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Snapshot 6:Tue, Nov 12, 2024 7:44:03 PM GMT last edited by Anna-Lisa

UK: COVID Critic Receives 5 Year Sentence

UK: COVID-19 ConspiracyCritic Theorist Receives 5 Year Sentence

Above: Police stand outside the UK Covid inquiry which has begun its session at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC) on January 16, 2024 in Edinburgh, Scotland. Image copyright: Jeff J Mitchell/Staff/Getty Images News via Getty Images

The Facts

  • Conspiracy theorist Patrick Ruane, 55, was on Monday sentenced to five years in prison for terrorism offenses, after using social media to encourage violence against England's Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty, among others, during the COVID-19 pandemic.COVID critic Patrick Ruane was on Monday sentenced to five years in prison for terrorism offenses, after using social media to encourage violence against England's Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty, among others, during the COVID pandemic.

  • Referring to Whitty, Ruane had said that "whacking" the back of his skull "would turn said target into a vegetable for the rest of its life." About former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, he stated that there was an Irish Republican Army "play book" that "nearly took out Thatcher."


The Spin

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the UK has seen an alarming rise in harmful conspiracy theories, including those that encouraged the horrific violence in Southport over the summer. To mitigate this dangerous trend, the UK government must better regulate social media, raise public awareness through education, and provide greater support for marginalized individuals vulnerable to this type of content.

While the establishment is quick to silence anyone who questions the official line concerning COVID-19, a host of legitimate questions about its origins and purpose, and aboutthe thosepotential ultimatelyrelationship responsiblebetween for continuing fatalities thanks to the massvaccines rolloutand ofexcess dangerousmortality vaccinesrates, remain. A large segment of the public continues to blindly follow the government narrative, much to the disadvantage of the damningpursuit truthof answers.


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