“Do germs know who the right people are? “

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As cultural activities have started drawing crowds again after the 2020 Covid-19 abyss, masks and other protocols have been a work in progress – particularly where red carpets are involved.

Real time Host Bill Maher, on tonight’s panel on the show, criticized what he saw as a disconnect at this week’s Met Gala in New York City. He displayed a number of photos from the glitzy event onscreen showing guests without masks assisted by staff wearing masks. Maher said these types of tables are becoming mainstream in 2021, as people navigate a return to standards that don’t seem normal.

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“I noticed something” in the photos of the gala, Maher said, “that I have seen, having attended a few parties since the start of the pandemic, and that is, people who are going at parties do not wear masks. But the waiters wear masks. There is something in this that is not liberal for me. These are the liberal swells of the world. But if we are all vaccinated, do germs know who the right people are ?! It seems a bit wrong. “

Panelist Dan Savage, the writer and podcaster, agreed that it seemed “a little bit of safety theater” and said “you’re not going to get any hindsight from me.” But he put the optics aside, he continued to defend the ‘devil’s advocate’ point of view that at least some degree of mask wearing in groups limits the transmission of Covid.

“But, ‘let’s make the helper wear the mask’? Maher replied. “It is the liberal approach?

When Savage again pointed out that a large amount of scientific research supports the idea that masks are effective in reducing viral spread, Maher replied, “Yes, that’s why surgeons wear them. He noted that the San Francisco Marathon recently decided to require runners to wear masks when participating in the race. “Now that’s just plain stupid powerful,” he said. Maher, who was vaccinated but still had a symptom-free bout with Covid last spring, did not speak out against masks as a general safety measure on his show. But he’s complained about them often and in particular questioned their wearing on the outside, including a related crack in tonight’s opening monologue.

Panelist Gillian Tett, author and Financial Time reporter, said the show at the Met Gala reminded him of his anthropology studies. “I care a lot about the signals and the signals they send,” she said. “Having pictures of celebrities without masks next to servers wearing masks does not send the right signal about community responsibility.”

Savage despaired: “I wish we could have a review on masks that don’t fit in a place where people don’t end up wearing them on planes and assault flight attendants.”

One Met Gala guest who came for further criticism of Maher was Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. She wore a white dress adorned with red letters spelling out the slogan “Tax the Rich”, causing a stir by bringing her political cause to a new arena. Maher complained that New York’s richest 65,000 residents paid 51% of all municipal taxes collected last year. “They pay taxes,” he says. “It’s not like we’re not taxing the rich at all.”

Savage and Tett both came back strongly to the host on this point, noting rising income inequality and other flaws in his argument. Maher held on and quickly moved on to comics imagining the messages other hypothetical gala attendees had imprinted on their attire. (Examples included Lori Laughlin, “Get into any college – ask me how!” And Melania Trump, “Eat the poor.”)

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