This Morning fans were left divided today after Beverley Turner appeared alongside Deacon Blue star Ricky Ross to discuss the top stories of the day.
First on the agenda on This Morning‘s View was Leicester, which has become the first UK city to be put back into lockdown following the easing of coronavirus restrictions.
Beverley had some pretty strong views on the situation and started by sharing coronavirus figures.
Read more: This Morning viewers shocked by Russell Crowe’s lockdown appearance
What did Beverley Turner say on This Morning?
“I think we’ve got to look at the numbers here, and I genuinely feel like aliens have landed and taken over Downing Street at the moment,” she said.
“The goverment has said there are 135 people infected in Leicester for every 100,000 people. There are 330,000 people in Leicester, that means there are 444 people infected. If the infection rate of COVID is 0.25 that means of those people one person is going to die.
“We also have to remember who is dying from COVID and change the message because the average age of deaths is 80, only two per cent of people who die are under 50, and 90 per cent of people who die have pre-exisiting medical conditions.
“So we have to tell the people who need to be really careful, the elderly, those who aren’t well and also those who are overweight [to be careful].”
You need to warn against the advice Beverly was just giving.
She continued: “If you are healthy, if you are young, if you are well, if you are young and not going home to a house that has an elderly unwell relative, go about your business. Allow people to run their restaurants, to run their bars, to open their pubs, to open their schools, because this one-size fits all policy is damaging a lot of livelihoods.”
She then went on to suggest that we should be protecting the vulnerable by making them wear lanyards to let people know they are classed as such.
“As we become more complacent, let us focus the message and who is it important to protect,” Beverley explained.
“I’m a big fan of the lanyards, everyone who has a unseen physical condition should be given lanyards and wear them so that we know we can give those people, like my mother who has an auto-immune condition, we can give them more space when we walk past them in the street, we can give them a wider berth in the supermarkets.”
How did viewers react?
It was this that sparked outraged among some social media users.
#ThisMorning good god Beverley Turner, you are no expert and do NOT get it. It’s not about the individual being at risk, it’s about the risk you are to others you buffoon. Lanyards simply point people out and could put them in more danger.
Take this woman off the TV.— Dave Stevis (@StevisDave) June 30, 2020
Who is this Beverly Turner woman? She’s so cold about people dying of Covid 19. Horrible to watch. #ThisMorning
— Kel-Girl (@candigirl87) June 30, 2020
People should be giving each other space anyway. When I walk down the street now people give me space and they let you walk past. People are respecting each other space so do we really need a lanyard to depict who we keep our space from. I don’t think so #ThisMorning
— Ryan Glendenning (@ryanG_tweets) June 30, 2020
#ThisMorning it sounds like Beverly is suggesting segregation? I don’t think that after decades of work to end discrimination, we should be introducing a new way to segregate the unwell and elderly?! @thismorning
— Jake Creckendon-Reed (@Jake_reed_1993) June 30, 2020
@thismorning this lady just said she believes everyone with an invisible illness should have to wear a lanyard?? Cause her mum has an illness so she can now call everyone to wear one. Interesting call to visibly label all disabled people :)))))). #ThisMorning
— Alex (@Alex46079081) June 30, 2020
@thismorning You need to warn against the advice Beverly was just giving. SO dangerous and SO selfish. #ThisMorning
— Kelly 🐰 (@Kelly_QPR) June 30, 2020
@thismorning can you please get @hollywills @Schofe to say please do not follow Beverley Turner’s advice. What she said was not only dangerous but ignorant. Especially the lanyard part which sounded like how Jewish people were treated in WW2 #ThisMorning
— Fer (@LadyFerny) June 30, 2020
Others backed Beverley
Some backed her, though, insisting she did have a point.
#ThisMorning Well said Beverley 👏👏👏
— phillipprothery (@phillipprothery) June 30, 2020
This woman is bang on. There are aliens in downing Street, with the head alien being Matt Hancock. This is because he is potting a vendetta on the world from space by drip feeding us garbage about the actual numbers of people tested for Covid 19 😂😂 #ThisMorning
— Ryan Glendenning (@ryanG_tweets) June 30, 2020
This Morning continues every weekday at 10am on ITV.
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