This K-Pop star's coronavirus prank majorly backfired
We all know the current coronavirus pandemic, which is putting a real strain on the NHS, is serious business – and definitely not something to joke about. While some celebrities have taken to using social media to help spread awareness, such as Tom Hanks, who documented his symptoms after testing positive, one K-pop star, Kim Jae-Joong, chose another route.
The South Korean singer and actor has come under major fire, after a now-deleted Instagram post claimed he was in hospital having fallen ill to Covid-19. The BBC report that he told fans he'd had caught the virus after "ignoring" government guidelines and "living carelessly".
Jae-Joong later backtracked and said he was pulling an April fool's prank on his 1.9 million followers. His so-called joke was (rightly so) called out by social media users, who found it to be insensitive and unnecessary. He has now posted a subsequent apology in which he says, "I am sincerely sorry... It is so scary to think that the spring can be able to give birth to the second corona panic."
He also claimed he'd hoped to "deliver a message that we should all be aware of the risk to minimise the number of victims" through his faux hospitalisation story.
A post shared by J_JUN 김재중 ジェジュン (@jj_1986_jj) on Mar 21, 2020 at 6:13am PDT
His apology post, which features a black screen as the photo image, has been liked by over 95,000 people. The comments have been turned off.
A post shared by J_JUN 김재중 ジェジュン (@jj_1986_jj) on Apr 1, 2020 at 4:41am PDT
Sadly this isn't the first instance of people using the pandemic as a means to seek attention or boost their followers. An influencer, known as Larz, recently received their comeuppance after licking a toilet seat as part of the "coronavirus challenge".
In the immortal words of Simon Cowell, it's a no from me, thanks.
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