Bill Maher Tells Ben Shapiro That Media Personalities Who Ignored Impact of Obesity on Covid Have ‘Blood on Their Hands’

Bill Maher said the media have “blood on their hands” for failing to account for America’s obesity issues while the country was in the throes of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Real Time host appeared on The Ben Shapiro Show Sunday, where he and the eponymous Daily Wire host talked about how the overweight are particularly vulnerable to the Covid-19 health crisis.

“I’m not fat shaming, I’m fat-splaining,” Maher insisted. “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, absolutely, but science is not. Science is not, and those facts are unforgiving when you look at the number of people who died. And you didn’t have to be that much overweight to have a much worse outcome having to go to the hospital, having to get ventilated.”

Maher made his point by arguing that the media and the public don’t like to talk about how obesity is relevant to the state of American public health. He said obesity has become “the ultimate third rail in discourse” on Covid before citing the percentage of diabetic people who died of Covid, plus the fact that obesity creates an increased risk factor for Covid and other chronic health conditions.

Maher spoke of he was making this point even before Covid, recalling how James Corden accused him of fat-shaming over his comments.

If you just said to somebody, ‘Okay, there’s an X factor in this…This X factor accounts for 78 percent who die or go to the hospital.’ Wouldn’t you be a curious? If you were a news organization, wouldn’t you be talking about that fact all the time?…Again, I’m not shaming people. I’m just saying we are never going to solve the health care crisis in this country until we get our arms around this thing, and we’re not allowed to talk about it or else you’re a bad person. Anyone who doesn’t, I’m sorry, you have blood on your hands. Anyone in the media who doesn’t talk about this because you’re so afraid of the reaction, you have blood on your hands because you are not doing these people a favor.

Maher went on by arguing that vaccines and government intervention won’t solve America’s health woes, but the key is “let’s ask the people to participate in their own health.”

“The government can’t solve this on their own. Vaccines can’t solve this on their own,” he said. “You have to do it.”

Watch above, via Ben Shapiro’s YouTube account.

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