The man once known as ‘celebrity chef’ and ex-My Kitchen Rules judge Pete Evans has added further proof to the widely held belief that he is unhinged.
Taking to Facebook, the conspiracy theorist and outspoken anti-vaxxer—who last month posted a neo-Nazi symbol, later removed by Facebook, which later saw to him being dumped by 10 and Pan MacMillan—told his followers that Sydneysiders shouldn’t get tested for the coronavirus.
It came as NSW Health revealed what was then two new cases of COVID-19—numbers which grew to at least 17 cases. The latest numbers released today show the cluster has grown to at leasts 28 cases, linked to a cluster said to have originated in Avalon on Sydney’s northern beaches.
Residents of Sydney’s Northern Beaches LGA have been urged to stay at home, while Premier Gladys Berejiklian today urged people in the region to stay away from high-risk places so we can “get on top of this” in the next couple of days.
You can find more information on the northern beaches cluster here.
In the post, which seems to have now been removed by Facebook or by Evans, he writes to his more than 1.5 million followers: “OUTBREAK … 2 cases,” along with the clown-face emojis.
He added: “Can you see where this is heading again. Testing for the common cold? Do not get tested.”
The man then followed up with a number of conspiracy posts about “sheeple”, which we won’t be posting here.
It comes after Evans reportedly vowed to quit Facebook in favour of US social media site Parler, a site that has caught on with far-right extremists and conspiracy theorists, to free himself of “being censored”.
Parler markets itself as a “free speech social network”, hosting banned Twitter users like Alex Jones and Milo Yiannopoulos, alongside extremist movements like QAnon and the Boogalooers.
It’s worth noting that Facebook recently revealed it had ramped up its efforts on hate speech through changes made to its algorithms.
The social media conglomerate also revealed that it would better target hate speech targeted towards underrepresented groups, catching more implicit hate speech “such as content depicting Blackface, stereotypes about Jewish people controlling the world, and banned holocaust denial”.