In light of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, a number of countries have attempted to limit international travel for their citizens. However, many people are taking their vacations regardless of the risk to their health.
Naturally, teens and young adults are posting their vacations on social media for their friends and family to see. Now, one teen is getting slammed over a TikTok of her family traveling to the Caribbean.
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TikTok user Jasmine Johnson, @jazzii.j, posted a video of her family in the airport and landing in the Caribbean with the caption, “We travelled to the Caribbean to get away from the coronavirus.”
The video shows Johnson and her family wearing face masks, though nothing in her video implies that a member of her family was sick.
As countries in the Caribbean and Latin America have started to close their borders to tourists to try and prevent the spread of coronavirus, viewers were appalled at Johnson’s apparent casualty regarding the coronavirus.
“And this…ladies and gentlemen is how citizens of the UK have been spreading #coronavirus all over the Caribbean and elsewhere,” one Twitter user wrote, along with the video.
Several critical tweets containing the video have now gone viral.
“Fun fact: its tradition for europeans to spread a potentially fatal disease to every other country not fully inhabited by white people & not take accountability for the subsequent devastation & lives lost,” another user said.
But Johnson saw the tweets after her TikTok blew up and defended herself. Johnson said she is actually a citizen of St. Lucia and was vacationing in the U.K.
“I was ‘getting away’ from the virus by coming back home to the Caribbean,” Johnson tweeted. “I’ve been tested negative and don’t have it we just had to wear masks incase.”
Though Johnson clarified she was returning home and apologized if her video was disrespectful, viewers still called it “insensitive.”
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