Bill Maher, host of “Real Time on HBO,” decried the politicization of medicines such as Ivermectin, which has been used as political fodder.
On the October 1 episode of the show, Maher was talking about the drug with Katherine Mangu-Ward, the Editor-in-Chief of Reason, and Matt Taibbi, who publishes the newsletter, “TK News,” on Substack.
“One of the problems is you’ve written so eloquently about is that we have politicized medication now,” he added. “I mean, Ivermectin…Ivermectin. It’s a drug. It’s not a politician. It should not have any reputation, except does it work or not,” Maher said, turning to his guests Matt Taibbi and Katherine Mangu-Ward.
After Maher’s comment, applause broke out.
Maher responded: “thank you for applauding that completely non-controversial idea.”
“Like on the left, it was like, oh no, you can’t even mention it. And of course, the comedians on the left would only talk about the fact that it was used to deworm horses, leaving out that it’s been prescribed millions of times for humans now.”
According to a paper published in the National Library of Medicine, Ivermectin has been given to roughly 200 million people in order to treat a disease known as “river blindness.”
Taibbi with TK News and Mangu-Ward of Reason both commented as Maher ended his rant.
“I think it could be a game-changer,” Mangu-Ward commented after Maher mentioned that the drug company Merk had developed a pill to treat COVID-19. “I will admit I went into the pandemic extremely skeptical of the FDA and the CDC, but I think America joined me in that as we saw a huge number of mistakes by the public health bureaucracy. Huge.”
“This pill does not have FDA approval right now,” Mangu-Ward added. “So I want to know how long are we going to have to wait if this is lifesaving, just like the vaccines have turned out to be? I would really like for people to have the right to try these lifesaving medications. And I’m afraid that the bureaucracy is going to stand in the way.”
“I think,” Taibbi says, “the thing that was really weird about COVID is that there were so many people who were suddenly rooting against or for certain drugs, right?”
“Right? Rooting!” Maher exclaimed, alluding to the politicization of medicines.
Mangu-Ward added, “I think when the stakes are this high, when it really is about, you know, protecting your own life, people should be allowed to make their own choices.”
