HBO’s “Real Time” host Bill Maher opened his show by making fun of Chris Christie and Rand Paul for their positions on vaccine mandates, then defended vaccine skepticism on Friday.
Maher stated in his open that “Rand Paul, you saw this, and Chris Christie, they both said vaccination should be a choice, not a government mandate, because when have Republicans ever told people what they can do with their own bodies? It’s just not who they are.”
Later, Maher declared “I’m not an anti-vaxer, never have been, I’m an anti-flu-shot guy, I think that’s bullsh*t, the fact that it was 23% effective this week, bears that out, but if Ebola was airborne, I’d get the vaccine tomorrow. But…the attitude of the media this week kind of pissed me off, it was just a lot of ‘shut the f*ck up.’ You know, it reminded me of the Iraq War, the first weeks, just don’t ask any questions. I was wondering if that bothered anybody else, and then I was wondering what you think we should do about this problem of parents who may not want to do it, versus the public good.”
During a 2009 interview with then-Senator Bill Frist (R-TN) said “I would never get a swine flu vaccine or any vaccine,” and wondered why people would let the government “stick a disease into your arm?” That same year he referred to vaccination as “a risky medical procedure that begs long-term cost/benefit analysis.” Although, later on Friday’s show he agreed that vaccines do not cause autism, and that “vaccines are pretty much safe, and they certainly are effective,” he wondered whether you could “do too much of a good thing.”
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