Dr Christian Jessen launches blistering attack on ‘shameless crook’ doctor over his ‘dangerous’ coronavirus advice

Christian Jessen minimised the "panic" surrounding the coronavirus pandemic. (David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images)

British TV personality Dr Christian Jessen delivered a broadside to a US doctor for spreading “dangerous bulls**t” during the coronavirus pandemic.

Jessen made the barbed comments towards Joseph Mercola, a physician who focuses on alternative medicine and has written extensively on the, uh, harmful effects of mobile phones, on Twitter.

Mercola tweeted last Thursday that Americans protect themselves from COVID-19 exposure by jerry-rigging ventilators and inhaling household hydrogen peroxide.

This can be achieved, he claimed, using a “nebuliser” – a device that converts medication into a fine mist. Moreover, hydrogen peroxide must be diluted before it can be used safely on human skin, so inhaling a lung-full?

What could go wrong!

“You are a SHAMELESS f***ing crook,” the Embarrassing Bodies host, 43, tweeted in retaliation to the “treatment”.

“Reported for spreading dangerous bulls**t.”

Mercola’s comments and pseudo-medical recommendations have, in the past, proved lighting rods for the US Food and Drug Administration.

The authority has sent several warning letters against Mercola, primarily for marketing non-medical products for medical use.

Christian Jessen criticised for downplaying coronavirus pandemic. 

While Jessen launched the scathing salvos against the doctor, he himself was under fire in March.

He stated that Italians – living in a country severely hit by the outbreak and was, at the time, its epicentre – are using the stringent lockdown strategy to have a “long fiesta”.

“[Coronavirus] is a bit of an excuse,” he said, before acknowledging his comments can be taken as “racist”.

He downplayed the coronavirus’ impact, which has vastly cratered the country’s economy and pelted people’s lives and livelihoods. Jessen said: “This is like a bad cold really, let’s be honest.”

At the time he issued the comments, Italy had suffered more than 1,000 deaths. Weeks since, and the death toll has escalated to more than 20,000 at the time of writing.