A week ago today, I published a blog in which I referred to, among other things, an old friend now deceased who had been advised by a long-standing friend of his own that the stage four bowel cancer that eventually took his life was his own fault because he had been vaccinated against Covid-19. Such unbelievable heartlessness and cruelty, with added industrial quantities of sheer stupidity and ignorance. These people live among us, unfortunately, and it doesn’t help when public figures come down on the side of the conspiracy loons. At this weekend’s Reform Uk Ltd’s annual conference one certainly did.
Dr Aseem Malhotra, from New Delhi, is one such public figure and spoke to an adoring audience. He claimed that King Brian and Kate Middleton had both contracted cancer because they took the Covid vaccine and was greeted by a standing ovation from a stunned gathering of “fruitcakes”, “loonies” and “closet racists”, as the former Tory prime minister David Cameron once, rightly, described them.
Responding , Dr Rachel Clarke had the temerity to deal in facts, adding that “there isn’t a shred of scientific evidence suggesting Covid vaccines cause cancer.” Virtually every doctor and scientist will tell you the same, although there will always be occasional freelancing nut jobs with their own agenda, nut jobs like Aseem Malhotra. His evidence-free assertion that Brian and Kate got cancer from the vaccine is appallingly inaccurate and not a little cruel.
Doubtless, Malhotra also believes that the Earth is flat, the 9/11 was an inside job, that the world is secretly run by lizards, that we are being poisoned by Chem Trails and that the move to a cashless society is down to a worldwide conspiracy because conspiracy theorists don’t just believe in one conspiracy theory: they believe them all. Dr Clarke goes further in her defence of vaccines:
“Vaccines stop diseases like mumps, measles & meningitis killing our children. Vaccines save millions of lives every year.” Indisputable facts in every single case. Facts based on actual evidence and not wacky conspiracy theories. Even Farage’s private company, Reform UK Ltd, felt moved to distance itself from Malhotra’s bonkers remarks. They said: “Dr Aseem Malhotra is a guest speaker with his own opinions who has an advisory role in the US government. Reform UK does not endorse what he said but does believe in free speech.” Two things stand out, there.
Malhotra is an advisor to Robert F Kennedy, who scarily is the United States secretary of health and human services, and being his advisor is nothing to shout about. If you want to understand what a seriously unhinged person he is, just look at his Wikipedia page here. More interesting is in the final sentence. “Reform UK does not endorse what he said but does believe in free speech.” Essentially, he’s spouting bollocks but he should have the right to seriously mislead and lie to people, even if what he says could lead to children dying. Personally, I have an issue with liars, but clearly Reform UK Ltd does not. How appropriate that its leader is the Fagash Fuhrer Nigel Farage, as big a liar as we have ever known in British politics. I am sure that Farage, as a free speech warrior, would not object to me calling him a serial liar on the grounds that he is one.
All these years of magnificent medical advancement, including vaccines which have had saved millions, and a few wignuts on the extreme reaches of politics are undermining everything by putting their fellow man and woman at risk. “Kill your granny,” would appear to be the strapline. “Tell her not to have the influenza and Covid vaccine this year.”
I don’t know everything. There is loads more I don’t know than I do know. But here’s the thing: I do believe in experts. That’s why I see a dentist so keep my teeth healthy, a plumber to ensure my water pipes don’t leak and a proper electrician to save me from electrocuting myself and my family. People who make and distributes vaccines are experts, too, which is exactly what conspiracy theorists aren’t. On that basis alone, I know who to trust.
I don’t think I will ever forget what my friend’s friend said to him, essentially accusing him of causing his own death by taking a vaccine and then abandoning him. She’s clearly a long way down the rabbit hole and my friend, now departed, said she was beyond help, so no point in wishing her ill. Maybe ‘Dr’ Malhotra is too far gone, too, but we owe it to ourselves and indeed everyone else, to treat his lies with the contempt they deserve. Sure, people are free to tell lies. Some of us happen to think liars are the lowest form of life. Take your pick. I certainly will. Now excuse me while I book my flu vaccination for 2025.
