Trolls targeted a grieving daughter, 24, for speaking about her father, 55, who died from Covid-19 by telling her the disease is a ‘hoax’ and she should ‘hang herself for questioning our Government’.
Hannah Brady told MPs during a hearing via video link that she received the online abuse after speaking out about her father, Shaun, who passed away from the virus after contracting it before lockdown and spending 42 nights in intensive care.
She blamed the government’s ‘sluggish response’ for his death in May, saying he had no underlying health conditions and went to the gym three times a week.
Hannah Brady, 25, pictured with her father Shaun, 55, at her graduation. He passed away from Covid-19 in May after contracting it before lockdown and spending 42 nights in intensive care
Ms Brady today told the All Party Parliamentary Group on Coronavirus: ‘I am using my grief – grief that has come to me and my sister more than 30 years too soon – and I am subjecting myself to online abuse and trolling – that Covid’s a hoax, that Covid’s a lie, that I should be hanged for questioning our Government – so that bereaved families are no longer ignored.
‘We have a wealth of insight into the nightmare of contracting, suffering with, dying from and grieving because of Covid.’
She said the virus destroyed her father’s lungs, leading to kidney failure, heart failure, pancreatitis and brain damage.
Ms Brady, from Wigan, said: ‘The only help we, as his daughters, could give him as a thank you for 24 and 22 years of love and dedication to us was to consent to and be present when his ventilator was switched off, to give him peace after it became clear he could never recover.’
She added: ‘Dad was a key worker and he was so proud to be considered one. He worked in food production at H.J Heinz. In his spare time he went to the gym three times a week. Dad had no underlying health conditions.
‘He didn’t drink, he didn’t smoke and he was not obese. His last day off sick was over 20 years ago. Dad had a lot of reasons to live – his daughters, his family, his community, his charity work.
‘But he only needed one reason to die – the government’s sluggish response to the threat of Covid-19 to our country.’
Following the hearing, which was chaired by Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran, Ms Brady told the Mirror: ‘Every piece we put out there, every post we put on our own social media pages, every time someone speaks out we get abuse.
‘”We are lying. It is a hoax. How can we believe this? It’s just the flu.”‘
Referring to mourning during the pandemic, she added: ‘We have to do our grieving online but unfortunately that opens us up to all of this.’
Ellis Tustin and supporters from the Names Not Numbers campaign outside Downing Street, to remember those who died from Covid-19
Tustin holding a #NamesNotNumbers sign. During today’s virtual hearing, Ms Brady blamed the government’s ‘sluggish response’ for her father’s death in May
It follows a group of family members of coronavirus victims calling for an immediate public inquiry into the crisis.
The Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK group, which consists of 450 relatives of people who have died during the pandemic, previously told the BBC an urgent review was necessary to limit the ongoing effects of the coronavirus crisis and prevent more deaths.
The group’s lawyer Elkan Abrahamson told the broadcaster an early inquiry should be held prior to any complete formal proceeding, which is expected to take place once the pandemic is over.
‘What we need to look at straightaway are the issues which are life-and-death decisions,’ he said.
Prof Glover, who is now president of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, said earlier in June: ‘Given that second wave is likely to come at a time that is likely to coincide with seasonal influenza, and that would give us serious problems, we really need to understand what the failings have been in our apparent inability to be able to deal with this pandemic appropriately.
‘Where failures have happened, (we need to understand) why have the failures happened and how can we avoid those failures in the future.
‘This inquiry needs to be delivering in a matter of months, not a matter of years, because the purpose of it is to ensure we do not make the same mistakes should we get a second wave of the virus.’
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