30 most controversial Bill Maher moments

11. Maher ruffles some feathers with comments about flu vaccines

The topic of vaccination in general is a controversial one, for sure. Many celebrities have weighed in, sometimes taking the stance of speaking against vaccines. Jenny McCarthy in particular has taken a lot of flak for her beliefs that vaccines cause more harm than they do good. The debate is still ongoing today, although the pro-vaccine supporters seem to be the majority.

But Bill Maher is another one who questions the use of vaccines, at least he was doing so in 2009. After taking to Twitter to call people who receive the flu shot a bunch of “idiots”, Maher clarified his beliefs in a later episode of Real Time. Maher says that he doesn’t understand the logic of sticking a virus into your arm. Critics were quick to tear this down, stating that it’s only a dead version of the virus that’s in the needle.

But Maher made some additional comments about the H1N1 disease which created more trouble. He said that he didn’t believe that healthy people were able to get this virus, and discouraged anyone from getting the vaccine, including pregnant women. The problem is that the deadly virus had been killing a lot of people, including young children, who had shown no prior health problems.