'Tinfoil wearing nutcases are spreading Covid disinformation' - caller tells LBC
12 November 2020, 11:30 | Updated: 12 November 2020, 18:19
'Tinfoil wearing nutcases are spreading Covid misinformation' caller tells LBC
This caller told LBC's James O'Brien that the "whole discourse in this country now is of conspiracy theorists and anti-vaxxers" and claimed they are "sowing the seeds of doubt in a lot of people's minds."
The conversation came one day after the UK passed the "grim milestone" of 50,000 coronavirus deaths.
Terry told LBC there was a whole notion around the number of deaths due to Covid-19, and that he felt some people were "in a form of disbelief about 50,000 dead."
The caller also felt the official death tolls were being undermined by conspiracy theorists, branding them "tinfoil wearing nutcases basically."
This led to James looking at how a large swathe of society has reacted to the ongoing coronavirus crisis.
James said the point of disinformation was "not to make us believe something is wrong but for us to all believe there's no such thing as an objective right."
This led to the caller agreeing with James, pointing out this undermined the ability of people to take on board official advice.
He pointed out that this disinformation has even caused strife within families.
Meanwhile, Boris Johnson has said the coronavirus pandemic is entering a new phase in the UK.
After the official coronavirus death toll passed 50,000, the Prime Minister said: "Every death is a tragedy. We mourn everybody who is gone."
Speaking during a visit to a Tesco distribution centre in Erith, south-east London, he added: "After the tough autumn measures which I hope people will stick really, really rigidly as far as they can, we are very much hoping things will start to come to our aid.
"Number one is mass testing - the rapid turnaround testing - and the other is the realistic prospect of a vaccine.
"We have two boxing gloves to pummel the disease in the weeks and month that follow but I have got to stress that we are not out of the woods yet. It does require everybody to follow the guidance."
Fact-checker debunks Covid vaccine myths
More than 50,000 people have died after testing positive for coronavirus in the UK, new figures show.
The Government said that 595 more people have died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Wednesday, bringing the UK total to 50,365.
Sir Keir Starmer described the official UK death toll having passed 50,000 as a "grim milestone".
The Labour leader told reporters in Parliament: "It is a grim milestone and we're the first in Europe to hit it.
"Behind these numbers is a devastated family, one for every death, and they have to be uppermost in our mind.
"The Government was slow at phase one and they haven't learned the lesson going into phase two.
"We owe it to all of the families who are grieving to get on top of the virus and head towards a vaccine and that's what the Government must absolutely focus on now."
