TikTok influencer licks airplane toilet seat for coronavirus challenge, gets called out: 'Put her a** in jail'
A social media influencer self-described as a "clout-chaser" has come under fire for a coronavirus challenge she touted that involved licking an airplane toilet seat to show "how to properly be sanitary."
Ava Louise, a 22-year-old from Miami, went viral on social media after she posted a six-second clip on video-sharing platform TikTok that she branded as the "coronavirus challenge".
In the short video, Louise, who has over 162,000 followers on Instagram and has appeared on Dr Phil as a guest twice, can be seen in what appears to be an airplane bathroom.
She adjusts the camera and then looks into it as she briefly licks the toilet seat, before flashing a victory sign and ending the stunt. "Please [retweet] this so people can know how to properly be sanitary on the airplane," she captioned the video.
At a time when the US has reported 68 deaths and over 4,600 confirmed cases of COVID-19, the "challenge" did not sit too well with social media users, who slammed it as "reckless".
"Can we tell Ava Louise who licked a toilet seat as a Tik Tok 'coronavirus challenge' that she is a fool and reckless in this time of our national health emergency," one user wrote.
"TikTok and Twitter Ava Louise posted herself licking a toilet seat and calling it the 'Coronavirus Challenge'. She'll be known as 'The Toilet Licker' for the rest of her life. Her parents must be really proud," another tweeted.
It wasn't just netizens either. The likes of Meghan McCain and Abigail Disney also called Louise out for her actions. "Put her a** in jail," McCain tweeted, while Disney simply wrote, "Darwin lives."
In response to the criticism, Louise said she started the challenge for "clout" and that her actions were no worse than "eating a dude's a**." She tweeted, "I can't get coronavirus.....just like the gays rich blonde b****** are IMMUNE."
She told Insider she licked the toilet seat because she was "tired of some b***h named corona getting more publicity than ME" and insisted there was "no harm done" because "hot blondes" can recover from anything.
"I just wanted more attention than this corona b***h but she's GOOD," she said. "So I capitalized off her. And now I'm like global news. My mom told me she's proud of me I shed light on pandemic while wearing Fendi sunglasses ... The serve."
Louise also suggested the stunt was a bid to raise awareness of important social issues like homophobia and that "transphobia is grosser than me licking a toilet."
"The xenophobia makes me sad," she explained. "What's not gonna make people sad is a hot rich blonde 20-something-year-old licking a toilet. It's not like the virus can kill me anyway because I don't use Facebook."
"It was iconic," she added. "ALS bucket challenge could never... Period."