Susanna Reid put a Tory MP in his place after he snubbed an NHS doctor while speaking on Good Morning Britain on Monday.
The doctor, Dr Rachel Clark, was explaining why she was deeply concerned about the government’s impending decision to drop Covid measures, including the legal obligation to self-isolate.
Dr Clark said: “The idea that, with a serious infectious disease that is capable – as we know – of killing 175,000 people in two years, the idea that the government could think it was okay to stop self-isolation for that disease, to literally let people wonder around knowing they’re positive, infecting other people...
“It’s not just irresponsible or reckless, it’s worse than that.
“It just underlines the dishonesty of the government rhetoric throughout this pandemic.”
She added that some vulnerable people have essentially spent the “last two years under house arrest”.
“I feel as though the government rhetoric throughout the pandemic has been about protecting vulnerable people, but the reality we’ve seen over and over again is actually those most –”
Reid then pointed out that the video call had clearly frozen, only for fellow guest, Tory MP Andrew Bridgen to quickly add: “Thank goodness.”
The TV presenter pointedly said: ”Well, let’s have some respect for somebody who works on the frontline of this, Andrew Bridgen – while she was speaking, you were saying what she was saying was appalling.”
Bridgen defended his stance, and said: “We’re all going to have to make our decisions about our own protection going forward, as we do most issues in life.”
He claimed the UK should not be “effectively restricting the people who aren’t vulnerable for the people who are vulnerable,” and pinned his argument on the controversial claim that this country can now enjoy “herd immunity”.
He even went so far as to say “Omicron may well have been the best Christmas gift we’ve ever had” – a detail much disputed by the medical and scientific community who urged the country to get boosted in order to protect itself against the new Covid strain in December.
Dr Clark, who uses the handle @doctor_oxford on Twitter, has not yet responded to the moment of tension but did retweet a message which described Bridgen’s outburst as “barefaced contempt” for the NHS.
She also told ITV’s Good Morning Britain that Covid rules should only be lifted if there is a “proper plan in place” to protect everyone – rather than “closing your eyes and putting your fingers in your ears and saying the pandemic is over”.
She added that she believes removing the Covid restrictions is just a political act from the government amid a particularly unstable part of Johnson’s time in Downing Street.