Jewish organisations have condemned the “dangerous nonsense” shared by GB News anchor Beverley Turner, who said that Covid 19 “causes less harm to certain ethnicities” including “East Asians and Ashkenazi Jews”
In a now-deleted tweet, Turner cited a controversial study and said that the virus was “looking increasingly like a bioweapon to destroy the West”. Turner also asked: “Why is this not on the front pages of every paper?”
Turner also invoked the name of the former Chief Medical Advisor to President Trump, writing "Fauci anyone?" after Ashkenazi Jews, despite Fauci being of Italian descent.
Beverley Turner tweet
Beverley Turner deleted her controversial tweet
A spokesperson for CAA told the Jewish Chronicle: “Stating that COVID-19 poses less of a risk to Ashkenazi Jews would be stupid enough, but simultaneously suggesting that the virus is a "bioweapon to destroy the west" implies that Jews collaborated in creating the pandemic and feeds a classic trope that Jews spread disease to harm others”.
They called her statement “dangerous nonsense” and said it was “astonishing” that she could continue to be a host on GB News.
This weekend, American presidential candidate RFK Jr defended himself against claims of antisemitism for making similar comments. Covid 19 “is targeted to attack Caucasians and black people,” he said in a video. “The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese”. His comments were made during a conversation about “ethncially targeted microbes”.
This is not the first time Beverley Turner has sparked controversy. In 2021, she clashed with Dermot O’Leary over vaccinations. She told the presenter that the vaccine “does not stop you contracting or passing on the virus,” and was banned from appearing on the programme.
Later that year, she compared lockdown rules to “Apartheid” in a segment which prompted over 100 complaints to regulatory body Ofcom. Last summer, she questioned the heat wave, saying that “something has happened to meteorologists to make you all a little bit fatalistic and harbingers of doom”. She has also railed against “climate lockdown” and “weather fear-porn”.
