A pensioner who hit headlines this week by saying she ‘didn’t give a sod’ about the Tier 3 lockdown imposed on her hometown, has revealed she suffered coronavirus symptoms and ‘didn’t follow the rules.’
Barnsley native Maureen appeared on Friday’s This Morning to discuss her defiant attitude to the government’s latest guidelines after her BBC news interview became a viral hit.
Speaking via video call to Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary, Maureen admitted she’s ‘not been in lockdown at all’ while also admitting she suffered the symptoms associated with COVID-19 herself.
“I’m 83 I’ve never been lockdown and I don’t think we should be in lockdown. The government have got it wrong,’ insisted Maureen.
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She added that the government should take care of the ‘old’ and ‘vulnerable’ and let everyone else take care of themselves.
Maureen then admitted that she was struck by illness earlier in the year and suffered many of the symptoms associated with the deadly virus herself. She explained that she used pain killers and exercise to treat her symptoms.
“I had symptoms – a dry cough, pain in my lungs, tired, bleary eyes, terrible headaches.
“I took paracetamol. Did my yoga and deep breathing and walking and within 10 days I was alright,” claimed Maureen.
“I might be old but I know how to get up and I know how to live,” she added.
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When Dermot interrupted to say that the virus spreads through person to person contact, Maureen said: “We should just be careful. I’ve not been in lockdown at all.”
The octogenarian explained while she hasn’t been staying at home, she has been careful to follow social distancing rules.
“I go out and if I go in a coffee shop I sit the legal distance. In a restaurant I sit at a legal distance.
‘”In the places I’ve been I ask if they’ve had the virus and they so no because they’ve been careful.”
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Maureen continued: “The money the government is going to spend we can’t afford it. We’ve got a good national health but if we don’t have a good economy we wont have a good national health.”
After fans of Maureen’s earlier viral video called for her to become Prime Minister with her ‘common sense’ approach, Dermot asked Maureen what she would do differently if she was in charge.
“If I was in charge? I dont want Boris’ job. He has a difficult job. He needs to he people around him to be organised.
“We don’t need a lockdown we need businesses up and running so we have a good econony.
“Let’s get the economy running again we can’t afford it. I don’t know how we can pay this money we’ve borrowed.”
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Maureen hit the headlines this week as she revealed her fears for the country when it was announced her home region was entering a Tier 3 lockdown this weekend.
She warned it would be the young who would end up paying for the restrictions in the long run and ‘not me as I’ll be dead.’
She told BBC News: “I think it’s all ridiculous, we should never have been in lockdown. All the people who were vulnerable should have been helped and kept home safe.
“And all the rest of us, I’m 83, I don’t give a sod.
“I look at it this way, I’ve not got all that many years left of me and i’m not going to be fastened in a house when the government have got it all wrong.
“We need…how can we get the country on its feet? Money-wise? Where’s all the money?
“By the end of this year there’s going to be millions of people unemployed and you know who’s going to pay for it? All the young ones. Not me because i’m going to be dead.”