Social media users have taken to responding to the tweets of Health Minister Stephen Donnelly with a flood of identical posts — all featuring the same “thumbs up” emoji.
Mr Donnelly continues to receive hundreds of the replies on Twitter, as social media responds to a story concerning the Minister’s own emoji use amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
It comes as over the weekend, the Sunday Independent revealed the details of text messages exchanged between the Minister and the country’s chief medical officer, Dr Tony Holohan.
On October 12th of 2020, Dr Holohan texted Mr Donnelly to say that the number of Covid-19 cases in Dublin was increasing, advising him to be cautious in his public messaging about the virus.
This warning came after Mr Donnelly said on radio that transmission was slowing in Dublin and that the outlook appeared “positive”.
Some days later on October 22nd, Dr Holohan texted Mr Donnelly to inform him that the R number — indicating the average number of people one case of the virus will go on to infect — was increasing in Dublin.
“R for Dublin is up — 1.2 to 1.3,” Dr Holohan said.
Mr Donnelly responded to the message with a “thumbs up” emoji.
Each of the four tweets made by the Minister since the text messages were seen by the public has been greeted by the same response.
Variations of the response have included photos of the Minister edited to include the “thumbs up” emoji superimposed over his own hand.
👍
— maya hawke appreciator (@pitbullstan69) February 1, 2021
It is not the first time Mr Donnelly has faced social media criticism in recent weeks, after he apologised following an exchange in the Dáil during which he made an expletive comment.
The incident, during which he addressed Leas Cheann Comhairle Catherine Connolly over the amount of speaking time he had been allotted, saw the Minister caught on microphone saying “unf***ingbelievable”.
