Bill Maher Says Pandemic is Over, 'You Shouldn't Have to Wear Masks'

Talk show host Bill Maher railed against COVID restrictions and declared the pandemic to be “over.”

The Real Time with Bill Maher host discussed ongoing pandemic measures with a panel on Friday night and said people no longer needed to wear masks.

He said: ” Just resume living. 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 haven’t had a meeting with my staff since March of 2020. Why?”

Maher continued: “Also, vaccine, mask, pick one. You’ve got to pick. You can’t make me mask if I’ve had the vaccine.”

The host then turned to Senator Chris Coons (D-DE) and said it was Democrat lawmakers who continued to enforce COVID-related restrictions and mandates.

Maher added: “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.”

In response, Sen. Coons said: “There’s still a lot of countries that are 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.”

While many states across the U.S. have fully reopened, many continue to have some form of restrictions or mandates in place.

This includes red states, such as Texas, where Governor Greg Abbott‘s executive order includes an exception for nursing homes and assisted living facilities that may continue to require documentation of a resident’s vaccination status, according to 50 and older advocacy group the AARP.

Other states, such as Democrat stronghold Hawaii, have stricter guidelines in place with Mayor Mitch Roth signing an order on October 15 that expanded gathering limits on the Big Island to 50 people for organized recreational activities.

On October 22, Kansas, a red state, required unvaccinated people or those who have not had COVID within the past six months to quarantine if they traveled to Alaska on or before October 7, or attended an out-of-state gathering of more than 500 people where people did not maintain social distancing.