Allison Pearson Says Let’s Catch Covid

While treatments for Covid-19 are still in their infancy, and a vaccine some months away, we do know that many who have become infected with this virus have suffered from longer-term health problems, including heart disease. So it might be thought that responsible journalists would want to hold to the line that it’s better not to catch it.

But that thought would have been misplaced when it comes to the worryingly off-the-wall Allison Pearson, given a platform by the increasingly desperate and downmarket Telegraph. She has declared unequivocally that for some of the population, including her immediate family, becoming infected with Covid-19 is A Very Good Thing Indeed.

You think I jest? Her latest for the Tel spells it out. “My son has Covid-19. Good. Everyone in his student house has it as well. Even better. Typically, the infected ones have had a rough four or five days … Already everyone is much improved although the virus’s trademark loss of taste and smell (the one symptom those geniuses on SAGE forgot to put on the list [don’t think this is true, sorry]) has lingered”.

So there are longer-term effects already showing themselves. There is more. “There is no cause for alarm. On the contrary, I am glad that my boy will now form a tiny tile on the vast human shield which will protect his grandparents and other endangered citizens as our country acquires community immunity”. This is not just any bullshit, it is dangerously misinformed bullshit, especially in view of the possibility of re-infection.

But do go on. "Apart from a vaccine (unlikely to show up any time soon), allowing Covid to run through the healthy population is the only way out of this loathsome epidemic”. No it isn’t. It really isn’t. But she isn’t finished. “University term starts this week. It’s the ideal time for freshers to socialise, swap mobile details and microbes. Far from relations who may be vulnerable to Covid, they live in promisingly fetid halls of residence where they can easily get the virus during Match of the Day and be rid of it in a week”. And her conclusion?

“Covid cannot harm students but adult paranoia about Covid certainly can”. Small wonder there has been severely adverse comment passed, including “Allison Pearson is happy her son has Covid-19 to ‘own the libs’ … 'I'm delighted my son have a virus that is increasingly being shown to cause long term heart damage' is a hell of a fucking article to feel is a good idea to write … It’s very funny to read this as if Allison Pearson actively hates her son and his friends rather than whatever dumb point she’s trying to make”.

James Felton concluded “I’d want to know a little more about the long term effects of a disease before I decided whether I was glad my son got it to be honest. Even then I think I’d come down on the side of ‘I’d rather my son didn’t have a disease’”. One Tweeter added “What sort of a mother is [Allison Pearson] to truly believe she is glad her son has Covid-19? The possible long term effects are horrific. Should we not all be calling social services to report her?” And Ian Hamilton had a grim coda to relate.

“Data from the King's College symptom tracker app is showing hundreds of thousands of people in the UK alone reporting being ill for more than a month, and over 60,000 people ill for more than three months. Some have been ill for 6 months now”.

Allison Pearson may not be irretrievably stupid. But you can see it from there.

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