Bill Maher Divides People After Defending Use of 'Chinese Virus' to Define Coronavirus Pandemic

Bill Maher is no stranger to tapping into outrage for attention and his HBO series. Controversial opinions will grab more press than a tame take on current events. The latest for Maher is from Friday's latest Real Time with Bill Maher and it surprisingly puts him on par with President Trump.

While going through some hot topics during Friday's episode, Maher decided to call out "hypocrisy" according to Deadline and the naming of the coronavirus spreading around the globe. His main issue is similar to what many on the right have said in recent weeks. The virus originated in Wuhan, China at a wet food market, but many have been hesitant to label the virus a product from the nation. Maher disagrees.

"There are people who would rather die from the virus than call it by the wrong name," Maher said, naming off MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome), Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and the Spanish Flu. The latter is actually a falsehood spread in 1918 that labeled Spain as a hard-hit country due to them being neutral in World War 1. This did not stop Maher during the show.

"It's not racist to point out that eating bats is bats— crazy," he continued. "We should blame China. Not Chinese Americans. If the sun was exploding, Twitter would pile on the first guy who called it a dwarf star."

"This has nothing to do with Asian-Americans. We don't have the luxury of indulging a country whose habits cause problems. Viruses come from China like shortstops come from the Dominican Republic," Maher added before moving on to urge China to shut down its markets or change habits. He even brought up some of the conspiracy theories surrounding the virus, including the idea that it might be a bioweapon.

"If the China military had purposely infected this country with a bioweapon, we'd be at war with them. This one hurt our economy a little more than the currency manipulation," he closed out the segment.

Many weighed in on the host's comments, with many pointing out his faults and others praising the HBO comedian. Scroll down to see how some felt.