CNN’s Don Lemon rebuked former New York Times columnist Bari Weiss and comedian Bill Maher on Monday for declaring the pandemic over.
Weiss joined Maher on HBO’s Real Time Friday, where she expressed frustration during the third year of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We were told, you get the vaccine. You get the vaccine and you get back to normal. And, we haven’t gotten back to normal, and it’s ridiculous at this point,” Weiss stated, to which Maher agreed.
Citing widespread mental health crises, Weiss added, “It’s a pandemic of bureaucracy, it’s not real anymore.”
On Don Lemon Tonight, the host bristled at the comments, and joined a chorus of those who have laid into both Weiss and Maher since Friday:
Look, I know Barry Weiss, not well. She’s been on the show. I actually like her. Bari, that was messed up. And Bill Maher. Because, look. We were all sick of cancer when my dad died of it. But that didn’t change the fact that he suffered from it and died. I was sick of Covid when my dear friend Robby Brown died of it. He did not, not die of it because I was sick of it. That is so irresponsible.
Citing medical workers, Lemon said a “lot of people are tired of going to work every day and having to deal with sick people, because people won’t get vaccinated.”
Lemon then directed his
“I give comedians a lot of leeway,” Lemon said. “But this was not funny.”
Lemon then wondered whether Weiss or Maher had recently been to a hospital:
Not real anymore? Barry? I’m sick of it? I’m over it? Have you been–I don’t know–have you been to the Covid wards? I have. Tell that to the overwhelmed hospital and health care workers, all across the country. They’re not done with Covid. I’m sure they are over it. Don’t you think? Because they have to deal with it every single day in a way you don’t have to deal with it. Like face-to-face, up close and personal face to face. Every day. Tell that to the families of the 10,000 Americans who died last week.
“Here is the problem, is that too many people are making this about politics, even libertarians,” Lemon said. “I think Bill is a libertarian.” He added:
It’s great to have, you know, government out of your life. There are certain things you have to do in order to be a good citizen, to help take care of yourself and fellow citizens, and sometimes it goes on for a long time. Too many people have made this about politics, about bogus claims of freedom. When what it is really about is a virus that has
killed more than 860,000 Americans.
Lemon concluded, “We’ve got an epidemic of extreme politics.”
Watch above, via CNN.