Oh no I hope this doesn't impair his ability to make innovative, cutting-edge comedy that isn't just an endless rehash of old schticks from 30 years ago.

For background, Howard Stern has not gone into work since the start of the covid fear-seeding. He does his show from his basement.

He doesn't go out. His fake Hollywood friends have to plead with him just to get him to leave the house once a year.

The germ-fearing "King of All Media" has finally emerged from his "apocalypse bunker."

Infamous germaphobe and COVID-fearing Howard Stern -- who has been broadcasting from home since March 2020 -- went out to dinner in public for the first time since the start of the pandemic.

Stern, 68, dined at Israeli restaurant Laser Wolf in Williamsburg on Saturday night with a host of stars, including Jennifer Aniston, close friend Jimmy Kimmel, Jon Hamm, Justin Theroux and Jason Bateman.

A fellow diner snapped a photo, which showed a maskless Stern chatting with Hamm, as Kimmel sat nearby, and submitted it to celebrity Instagram account DeuxMoi.

Another diner told us, "Howard was there without even a mask. They all sat at a large table, Howard was seated next to Jimmy and also at one point seemed to be in deep conversation with Jon Hamm. Stern told restaurant staff this was his first night out since the start of the pandemic."

Despite his dinner with the host of A-listers, Stern insists he wants to remain a hermit due to his COVID consternation and called the outing "exhausting."

"I really had an exhausting weekend, emotionally, physically," he said on his radio show Monday. "For the first time in two years I ventured out of the house."

He continued about the dinner, "It was too much for me. It was too much. I haven't been out in two years."

Stern explained that Kimmel invited him and his wife, Beth Ostrosky, to the outing, and while Ostrosky was excited by the offer, Stern was skeptical.

"I said to my wife, 'I don't want to go, I'm in a panic, I don't want to get COVID.'"

Adding that he and Ostrosky were vaccinated, Stern continued, "I know our president has told us the pandemic is over and everyone is walking around without masks ... I still just don't want to get COVID."

Stern has previously described himself as being "super paranoid about diseases and germs."

Apparently since then, Stern has gone out a few times.

But then the media he trusts and wants the approval of told him that there was a New and Improved Scary Variant and Stern has locked himself in his basement again, sparking fights with his wife, who did not sign up for this crap.

She signed up to marry a much-older creep, but not to live like a hermit. She wants to spend his money, not listen to him masturbating in the basement.

Radio host Howard Stern recently admitted that his paranoia over a new strain of COVID-19 has gotten him into a fight with his wife.

During a Wednesday segment of his Sirius XM radio show, the shock jock conceded that he's paranoid and "neurotic," especially when it comes to the virus, and noted that his wife, Beth Ostrosky Stern, is less so.

As he explained, this has led to tension and arguments with her as media outlets have been warning about a new coronavirus strain and his wife wants to go out and socialize.

The topic came up when a guest caller asked the radio host whether he thought it was risky to return to the studio for his show amid the new warnings about another COVID-19 outbreak.

Stern admitted the fear of getting sick has been weighing on him and his relationship.

He said, "I'm going crazy with this. My wife yelled at me last night. We got into a fight."

He added, "You know how paranoid I am about getting COVID. I haven't gotten it, and I'm pretty safe, and I really don't want to get it."

...

Mentioning how his wife has less to worry about than him, he added, "You know, my wife's considerably younger than me, as you might have heard. And you know, she's not as concerned about getting COVID as I am, because, you know, I'm an older dude."

Howard is 69 years old; Beth is 51.

"Beth has a bunch of plans. She has like a wedding shower to go to and lunch to go to with a friend and a dinner and a blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So, you know, we're really making an effort. We go out to restaurants. We went to the Ed Sheeran concert. We've really been out there. I haven't gotten COVID. And I'm like, you know what? If I get it, I get it," he said.

Stern said, "Then all of a sudden they announce there's a new strain of COVID and it's on the rise. And, you know, people are being hospitalized. 'It's time to go back down into lockdown.' And I'm like, you mean I'm just emerging, and now I'm going back into lockdown!"

He also explained how the argument with his wife went over his COVID concerns: "She goes, 'That's what you do. Every time I say I'm going to do something, you bring up COVID.'" Giving his reply to her, he said, "I'm just telling you, I'm scared. Am I wrong?"

Couldn't happen to a sweller guy.