TikTok comedian Jon-Bernard Kairouz’s wild claim after losing five-day case prediction streak

A TikTok comedian who announces NSW’s case numbers early has made an outrageous claim after his five-day streak was quashed.

TikTok comedian Jon-Bernard Kairouz has fallen from grace after his five-day streak of correctly reporting NSW’s new Covid cases came to an end.

Kairouz, who claimed “simple maths” was behind his accurate predictions, said there would be 109 new local Covid-19 cases, but only 98 were announced on Monday.

Reports swirled before Monday’s press conference that a “trap” had been set inside NSW Health amid speculation someone was leaking the figures to Kairouz.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said he was disappointed by the leaks but denied a “sting” had smoked out the culprit.

Kairouz responded on social media via Twitter to joke that Monday’s official figures were a rouse to “discredit” him and reports he benefited from leaks were “false”.

The tweet featured a mockup political statement under the banner of the Office of the People’s Premier, and included disclaimer confirming it was for “comedic purposes only”.

Kairouz claimed he used simple maths to form his prediction.

“The number confirmed today by the NSW government/health was given solely to discredit me and my mathematical genius,” he said.

“They claim to have captured the person supposedly leaking the information, through high level surveillance and trapping, which just disrespects the hard work and mathematical process conducted by my brothers and I.

“I have been clear that there is no source and any claim otherwise is false and I doubt Gladdy (sic) and her government would stoop that low.”

pic.twitter.com/ZbudcOjrZ4

— Jon-Bernard Kairouz (@jonbernardk) July 19, 2021

Earlier, during the government’s daily press conference, Mr Hazzard revealed the source came to light after an internal review of how case data was being stored in NSW Health’s systems.

“Can I say it was a disappointment that something as serious as our messaging to the community in a pandemic, clearly someone somebody in the system was feeling the need to disclose those figures to somebody who was not an appropriate person to be making commentary about it,” he said.

“And so, Health looked at the issues around that, I saw someone saying on social media that it was a sting, no it wasn’t.

“It was looking at what the issues were and making sure that the system was such that the information could be kept to the appropriate time with messaging to the community ... in terms of us giving the important message which goes out at 11 o’clock each day, in a way that the community understands the significance of what we are asking people to do, to keep people safe.”

The comedian’s viral videos were being uploaded after the 8pm cut off time for when the state’s daily case numbers were finalised.

On Sunday night entertainment reporter Peter Ford reported “traps” set by NSW Health were successful.

Ford told 3AW on Monday an “unusual and brutal” level of investigation was employed to find the leak and it may have solved the case.

Word is a trap has been set and Jon-Bernard Kairouz’s figure of 109 is incorrect today @SkyNewsAust

— Andrew Clennell (@aclennell) July 19, 2021

Ford reported “every phone and computer” was being monitored to try and nab the leak, with the claims later repeated by Ray Hadley on 2GB.

Mr Ford told The Morning Show that the Premier’s office “believe (the leaks are) actually a threat to public health and safety because he doesn’t provide any kind of narrative around the figures that he is putting out each night”.

“So there has been a witchhunt on, my information is in the last hour that they set traps for him, and they may have borne fruit. They may have now found the person that it is.”

Hearing #TikTokGuy is wrong about today's estimate of 109 new cases in NSW. Figure was fed to him to 'smoke out' his source. #nswcovid#nswpol

— Peter Hannam (@p_hannam) July 19, 2021

Kairouz calls himself an “actor” and “comedian” and has successfully predicted the daily case figure for the past five days.

He has defied a NSW Health warning the past three days by posting the numbers before they were officially released.

Speaking on Channel 10’s The Sunday Project, Kairouz hailed himself as the “People’s Premier”.

RIP TikTok Guy (July 14, 2021 - July 19, 2021) ♥️

— Byron Kaye (@byronkaye) July 19, 2021

“I’m having a ball. I’ve been creating content on Instagram and TikTok for just about a year now,” he said.

“And to get a sudden, grow exponentially on the social platforms has been really fun and it’s been a whirlwind of a week.

“My brothers and I have put a lot of time and effort in the algorithm and that’s all it comes down to, just mathematics.”

NSW Health said it had “no comment” when contacted by NCA NewsWire.