Ireland’s health minister has become the latest victim of the so-called “Corona challenge” after two people approached him in public and coughed in his face on purpose.
Simon Harris condemned the incident as “pathetic” and “disgusting”, adding that the man and woman involved walked away laughing.
He was responding to a question about the worrying trend which sees young people video themselves coughing into people’s faces and then upload it on to social media.
Mr Harris said he was targeted as he walked to his office on Tuesday.
He said: “A man and a woman on the street thought it was hilariously funny to come up and cough at me out loud and then run off laughing.
“When we think, particularly of older people, who are being targeted in relation to this, and there seems to be some sort of social media game, but it’s not a game, it’s disgusting, where you target people in your community, generally older people.
“You go up and cough in their face, video it, have a laugh and run off – just think if it was your granny, granddad, mother, father, your own friend with an underlying health condition like cystic fibrosis.
“The Irish people have been absolutely amazing in relation to this, but anything that takes off in relation to that on social media will have to be dealt with by the full rigours of all of the powers of the State.
“There’s nothing amusing about it, it’s quite pathetic.”
Related: Sunak’s stimulus is a debt-con that will profit big banks
Since you are here
Since you are here, we wanted to ask for your help.
Journalism in Britain is under threat. The government is becoming increasingly authoritarian and our media is run by a handful of billionaires, most of whom reside overseas and all of them have strong political allegiances and financial motivations.
Our mission is to hold the powerful to account. It is vital that free media is allowed to exist to expose hypocrisy, corruption, wrongdoing and abuse of power. But we can't do it without you.
If you can afford to contribute a small donation to the site it will help us to continue our work in the best interests of the public. We only ask you to donate what you can afford, with an option to cancel your subscription at any point.
To donate or subscribe to The London Economic, click here.
The TLE shop is also now open, with all profits going to supporting our work.
The shop can be found here.
You can also SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER .