Coronavirus: Don't stigmatise old people by isolating them, urges Nick Ferrari
16 March 2020, 07:49 | Updated: 16 March 2020, 12:56
Nick Ferrari urged the government not to stigmatise old people by forcing them to stay at home for four months.
Ministers and health officials will meet today to discuss whether to tell the over-70s to self-isolate to protect them from the coronavirus outbreak.
It's one of the possible tougher measures that could be imposed in the fight against Covid-19.
However, Nick insisted that is a measure that is simply not fair.
He said: "85% of High Court judges won't be able to go to work. The House of Lords may as well just close down.
"What of a situation where a man or woman of 70 has a partner of 55 and they are supposed to be going out for an anniversary dinner? One can go and the other can't?
"What are you going to do? Have a police officer who can stop you? 'Excuse me, can I see your passport, I have reason to believe you are 71.'
"What they should be doing is urging them. But you cannot lockdown. This just stigmatises a group of people.
"This is a sort of apartheid. You wouldn't do it by religion, by gender, by skin colour. It's absurd.
"Why are you stigmatising the elderly?
"Make them aware, urge them wherever possible to be safe but for God's sake, don't seal them away."
Watch his full monologue at the top of the page, including an interview with Deborah Alsina, the chair of the Campaign to End Loneliness.
