Brexiteer Says EU Gave Him Coronavirus

Still at somewhat of a loose end after his fortunately brief sojourn as an MEP finished at the end of January, David Bull, who you can tell as he’s a doctor, has discovered a way to dump on the hated EU and keep it current: he claims not only to have contracted the Coronavirus, but to have done so while serving as an MEP.

David Bull. No longer an MEP. Fortunately

Armed with this singularly dubious thesis, Bull has shipped his bull to the Daily Brexit, still called the Express, the one paper credulous enough to believe him. And so it came to pass that readers were told “'I got coronavirus at European Parliament!' Former MEP says he caught COVID-19 in Brussels”. So! The EU was behind it all along!

Do go on. “FORMER MEP Dr David Bull believes he caught COVID-19 while at the European Parliament in Brussels - and thinks several of his colleagues did likewise … And he suggested the hustle and bustle of the centre of the EU's political machinery - and the vast number of visitors coming and going daily - offered the perfect environment for coronavirus to spread”. If only he’d self-isolated down the local Spoons.

But he does know Who Done It at the EP: “I think it's fairly clear is that virus was around a lot earlier than I think … And also, if you look at places like the European Parliament, it is a meeting place. There were definitely people from China there because they were lobbying … I know a number of Chinese companies were there at that time”. Yeah, right.

Have another go. “'And of course, you have all of those parliamentarians and the staff going back to their home countries’ … Describing his own experience, which prompted him to self-isolate, he said: ‘I started to feel really ill after we had left. In February I was really ill. And then I was ill again in March, two weeks ago’”. And he’s not finished yet.

“I had all the symptoms - I had a persistent dry cough and a really high temperature. And I know some of my friends, MEPs or former MEPs now, also had symptoms”. Sadly, his former boss didn’t see it that way. “A spokesman for former Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage was adamant Mr Farage had not had the virus, having displayed no symptoms”.

Plus this story does not add up, for a number of reasons. Bull and his fellow Brexit Party MEPs left the European Parliament at the end of January. By the middle of February - long enough for symptoms to have manifested themselves - he was back to banging on about how the EU was in turmoil and talking about an Australian-style trade deal (something that does not exist), but was not saying anything about feeling ill.

Had he experienced a “really high temperature” and a “persistent dry cough”, one might have expected him to at least mention it. Moreover, although Covid-19 has been known to cause a relapse in some who contract it, the idea that he gets it sometime before the end of January and it comes back at him in March, as he claims - no. Just no.

One hates to be uncharitable to David Bull, but the impression is given that he has experienced Covid-19 in the retelling as a way of blaming the EU. Worse, his reasoning hinges on China paranoia - “There were Chinese people there, it came from their country, therefore They Done It and I got it from them” - in addition.

No other paper has picked up David Bull’s claim. That’s because it’s probably bull.

Enjoy your visit to Zelo Street? You can help this truly independent blog carry on talking truth to power, while retaining its sense of humour, by adding to its Just Giving page at

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/zelostreet5

[The Legalballs Fund has now closed]