Coronavirus: British former MEP accused of hypocrisy over labelling of new variant
- Roger Helmer, who was a member of the European Parliament from 1999 to 2017, is known for his controversial views
- People should not say new strain of pathogen originated in the UK, he says on Twitter
“Can we please stop referring to new-variant Covid as ‘originating in the UK’. It was FIRST IDENTIFIED in the UK, which is an entirely different thing,” Roger Helmer said in a tweet on Monday that has been shared over 1,300 times and received more than 3,000 replies.
In June, Helmer, who served as a member of the European parliament for both the Conservative Party and the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), retweeted a Sky News article highlighting criticism of US President Donald Trump’s use of the term “Chinese virus” in referring to Covid-19.
“So is it racist to mention ‘Chinese food’ or ‘Indian Curry’ or ‘Korean Kimchee’ or ‘German Sauerkraut’? So why not ‘Chinese virus’?” he wrote at the time.
One of the replies to Helmer’s latest tweet, showing his comments side by side had gained half a million likes as of Thursday afternoon.
On Wednesday, Helmer wrote on Twitter that there was no evidence the new variant originated in Britain, though it was first detected there earlier this month.