A NEWSPAPER cartoonist has come under heavy fire after he said that an NHS doctor “deserves to be verbally abused” for wearing a mask on public transport.

Bob Moran, whose work has appeared in The Guardian but is now published by The Telegraph, made the comment as part of a longer attack on NHS staff he called "the enemy".

Rachel Clarke, an NHS palliative care doctor who uses the Twitter handle @doctor_oxford, had written: “I received verbal abuse on public transport last night for wearing a mask - something I choose to do: (1) to protect others, (2) to try & help public spaces feel less threatening to anyone clinically vulnerable.

“People are dying of Covid in my hospital. *How* have we got here?”

In response, the Telegraph cartoonist wrote: "She deserves to be verbally abused in public for the rest of her worthless existence.

“They all do.”

Matthew Stadlen, another Telegraph contributor, wrote: “What an extraordinarily shameful thing to tweet, @bobscartoons. You should apologise immediately.”

In a follow-up tweet which the platform has not yet taken down, Moran added: “I can no longer pretend that these people are political adversaries or opponents in a debate.

“We are at war against the most disgustingly immoral ideology ever conceived. The worst version of humanity imaginable. And they are its remorseless cheerleaders.

“They are the enemy.”

The cartoonist’s attacks were widely condemned on the platform, with Clarke accusing him of "targeted harassment".

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Responding again, Moran launched more vitriol at the doctor. He wrote: “Why do you employ a woman who promotes disgusting ideologies, without moral or scientific justification, which lead to the deaths of children, @NHSEngland? This is pure, unspeakable evil and you appear to condone it.”

In fact, wearing masks has been shown to be an effective tool to fight the spread of Covid-19, including in a meta-analysis of 172 studies across 16 countries published by The Lancet. 

Clarke condemned the “hateful abuse” and said she would be speaking to her lawyer about the exchange.

A follow-up tweet which asked if people would be willing to donate to a crowdfund for legal expenses incurred against Moran has more than 10,000 likes and thousands of reshares.

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Prominent figures including radio presenter James O’Brien and author Philip Pullman responded in the affirmative.

The British Medical Association added: “This is appalling to hear Rachel – this is completely unacceptable and should not be tolerated; there should be consequences for abusing NHS staff like this.”

According to a report in The Press Gazette, The Telegraph is set to suspend Moran over the exchange. 

Moran previously came under fire for declaring on social media that he had “never” followed a single Covid rule – and insisting his “conscience is clear”.

The cartoonist then boasted: “I’ve never worn a mask, never used hand sanitiser, never social distanced, never scanned a code, never downloaded the app, never got a test, never given my real details, never chapped the NHS and I am never, ever, getting vaccinated. My conscience is clear.”

He added that he will look at people continuing to wear masks beyond July 19 as he would a person “wearing a T-shirt with ‘I think child abuse is fine’ written on it”.

According to reports in Private Eye, Moran’s online behaviour and Covid denialism has prompted Telegraph journalists to complain to bosses that he is undermining their work reporting on the dangers of the pandemic.