Bill Maher says COVID lockdown critics ‘were right’ about school closures
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Late-night host Bill Maher argued that anti-COVID quarantine advocates who argued that closing schools for an extended period of time would do more harm than good to children were “right” and that the Wuhan lab leak theory “is not a conspiracy theory.”
On Friday’s episode of “Real Time,” Maher said that years after the COVID pandemic was finally over, he was tired of hearing people make excuses for how dissenting voices who spoke out against COVID policies like masking and lockdowns were treated.
“I understand that at the beginning of COVID we didn’t know exactly what was happening and some mistakes were inevitable. But four years later, I’m tired of hearing, ‘Yeah, we didn’t know,'” he said. “No, we didn’t. But some people guessed better than others. And the people who got it wrong don’t seem to want to admit it anymore.”
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Late-night host Bill Maher on the set of “Real Time” on Friday, January 23, 2026. (Screenshot/HBO)
“Some said closing schools for that long was pointless and would cause much greater collateral damage to children, and they were right,” Maher added.
quote 2021 article In the Daily Beast article titled “Bill Maher Busts Steve Bannon Wuhan Lab Covid Conspiracy,” the “Real Time” host noted that such coverage “was typical of mainstream media at the time.”
“Of course, this was not a conspiracy theory and it did not belong to Steve Bannon,” he asserted. “And now everyone, including the Biden administration, acknowledges that there’s at least a 50-50 chance that the virus may have started in the lab in Wuhan doing gain-of-function research on the virus. Hah. But I don’t see a lot of retractions being printed.”
Maher argued that “we did a lot of stupid things” during the COVID pandemic because “America never reacted, it just overreacted.”
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“Ubers were like Orthodox Jews who wrapped themselves in saran wrap in case their planes flew over a grave. We washed the mail. We played baseball in front of cardboard cutouts. We ate in parking lots or with inflatable dolls? They blocked off the ocean. We banged pots and pans to show our love for nurses and our hatred for people trying to put a baby to sleep,” Maher said, listing several other examples.
Regarding the response to the COVID outbreak, Bill Maher said: “Some people guessed better than others. And those who got it wrong don’t seem to want to admit it anymore.” (iStock)
“And if you absolutely must go to the beach, in the name of all that is holy, wear a mask. Outside? Because when an illness is looming, the last thing you want to do is get fresh air, sunshine and vitamin D. No, it’s much better to stay locked up, stressed and drinking all day long,” he added.
Maher also criticized the reluctance at the time to accept that natural immunity was an effective protection against the virus. “If you get COVID, remember that natural immunity is always the worst kind. That’s why you need to get vaccinated even if you’ve had it,” he joked.
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Closing his thoughts, Maher argued that the reason “the powers that be never wanted a Covid commission” was because “many dissenting views that were suppressed and ridiculed at the time were proven to be true.”
Maher warned that “we haven’t learned anything” from the COVID pandemic. (Noam Galai/Getty Images)
Expanding on this point, Maher argued that the country has not learned meaningful lessons from the pandemic and said: “Gain of function research is still ongoing in laboratories. We continue to torture animals by growing our food and the ideal conditions for viruses to jump to humans. Bird flu was just found in a goat, which means we are just a lone farmer from the next epidemic. We gave away $4 trillion in free money, $280 billion of which was completely stolen in what the AP called an “attack.” It is the largest fraud in US history and “It started the inflationary spiral of Biden that we now blame.”
“So we’re bringing back Trump? The guy who ignored COVID like it was a dinner check?” he asked.
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