What To Know
- Bill Maher and Bo Derek criticized COVID-19 vaccine mandates on the Club Random podcast.
- Maher emphasized he is not anti-vax but believes individuals should decide which vaccines to take.
- Derek suggested that making the vaccine available without mandates would have increased voluntary uptake.
Real Time host Bill Maher pivoted from a discussion about decriminalizing drugs to his issues with COVID-19 vaccine mandates during his latest edition of the Club Random podcast, while speaking with actress Bo Derek.
“I want drugs to be decriminalized,” Derek said at one point in the conversation, per Mediaite.
“On this show, I want it to happen!” Maher agreed while waving a blunt in the air.
“Prohibition created the mafia!” Derek added. “We learn nothing!”
“Of course,” Maher replied. “That’s because there’s money in it, honey. There’s so much money in keeping it illegal… Do you think the liquor industry wants to compete with this? If only people would understand you can use them together and it’s fantastic!”
Maher then went on a detour, asking, “I mean, why did everybody have to get a COVID shot? Even people with natural immunity. Natural immunity, which we always used to respect. But in COVID, no. ‘Just get our product in you.’”
The comedian stated that he’s “not an anti-vaxxer,” but “just someone who wants to decide which ones I want.”
“Yeah, I remember the build-up to, ‘It’s coming, it’s coming, it’s coming,” Derek said. “And I think if they had just left it, ‘Here it is! This vaccine. It’s available to anybody who wants it,’ I think probably more people would have taken it. But when you tell Americans, ‘You must,’ that’s a problem.”
Maher continued to say “the natural immunity thing” was what bugged him the most. “For the people who were like, ‘We’re the science people,’ well, there was nothing that was more settled science than ‘natural immunity is the best,’” he stated.
“I know a lot of people who were like, ‘Oh, you know what, I got sick in like November of 2019. I bet that was COVID.’ Yeah, I bet it was… And, you could test it. ‘Doesn’t matter. Get our s*** in you.’ That’s when I go, ‘Okay, now the fix is in. Now, you’re telegraphing that you just wanna get your product in me as much as you can.’”
The COVID vaccine mandate took effect in 2021 and was free to every American who wanted one, regardless of which company made it or a person’s health insurance.