Wigan 'infiltrated by Covid-deniers'

A worried shopper reported seeing at least half a dozen campaigning stickers on behalf of hugely controversial American InfoWars creator and editor, American far right talk show host Alex Jones.

Although now officially banned by FaceBook, YouTube, Twitter plus most radio stations and media outlets across the Atlantic, his website with its extreme videos, remains.

Wigan’s cabinet member for neighbourhood and communities Coun Chris Ready is furious about “Covidiots” now targetting the town and that with Wigan now in the full-on grip of the pandemic and in the top tier of restrictions, Jones’s deluded supporters were attempting to destabilize community safety procedures such as mask wearing and observing a proper social distance.

He said: “With the Intensive Care Unit at Wigan Infirmary now completely full, the very last thing we need are these lunatics undermining important safety messages that are designed to get the town out of these Government measures as quickly as possible.

“These Covidiots behind all this conspiracy theory madness aren’t harmless eccentrics.

“If their message leads to just one person in Wigan refusing to wear a mask or social distancing who would have done so previously then that is absolutely one too many.”

Jones publishes outlandish and frankly shocking claims, including that the pandemic is a “hoax” to bring down President Trump, wreck the world wide economy and usher in a “New World Order” of social control...all supposedly funded by billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates.

He is also extremely anti-vaccine - arguing its all a plot by “big pharma” to make untold billions from the unsuspecting world population.

The 3x1ins stickers were, unusually, not applied to litter bins or lampposts but stuck to the paving slabs of Standishgate and Market Place where shoppers looking down will see them.

They are in the form of a website address and all have now been removed by the concerned shopper.

Hilariously, although Jones says that coronavirus is a myth, the website also sells quack’ unproven miracle cures, remedies and potions to keep it at bay.

The shopper who found the stickers said: “Funnily enough I had seen a documentary on the television about this man and InfoWars just a few days before...and the effect it was having in the United States.

“I thought at the time that we are more calm and sensible and could never fall for this gibberish.

“But somebody obviously believes that we here in Wigan are worth trying the catch. And they are casting a baited hook at us.

“Sticking such messages to the ground rather than higher up is quite clever because it does catch your eye when you are walking.

“Maybe if I hadn’t seen the programme a few nights earlier I wouldn’t have recognised the website for what it is.

“Although I’m not saying that I have automatically found every one of them, but I certainly tried my best.

“These are such worrying times that the last thing we need are people like this offering quak answers.

“We all need to pull together to defeat Covid.

“The last thing Wigan needs is such dangerous and offensive nonsense that it is all a hoax undermining the need to take precautions.”

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