On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, host Bill Maher stated that China should be blamed for the coronavirus and criticized those who claim that calling the virus the Chinese virus is racist.

Maher began by listing examples of diseases that are named after where they were discovered before wondering, “So why should China get a pass?”

He added, “Seriously, it scares me that there are people out there who would rather die from the virus than call it by the wrong name. This isn’t about vilifying a culture. This is about facts. This is about life and death. We’re barely four months into this pandemic, and the wet markets in China, the ones where exotic animals are sold and consumed, are already starting to reopen. The PC police say it’s racist to attack any cultural practice that’s different than our own. I say liberalism lost its way when it started thinking like that. … It’s not racist to point out that eating bats is batshit crazy.”

Maher further stated that “we should blame China, not Chinese Americans. But we can’t stop telling the truth because racists get the wrong idea. … We can’t afford the luxury anymore of non-judginess towards a country with habits that kill millions of people everywhere.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett.