London – A GB News presenter took to Twitter yesterday where she shared a conspiracy theory about COVID-19 and Ashkenazi Jews.
Beverley Turner, the mid-morning co-host of the To The Point programme, wrote on her Twitter: “Sas cov 2 virus causes less harm to certain ethnicities – east Asians, and Ashkenazi Jews (Fauci anyone?) than to European, S Asian & African… Just let that sink in.”
She continued: “This is looking increasingly like a bio weapon to destroy the west.”
A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “Stating that COVID-19 poses less of a risk to Ashkenazi Jews would be stupid enough, but simultaneously suggesting that the virus is a ‘bio weapon to destroy the west’ implies that Jews collaborated in creating the pandemic and feeds a classic trope that Jews spread disease to harm others and not themselves. It is astonishing that someone who tweeted such dangerous nonsense could be a host on GB News.”
Last week, presidential hopeful Robert F Kennedy Jr made similar comments at a dinner in New York when he said: “COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese…We don’t know whether it was deliberately targeted at that or not but there are papers out there that show the racial or ethnic differential of impact for that.”
The comments were roundly condemned, including by members of his family. Mr Kennedy has since refuted all accusations of antisemitism.
Last year, Mr Kennedy was forced to apologise after he invoked Anne Frank’s name in comparing COVID-19 mandates to laws in Nazi Germany. During his speech at an anti-vaccination rally in Washington, he remarked: “Even in Hitler’s Germany, you could cross the Alps to Switzerland. You could hide in an attic like Anne Frank did.”
Anti-lockdown and anti-vaccination networks have become known as hotbeds of antisemitic conspiracy theories and tropes.
A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “Stating that COVID-19 poses less of a risk to Ashkenazi Jews would be stupid enough, but simultaneously suggesting that the virus is a ‘bio weapon to destroy the west’ implies that Jews collaborated in creating the pandemic and feeds a classic trope that Jews spread disease to harm others and not themselves. It is astonishing that someone who tweeted such dangerous nonsense could be a host on GB News.”
Last week, presidential hopeful Robert F Kennedy Jr made similar comments at a dinner in New York when he said: “COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese…We don’t know whether it was deliberately targeted at that or not but there are papers out there that show the racial or ethnic differential of impact for that.”
The comments were roundly condemned, including by members of his family. Mr Kennedy has since refuted all accusations of antisemitism.
Last year, Mr Kennedy was forced to apologise after he invoked Anne Frank’s name in comparing COVID-19 mandates to laws in Nazi Germany. During his speech at an anti-vaccination rally in Washington, he remarked: “Even in Hitler’s Germany, you could cross the Alps to Switzerland. You could hide in an attic like Anne Frank did.”
Anti-lockdown and anti-vaccination networks have become known as hotbeds of antisemitic conspiracy theories and tropes.
