Ex-Tory MP invites discredited Covid conspiracy theorists to speak in Parliament
A former Tory MP has invited a string of discredited Covid conspiracy theorists to speak in Parliament.
Andrew Bridgen was booted out of the Conservative Party last year for comparing the Coronavirus vaccine rollout to the holocaust.
He now represents former Lewis actor and far-right motormouth Laurence Fox’s ‘Reclaim UK’ party on the backbenches, from where he continues to question the scientific consensus on vaccine safety. He’s invited seven speakers to what he describes as a “historic meeting” to defend “democracy truth and freedom”, including some of the most high profile anti-vaccine conspiracists in the world.
Several of the speakers have been criticised or censured by their respective governing bodies for spreading vaccine misinformation.
Star guest Dr Robert Malone rose to infamy after appearing on US comedian Joe Rogan’s immensely popular podcast and making a string of false and misleading claims about the virus and vaccinations. He’ll be joined by Dr Pierre Kory, whose fringe claims of anti-parasite drug Ivermectin as a “wonder drug” against Covid, while downplaying the effectiveness of vaccines led to thousands of Americans swallowing horse deworming paste.
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Dr Ryan Cole, also on the panel is facing charges from the Washington Medical Commission over “numerous false and misleading statements related to Covid-19”. And British cardiologist Dr Aseem Malhotra won the ‘Rusty Razor’ award, a prize given to the year’s worst promoters of pseudoscience.
Most vaccine misinformation is based on a misunderstanding of an increase in ‘excess deaths’ - the number of annual deaths above what would usually be expected. Vaccine conspiracy theorists often blame the increase, which remains higher than it was during the height of the pandemic, on alleged harm caused by vaccines.
In reality, the uptick was most likely to have been caused by a bad year of flu, a strep A outbreak, continuing Covid-19 infections - and chronic conditions including heart disease, diabetes and cancer which may have become more serious during the pandemic and lockdowns. Conspiracy theorists also claim there is a high proportion of people who have died who have also been vaccinated. This is hardly surprising given more than 93% of the UK population had at least one dose of vaccine.
Serious side-effects from Covid vaccination are vanishingly rare, affecting a handful of people - and statistically speaking the benefits during the pandemic far outweighed the risks. Patients are more than four times more likely to experience rare heart complications from catching Covid-19 than they are as a side-effect of the Covid vaccine.
Mr Bridgen said: “It’s clear that the further our society moves away from the truth, the more they seek to attack those who speak it. I will be providing further evidence this week which will sink the ‘safe and effective’ narrative and I look forward to it being covered by the legacy media”.
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