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French min deletes "stay indoors" tip for homeless

France's Secretary of State for Health Minister of Labour, Employment and Health Nora Berra speaks during the government question session at the National Assembly in Paris January 10, 2012. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier

France's Secretary of State for Health Minister of Labour, Employment and Health Nora Berra speaks during the government question session at the National Assembly in Paris January 10, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Benoit Tessier

PARIS | Wed Feb 8, 2012 7:49am EST

PARIS (Reuters) - A French health minister tried to tweet her way out of embarrassing blog advice that homeless people should not go outdoors during the ice-cold snap in Europe.

Junior minister Nora Berra was ridiculed on the Internet for writing a blog at the weekend saying toddlers, old people, the sick and homeless were particularly vulnerable in times of extreme cold and should "avoid going outdoors."

Her note sparked a flurry of Twitter messages and media reports that she was suggesting the homeless not leave home.

Berra sought to limit the damage via a tweet that redirected readers to a refreshed blog note where the reference to homeless people no longer existed. "There are some subjects that lend themselves badly to irony," she tweeted on Tuesday.

Hundreds of people, many of them homeless, have been killed in recent days as bitterly cold weather sweeps Europe, with temperatures dropping to minus 20 degrees Celsius (minus 4 Fahrenheit) in parts of France.

Many French cities are opening extra night-time shelter for homeless people.

(Reporting by Brian Love; Editing by Alessandra Rizzo)
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Comments (3)
Fatesrider wrote:
Yep, nothing like electing the brain dead to represent the will of hte people.

To the homeless: Stay indoors.

If they could do that, they wouldn’t be homeless. Duh…

Feb 08, 2012 11:29pm EST  --  Report as abuse
FoxxDrake wrote:
So she made a poor tweet. So what? I hate the fact that everything is now based on Facebook and Twitter. It’s complete garbage. In fact, I don’t twitter and Facebook as little as humanly possible… stupid superficial bovine scat, replacing real human interaction for a cartoon culture.

Feb 08, 2012 11:38pm EST  --  Report as abuse
Hislovestreet wrote:
Wow, it’s time for the world to see the homeless situation as it really is as many are one pay-check away from being there as well. Let’s stop blaming the President, Democrats or Republicans but pull together as the great and bless nation we are and have been. Last year here in Denver, Colorado we had two men freeze to death in parks due to no place to shelter themselves. When God, gave me this vision of His Love Street Hotel, I seriously thought that many would pitch in and help but, most did not want to get involved as they said we have no extra cash to help. Then last week I read that Americans was spending twice as much on Restaurants and just today that the Power-ball drawings revenue for tonight’s drawing was over a billion dollars in sales. What I am trying to state here is just think if we would only invested a half of tonight’s sales from the lottery I could open three hotels and employe and help thousands obtain a home of their own. Please search your heart, http://Hislovestreet2012.com/

Feb 11, 2012 6:25pm EST  --  Report as abuse
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