Paul McCartney bashes China for keeping wet markets open: 'They need to clean up their act'

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Music legend Paul McCartney slammed China for allowing the continuation of the controversial wet markets, where it has been suspected the coronavirus outbreak originated.

The wet markets have sparked a global debate since they allow the selling of exotic animals for human consumption, including bats, the animal which the virus is believed to have come from.

During his Tuesday appearance on "The Howard Stern Show," McCartney took aim at the wet markets and referred to eating bats as "medieval."

"I really hope that this will mean the Chinese government says, 'OK, guys, we have really got to get super hygienic around here.' Let's face it, it is a little bit medieval eating bats," McCartney told host Howard Stern.

The Beatles icon called on other high-profile figures to join the call in the termination of the wet markets.

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"It's not a stupid idea, it is a very good idea," McCartney elaborated. "They don't need all the people dying. And what's it for? All these medieval practices. They just need to clean up their act. This may lead to it. If this doesn't, I don't know what will... They might as well be letting off atomic bombs, because it's affecting the whole world. Whoever is responsible for this is at war with the world and itself."

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He also compared the practice of wet markets to the past cultural acceptance of slavery.

"They did slavery forever, too, but you have to change things at some point," McCartney said.

McCartney isn't the only celebrity to draw attention to the wet markets. "Real Time" host Bill Maher blasted the "PC police" for saying it's "racist" to attack another nation's cultural practice, pointing to the wet markets that remain open in China.

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"It's not racist to point out that eating bats is bats--- crazy," Maher exclaimed before citing experts including Dr. Anthony Fauci who have sounded the alarm on wet markets and the consumption of exotic animals.

He concluded, "This is a dictatorship that for decades enforced a one-child-per-family policy under penalty of forced sterilization, but you can't close down the Farmer's Market from Hell? Maybe to use that iron fist and pound it down like the whole world depends on it because it kind of does. And I hope that if someone told Americans that eating Hot Pockets could cause a worldwide pandemic that we would have the good sense of stop doing it. Although I wouldn't bet on it."