In this uncertain world, one thing we can always trust to be a constant is the unerring ability of Sarah Ferguson, the ex-wife of Prince Andrew, to say utterly bizarre things.

On Tuesday she was at it again, tweeting a pair of extraordinary messages suggesting that “Mother Nature” had unleashed the coronavirus on humankind to punish us for not looking after the planet.

Little did she know at the time of her social media fusillade that her former brother-in-law Prince Charles was already suffering from the virus. Charles had seen the Queen two weeks earlier, prompting fears that the virus could spread within the royal household.

One of Fergie’s tweets was accompanied by a charming picture of a cherry tree in full blossom that looks like it was taken at the massive private estate, Royal Lodge, where she lives rent-free with her ex-husband.

We have embedded the tweets below, but, just in case the duchess (as she still insists on calling herself) wakes up this morning with a furry tongue, and a crashing case of tweeter’s regret once she sees that her host family is among the victims, and hastens to hit the delete button, fear not, we have the screenshots for posterity.

Of course, these kind of rambling theories about how the coronavirus is actually good for the world have become something of a fad on social media in the past few days.

But there is a pretty clear line between remarking on silver linings (We can hear the birdsong in cities! Pollution is down! I don’t need to charge my phone every night!) and feeling out the path for a Gaia death cult which believes that a killer virus is a good thing that’s going to “clean up” the planet.

These remarks, Sarah, are best saved for your creepy, ultra-right wing crystal therapist.