

It's so annoying that this has been politicized into such an all or nothing situation. Vaccines work so well because of statistics. No vaccines aren't 100% effective, vaccines aren't 100% safe, they do have side effects. However, in the unbelievably vast majority of cases vaccines prevent or reduce the symptoms of a disease, lower the amount you transmit, and the most severe side effects are often still better than the worst of the disease. There is legitimately a population that cannot get vaccines for various reasons (egg allergies and immuno compromised people primarily) and it's our responsibility to get vaccinated to help protect those people

As a stats major I'd like to blame math illiteracy, specifically people failing to understand orders of magnitude, but honestly even if you suck at math a simple pro/con list of each should still make it obvious. If the odds of cardio problems and death are equal with the vaccine and covid respectively (death from covid is 44 times more likely) then you should get the vaccine. If the odds of getting autism from the polio vaccine and ending up in an iron lung are the same (not even comparable because there's no evidence vaccines cause autism) then you should get the vaccine

Also finally, rugged individualism is such an awful way of thinking. The whole "I've never had a serious illness, so my immune system is strong" is just stupid. You have no way to know what will and won't kill you until you're dead. Or in a coma. Or incapable of walking. Or on oxygen for the rest of your life. All of which are significantly more likely to happen from getting covid, which is almost a statistical certainty for everyone in the world at this point, that you should just get the vaccine

To play devils advocate: He isn’t entirely wrong. There are inherent risks with vaccines, and they can and do cause harm to a small percentage of people.

Now to stop talking crazy: The harm caused is extremely rare, and the percentage of affected people is quite small. These risks aren’t unknown or hidden, and they usually come from allergies or a compromised immune system’s.

The way I see it is this: sure there are millions of reasons to hate drug companies. To be distrustful of them. But if my doctors say that something is the best course of action, of course I will do that. My doctor said that Covid vaccines are abundantly safe, as are flu vaccines. My doctor is great. I have great trust in her opinion. Therefore, I will get my Covid and flu vaccines as often as I need to.

I don't know fuck all about the way these things work. But I do know I trust my doctor because she has been through all the education and has a decade plus of being a family health doctor. I trust her. And I think people should be more inclined to trust their doctors rather than random weirdos on the internet.

The more mask off he goes the more I am shocked that even neolibs keep watching him.

Why do people still pay attention to this blowhard? He was a smarmy asshole even when I agreed with him. Now he's leaning into right wing culture war shit to try to remain relevant.

Seth MacFarlane is not an animator. He hasn't animated anything since the 1990s. He's a voice actor and producer.

Fuck him. He’s sucked for a long time.

Is he so fucking stupid that he thinks the NVICP was set up for COVID?

The NVICP was established as part of the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act (Public Health Service Act, 1987; 100 Stat. 3756, codified as Title XXI of the Public Health Service Act at 42 USC 300aa-1 et seq. (Supp. V 1987)), but it did not become operational until the fall of 1988.

I bet I can count on two hands the number of COVID vaccine "injuries" that have been paid out from this fund.

Bill Maher is a moron, I don't understand how he is still on the air.

EDIT: Correction, the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP) was actually started in May 2023.

EDIT2: I found the relevant data for this:

CICP data for COVID-19 claims (as of December 1, 2023)

Total COVID-19 CICP claims filed: 12,700

Pending Review or In Review: 10,863
Decisions: 1,837
    Claims found eligible for compensation: 38
        Claims compensated: 10
        Claims pending benefits determination: 27
        Claims with no eligible reported expenses: 1
    Denied: 1,799
        Requested medical records not submitted: 337
        Standard of proof not met and/or covered injury not sustained: 257
        Missed filing deadline: 954
        Not CICP covered product/not specified: 251

This is an incredibly small percentage of the vaccinated population.

Anti-vax is just another word for helplessly stupid

Maher isn't funny at all, despite having a "comedy" show.

It’s unfortunate that some woman took a shit decades back and now we’re all still having to listen to the wet farts after.

The pair discussed the effectiveness of the vaccine, with the actor backing up the drug, while the Real Time host slammed the medical establishment in the U.S. for not promoting natural immunity.

“I would think this country did not allow for natural immunity to be considered. And I know this is a subject dear to your heart. Like, even if you had the disease, you still had to get a vaccine. That’s powerful stupid. They don’t do that in Europe,” Maher began.

MacFarlane fought back noting natural immunity had been debunked, as people repeatedly got the virus.

The US media allows charlatans and grifters to rise to the top. Worse, their nonsense gets translated into Arabic and spread by our idiots.

Good thing I live in a country with mandatory vaccination.

Okaaaay new rule. Maher is a great example for how politics has changed in the US the last 20 years, because he definitely hasn't changed (okay maybe in some ways), yet he's almost universally despised by progressives now.

Other comedians are going after him now too, Heidecker and Armisen produced a whole half hour satire of the odd chemistry he has on his "Club Random" podcast. Tim doesn't do the voice impression but it's almost funnier for some reason because of that. This is an absolutely hilarious example of it. "Hey you want some dope?" "Oh yeah sure... lets smoke this joint" "It's not weed stupid it's a CLOVE CIGARETTE." I dunno how Jeff Ross holds it together here, the roastmaster that he is.

Norm was one of the first to really go after him as "one of these comedians who try and be smart instead of funny." His appearances on Maher's show in that video are great, totally ruins what Maher is trying to do and makes the audience and guests crack up.

I got vaccine for Bill Maher and haven't cared about this obsolete Friday night filler for 3 years.

he’s a douchebag for money. he is vaxxed himself.

I would not want to debate Seth. He’s very intelligent and very quick witted.

Bill who?

I grew up when polio was a scourge. A relative was an anti-vaxxer, and one of her children was not given the Salk vaccine. Her child lived his life in braces, and over his lifetime, literally had millions of dollars spent on trying to minimize the damage from that one ignorant choice. Their family was bankrupted, and the entire family lived in poverty from that point on, spending every penny that they could, trying to undo the damage. There is a true cost of not getting vaccinated, but double-blind meta study has not shown any cost tied to getting vaccinated for covid, for the general population.

Check for yourself.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36936964/

Someone please name a funny Bill Maher joke

Is there something in the water? What the fuck is with this spread nonsense? How the shit did preventative medicine become a target for these people? Will they find toothpaste shouldn't be consumed en masse and rail against that?

“The fact that you the fact that you don’t even have a clue what’s the cost of getting a vaccine that you don’t know the answer to that. You completely want to shut your eyes to the fact that there are repercussions to all medical interventions, including a vaccine, all vaccines,” he ranted.

Lots of Italians agreeing with Maher's rhetoric: Italian hospitals collapse: Over 1,100 patients waiting to be admitted in Rome

' "Covid has slightly decreased in the last week, flu is spreading, but other viruses have also caused 'overcrowding' in hospitals and a very strong pressure on emergency services," De Laco explained on Tuesday, according to local media.'

COVID, Flu, and RSV all have vaccines available to the public.