The Prime Minister has slammed Covid-deniers, and said people who stand outside hospitals saying coronavirus is a hoax and dispute the severity of the pandemic on social media are ‘outrageous'.
Speaking on a visit to a coronavirus vaccination centre in Bristol this week, Boris Johnson said hospitals ‘will be overwhelmed’ if people don’t work together to protect the NHS - and that includes people who have been swayed by misinformation on social media.
The third lockdown has been called as hospitals across the country grapple with the highest numbers of people with the Covid-19 coronavirus needing urgent medical attention, but that has also brought an increase in incidents where covid-deniers break in to hospitals aiming to show empty corridors.
From Stroud to Cambridgeshire, covid-deniers have attempted to film inside empty hospital wings, often at night in areas that are only open during the day time, to try to perpetuate the myth that covid is not a serious pandemic that needs measures taken to stop its spread.
With misinformation also rising on social media, the Prime Minister said the reality was very different.
“I think it’s very, very clear people must stay at home - that’s the way to stop the spread of the disease,” Mr Johnson told Bristol Live.
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“As Chris Witty said this morning, contact with one person means you’re setting up a potential chain of transmission, that’s why the rules are so clear,” he added.
“When you talk about people who deny the existence of covid and people who stand outside of hospitals saying covid is a hoax or pretend hospitals aren’t under massive strain, it’s outrageous and anybody who goes around hospitals as I do and talks to health care workers knows the pressures they are under.
“The reality is that unless we work together now, and stay at home, protect the NHS, I’m afraid our hospitals will be overwhelmed and that’s what we’ve been fighting throughout this pandemic, and we’ve got to keep it up,” he added.
Mr Johnson was also speaking out against misinformation and ‘out of date’ posters on the windows and doors of Wetherspoon pubs in Bristol, which had played down the extent of a second wave.
Wetherspoons later confirmed the posters were ‘out of date’ and would be removed.
