Canadian singer and songwriter Bryan Adams on Tuesday apologised for his outburst on Instagram in which he blamed some “… bat eating, wet market animal selling, virus making greedy bastards” for the outbreak of coronavirus
The 60-year-old shared an expletive-filled post on Instagram, lamenting how his planned performances in London had been postponed due to the health crisis.
He wrote: “Tonight was supposed to be the beginning of a tenancy of gigs at the royalalberthall, but thanks to some fucking bat eating, wet market animal selling, virus making greedy bastards, the whole world is now on hold, not to mention the thousands that have suffered or died from this virus.
While the original post remains up on his Instagram page, he has added a new post, in which he apologised to anyone who had taken offence, stopping short of apologising for his own words, and said his intention had been to promote veganism.
“Apologies to any and all that took offence to my posting yesterday. No excuse, I just wanted to have a rant about the horrible animal cruelty in these wet-markets being the possible source of the virus, and promote veganism.
“I have love for all people and my thoughts are with everyone dealing with this pandemic around the world.”
Adams paired his post with a performance of the song Into the Fire.
His earlier comments conflated a series of theories about the origin of coronavirus in China, namely that it stemmed from meat sold in a wet market in Wuhan, and also that it was man-made in a laboratory there. He sparked a major online backlash, and trended on Twitter; US actor and writer Cindy Chu was among his critics, describing him as “super super racist”.
There was also extensive praise for him from those who find credence in his theories, though there is no consensus around the virus’s origins, even its basis in Wuhan.
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Yetunde Adegoke
