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Coronavirus: Bernie Sanders may catch illness if he doesn't stop touching people at rallies, says Bill Maher

The comedian grilled an expert on whether his dogs could catch the virus and joked that it's obvious the disease is serious as they 'give it a rap name' Covid-19

BY KUNAL DEY

UPDATED MAR 19, 2020

Bill Maher banned his guests from extending handshakes on his show Friday, going instead for a much safer Japanese bow in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

The famed comedian had invited a top epidemiologist to discuss the spread of the deadly virus. He grilled the expert on whether his dogs could catch it and if Senator Bernie Sanders should stop touching too many people at his campaign events, Deadline reports.

Maher appeared truly concerned about the 78-year-old candidate on HBO's Real Time With Bill Maher, noting how he had a heart attack last year, a draining schedule, and how he is constantly in airplanes and in rallies where he is "touching people" all day long.

Host Bill Maher speaks onstage at the Cinema For Peace event benefitting J/P Haitian Relief Organization in Los Angeles held at Montage Hotel on January 14, 2012, in Los Angeles, California. (Getty Images)

“What’s the over-under of him making it to the election,” he asked Dr. Anne Rimoin, Associate Professor of Epidemiology at UCLA and Director of the Fielding School’s Center for Global and Immigrant Health.

“If you like Bernie, don’t touch him!” the talk show host asserted.

Maher even took aim at the official name for the coronavirus—COVID-19—joking that it's obvious "a disease is serious when they give it a rap name.”

“Assume everyone is infectious. That’s the same warning they give everyone on 'The Bachelor',” he joked. He also said that the air in Los Angeles "is so toxic that anything that comes out of anyone’s mouth dies immediately.”

He then went on to note how global stock markets, over the past week, saw a $6 billion fall over coronavirus fears.

"Bloomberg is not even sure anymore if he can buy the country,” Maher quipped.

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) (R) gestures as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg listen during the Democratic presidential primary debate at Paris Las Vegas on February 19, 2020, in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Getty Images)

"My message is, you’re going to hear some scary things," the 64-year-old warned. "In Hong Kong, they think a dog tested positive. I told my two dogs, ‘Bark into your elbow and do not drink out of the same toilet.'"

Assuming an optimistic outlook, Maher noted how the world had gotten past SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, 2003), Swine Flu (2009) and other outbreaks just fine.

“Flus will not replace us. Flus will not replace us," he subsequently made the audience chant.

However, Rimoin clarified that the novel coronavirus is not a flu but a virus that usually infects only other animals; but was passed on to humans after consumption of wild animals sold at an open-air food market in China.