UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab may want to avoid checking his Twitter mentions and enter self-isolation, as he has begun trending online for repeatedly coughing into his hand during the budget debate in the British Parliament.
With this sitting in the House of Commons coming hot on the heels of the news that Health Minister Nadine Dorries has contracted the coronavirus, the timing couldn't have been worse.
The speech also saw the British government pledge a package of £30 billion ($39 billion) to protect the economy from the impact of Covid-19, so all eyes were on Westminster and, more specifically, a rather pallid Dominic Raab.
Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps could be seen looking daggers at Raab across the front benches as the foreign secretary repeatedly spluttered into his hand, contrary to all public health organization warnings about best practices during the ongoing global coronavirus outbreak.
Online commentary was far more visceral, however, with many evoking sci-fi horror films about zombies, viruses and, naturally, aliens.
“Looks like we're only minutes away from the bit where he collapses, David Frost & Liz Truss try to hold him down, then Chris Grayling bursts out of his chest, squealing,” wrote one user, evoking the ‘Aliens’ franchise, replete with chest-busting aliens.
“Dominic Raab is like the one in the zombie film who is trying to pretend everything's fine but is slowly turning a sickly shade of yellow and starting to fantasise about devouring the contents of someone's skull,” another commenter quipped.
Wednesday also saw the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the UK jump by 83 up to 456, so Raab’s parliamentary performance will do little to ease the fears of worried Britons.
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