ON
nthea Turner has been accused of fat burning and attacking disabled people with a Twitter rant against the NHS and the Covid pandemic.
The ex-host of Blue Peter, 60, shared a cartoon of a tall woman in a wheelchair carrying a McDonald’s bag and warned a maskless woman, “Put on a mask! You are endangering my health. “
She captioned the picture, “Do it!”
She continued to criticize the “selfish attitudes” of people whom she accused of “lazy habits” that “endanger us all”.
Turner later apologized for the “awkward cartoon”, saying her comments were “never directed at clinically ill people in need of our assistance,” but her passion for health issues remains “genuine.”
She wrote in the first thread: “I am outraged by the selfish attitudes of people who cannot see that we are actually“ everything together ”. The deliberate destruction affects all of us, especially those with other illnesses that stand across the board & charities that lack funding.
“We have to take responsibility.”
Turner added, “If the government put half the money into health to lock us up, we wouldn’t be in this mess. Keep McDonald’s open and closed gyms run by many city councilors and the open air – great. “
The presenter shared the picture on the day the National Statistics Office announced that disabled people accounted for six out of ten deaths from Covid-19 in the past year.
The now deleted tweet
Labor MP Jess Phillips was among those who took notice of Turner’s comments and said they “almost knocked me out”. She added, “Stop the goddamn hierarchy whose life matters!”
Others accused her of “fat embarrassment” and mocking disabled people.
An indignant mother replied, “How dare you, how ignorant a person can be! I have a son who is a full time wheelchair user who is overweight due to his medication. He is severely medically vulnerable and relies on us who are able to wear a mask to protect him.
“V. poor choice of visual material for your argument. “
Another commented: “I was wondering what this was about. The woman in the wheelchair is telling the truth that an exposed person puts her life in danger. Then I realized that you are actually shaming a disabled person. Great job, how nice of you. I hope you are really proud of yourself. “
One person tweeted, “Delighted to see Anthea Turner become the latest celebrity to emerge from the public eye after a long absence with a Masters Degree in Epidemiology.”
Turner responded to some of the critics and wrote in one response: “We have to take responsibility and stop using the NHS as an adhesive bandage.”
When asked what Turner’s late sister Ruth – who died at age 15 after suffering from spina bifida – would think of her post, she replied, “I’m telling you, Ruth was born with a body that didn’t work and did anything to have legs that worked, she didn’t purposely destroy herself through lifestyle choices that end up endangering us all. “
In another answer, she said, “Unfortunately those of us who have really tried to protect the NHS by taking care of our bodies are paying the terrible price for those who have chosen to adopt a lazy lifestyle.”
She later apologized for publishing the cartoon and said, “I totally apologize [sic] that the cartoon is awkward – I’ll take the chin rollicking. However, this was never addressed to clinically ill people who need our support. My passion is sincere even though Covid has got to give us a hell of a wake up call and we would be crazy not to try and fix it. “
Earlier Thursday, Turner hailed journalist Julia Hartley-Brewer as a “goddess” after she said a scientist could wear a gimp mask until the end of time, even though normal people are fed up with face masks.
The US cartoonist behind the picture Paul Evena-Ze is the author of the political comic book Alfie’s Lunchtime.
He told the Famous When I’m Dead podcast that he did the sketch in less than an hour before it went viral.
connected
He said, “When I wrote that I only had a few hundred followers … How did the Joe Rogan podcast come about in a week or two? It appeared on Instagram and Facebook. People text me messages I haven’t seen in years that your drawing is on my Facebook feed. It was just crazy. “
The ’90s pop duo tweeted that one of them drove through Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport without a mask.
One of the Fred or Richard Fairbrass employees was “gracious” and said he was “thanked” by them for expressing his opinion on the impact of the coronavirus lockdown on the UK.
