Tom Swarbrick corrects caller who says coronavirus is "all media hype"

25 March 2020, 15:32 | Updated: 7 June 2023, 08:56

Tom Swarbrick was forced to educate this caller who insisted that seasonal flu was more serious than the coronavirus.

The caller claimed that coronavirus is simply a panic created by the media because it no longer has Brexit to talk about.

She said: "You haven't got Brexit to talk about, I believe this is a media farce. You've got nothing else to do but to panic us and scare us."

She pointed out that 15,000 people died of seasonal flu last year, compared with just 422 so far from coronavirus.

But Tom explained to her just why she is so wrong.

He said: "This is not media hype that's led governments around the world to shut airspace, to close businesses and to stop the economy from functioning in a normal way.

"You must understand that the reason this is a big deal is because it is a new virus, never seen before with no vaccine, no antibodies to defeat it, not real understanding of how it works.

"The only thing we know about it is that it spreads like wildfire and people are dying of it. That's why it's different, that's why it's scary, that's why it's forcing countries to close down."

The caller maintained she was correct and things got pretty heated.

Watch the call at the top of the page.