This Week's Real Time Canceled After Host Bill Maher Tests Positive for COVID-19

[Pluvious]

Source: The subject's own Twitter account

On Thursday, HBO called off tomorrow’s taping of Real Time With Bill Maher after the show’s host tested positive for the coronavirus during the late-night series’s regular weekly testing. Fortunately for Maher, he was already “fully vaccinated” and is currently “asymptomatic and feels fine.”

Read more: https://www.vulture.com/2021/05/real-time-canceled-after-bill-maher-tests-positive-for-covid.html

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From his Twitter account:

Link to tweet

Thanks to all wishing me get well - hard to do since I feel perfectly fine, but I appreciate it! Most upset about ending my streak going back to 1993 of never missing a Politically Incorrect or Real Time episode. Oh well, even Cal Ripken had to sit one out at some point.

[PSPS]

1. But ... but ... they said masks weren't necessary if you're fully vaccinated!!111!!

So much for the CDC's heralded "proclamation" today.

[Mawspam2]

2. But did Maher get vaccinated?

Isn't he one of the anti-vax crowd?

[PSPS]

4. The article says he was "fully vaccinated."

[Fullduplexxx]

12. Well bill could be lying

[msfiddlestix]

13. I've always heard him claim to be an anti-vaxer

I find it really hard to believe he has been fully (or even partially) vaccinated.

But on the other hand, I haven't listened to any of his shows since after the pandemic started. He may have "evolved" since I last heard him speak about vaccines in general.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

16. Yeah he thinks it's possible vaccines cause autism and the flu shot is dangerous.

I think he's lying.

[Paladin]

19. I think he's lying, as well.

After years of anti-vax ranting, I think he's just trying to minimize the humiliation of his current situation.

[msfiddlestix]

22. thanks for confirming my memory of his blatherings

about stuff he thinks he knows anything and everything anyone else needs to know.

I don't understand the reverence for him. he's a little bit of a cultish figure.

and he's an arrogant jerk to put it mildly.

my opinion of course, your's may vary.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

23. I agree with you.

There is also this gem:

Bill Maher Just Promoted The Unproven Goat Milk HIV Therapy That Charlie Sheen Got In Mexico

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/virginiahughes/goat-milk-cure

He's a bigot and promotes quackery but when people call him out he yells CANCEL CULTURE!

[msfiddlestix]

24. I was gonna say: Really?! he's a jerk and a crackpot

who thinks he's funny. But he isn't. He might have some capable writers but I think he blows most of them.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

5. Agree. He's been poo-pooing the WHOLE thing. Like people are SO

stupid for being scared of covid.

That said, can't imagine him mingling with crowds where he could have gotten it. He seems too "above" it.

Well, I am a huge fan. Just because he always has had a take on things that was off the wall and unique. I thought he was high IQ... But not about this. Want to say.. "you stupid MF."

[obnoxiousdrunk]

3. Isn't Bill

an anti vaxxer ?

[Rhiannon12866]

10. Not at all:

Link to tweet

[wnylib]

6. If he's fully vaccinated and asymptomatic,

how did he know to get tested?

[orleans]

7. i think the article (or at least the one i read) said the studio tests on a weekly basis nt

[orleans]

8. here ya go

“Bill tested positive during weekly staff PCR testing for COVID. He is fully vaccinated and as a result is asymptomatic and feels fine,” HBO said. ” ‘Real Time’ production has taken every precaution following COVID CDC guidelines. No other staff or crew members have tested positive at this time. The show will be rescheduled at a later date.”

https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/bill-maher-covid-19-real-time-hbo-taping-1234972967/

[wnylib]

9. Thanks.

[oldsoftie]

11. This is how it spread so much to begin with

We've all seen the infection numbers. I wonder how many there REALLY have been because of people having no symptoms and never knowing it. If Maher didnt work where he does, HE would've never known.
I've know 3 people who only knew they were positive because they got tested because their spouse had gotten sick with it

[wnylib]

15. I've thought about the asymptomatic spreaders, too.

There is no way of knowing how many there are, but I think they are drivers of the spread, especially if they are anti-maskers. Add to that the numbers of people who had mild cases that they thought were the flu or a cold, plus the people with definite symptoms who could not get tested early on when tests were so scarce. Then there are the people in the early weeks, before doctors knew what they were dealing with, who were misdiagnosed with pneumonia or severe flu. Put them all together and the infection rate is much higher than the confirmed cases indicate.

The death rate is higher, too, when you consider the ones who were misdiagnosed as pneumonia and subsequently died, plus the people who were seriously ill at home and died there because they could not get to a hospital during the peak in some locations, and the people who died without ever being tested when tests were scarce.

I am wondering if the country is vaccinated enough to avoid a spike from the mutations in South Africa, Brazil, and India. The UK is currently having a surge in cases of the Indian mutation, even though several Brits are vaccinated. Not enough of them vaccinated? Or breakthrough infections?

[oldsoftie]

18. One poster here said eventually it mutates itself out

As in, it will change itself so much it will no longer be a threat. I dont know how true that is but it would be nice to find out if its true
Because I worry about mutations that the vaccine would be ineffective against. And then here we go again...

A friend recently was posting on Fb how sick she was feeling but was testing negative. She even went BACK to work. Got sick again and then FINALLY tested positive.
Her idiot husband blames her wearing a mask. HE never wears one. Another friend told me he wished that "John" would catch it & have to be on a ventilator for a few days. He's pretty pissed at him and his attitude obviously!

[wnylib]

21. Her anti mask husband probably infected her.

Grounds for divorce, IMO.

[oldsoftie]

26. Oh no, she thinks he's the smartest man in the world.

Seriously.

[wnylib]

27. Then she could be a candidate for

the dumbest woman in the world. If your spouse cares so little about your well being that he/she takes risks with your health and life, it's not much of a relationship. But, that's my view. Some people don't mind, I guess.

[forgotmylogin]

14. I imagine any crew that works unmasked like on TV shows have to get tested regularly. n/t

[louis-t]

17. Jeez, people, read the article.

The first paragraph states that he was fully vaccinated and the show has weekly testing.

[Warpy]

20. The virus can infect you and you can shed it through your nose an mouth

after you have been vaccinated. The virus just won't make you sick.

It's unclear whether or not virus is shed in sufficient quantity to infect other people, or if dead virus is what is being detected by the test.

Personally, I think they should have borrowed one of Mythbuster's old plastic blast shields and had him do the show behind it. That would be more than sufficient precaution for a fully vaccinated person.

[aggiesal]

25. Rumor has it that Cal streak almost ended when ....

he found his wife with Kevin Costner.
Cal was so distraught that he refused to play that night's game,
so the Orioles created a blackout to keep from ending Cal's streak.