Reform UK Conference: Anti-Vax Misinformation Doctor Given Prime Health Slot
Support our mission to provide fearless stories about and outside the media system
Packed with exclusive investigations, analysis, and features
SUBSCRIBE TODAY
The controversial cardiologist Aseem Malhotra, accused by critics of spreading anti-vax misinformation laden with conspiracy theories, will give the only health-related address on the main stage of the Reform Party conference this weekend.
Leading doctors have urged Reform leader, Nigel Farage, not to put lives in danger by handing Malhotra - who claims that mRNA COVID vaccines did more harm than good - a prime conference slot.
The British cardiologist is chief medical adviser to MAHA Action, a US campaign group advocating the "Make America Healthy Again" agenda of Robert F Kennedy Jr, US President Donald Trump's secretary of health and human services.
Reform has said Malhotra will speak about "making Britain healthy again" and he has insisted his main topic in Birmingham will be the "commercial influence over science" and the importance of health living, but, his inclusion in the conference has raised concerns that Farage may be tempted to follow Kennedy's lead in scrapping vaccine research, and replacing expert advisors.
Over the summer, Kennedy cancelled $500 million in funding for mRNA vaccines and earlier sacked all 17 members of the official government committee that advises on immunisation.
Jeanette Dickson, chairwoman of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, the professional standards body for Britain's 400,000 doctors, told The Times: "We must not let ignorance and ideology replace evidence-based medicine. It is a very dangerous step to replace peer-reviewed, proven science with simple-sounding populism."
The decision to embrace Malhotra is one of several actions by Farage that suggest Reform is heading towards closer policy alignment with Trump and Project 2025.
In May 2024, Farage was himself accused by the World Health Organisation (WHO) of "spreading misinformation" after becoming the face of Action on World Health (AWH), a campaign for the UK to end its membership of the World Health Organisation (WHO).
EXCLUSIVE
Sacked, Expelled, or in the Dock: All the Reform UK Councillors Nigel Farage Has Lost in Just Four Months
Party faces questions over candidate screening after string of resignations, expulsions and criminal investigations
Josiah Mortimer
AWH has received favourable coverage in right-wing newspapers, repeating the narratives of groups associated with coordinated COVID disinformation that has seeped into the mainstream media via outlets like the Telegraph, GB News and TalkTV.
Malhotra's speech comes as health officials warn that vaccination rates in children starting school in September have fallen below the levels required to prevent spread through herd immunity, while in the US the Centre of Disease Control (CDC) has been pitched into chaos after CDC chief Susan Monarez was fired and several other top officials resigned in protest at RFK Jr's assault on established vaccine science.
This comes in the wake of a gunman's attack on the CDC building, which killed a police officer, after the man was reportedly inspired by anti-vax conspiracies.
On 27 September 2022, Malhotra published a paper with Clare Craig of the anti-vax HART group in his own journal calling for the immediate halt to COVID vaccinations.
The paper was released via a press conference by the World Council for Health (WCH), founded by Tess Lawrie of disinformation groups HART and Pandata as an umbrella organisation for groups promoting a range of alternative treatments from ivermectin to protection from 5G. WCH's coalition partners includes Children's Health Defence that was founded by RFK Jr.
Lawrie also founded the British Ivermectin Research Group (BIRD). BIRD is the sister organisation to Pierre Kory's Frontline Covid Critical Care (FLCCC) organisation in the US, together they led the way in promoting ivermectin as an alternative treatment for COVID, long COVID, and "spike detox...
Packed with exclusive investigations, analysis, and features
SUBSCRIBE TODAY
The controversial cardiologist Aseem Malhotra, accused by critics of spreading anti-vax misinformation laden with conspiracy theories, will give the only health-related address on the main stage of the Reform Party conference this weekend.
Leading doctors have urged Reform leader, Nigel Farage, not to put lives in danger by handing Malhotra - who claims that mRNA COVID vaccines did more harm than good - a prime conference slot.
The British cardiologist is chief medical adviser to MAHA Action, a US campaign group advocating the "Make America Healthy Again" agenda of Robert F Kennedy Jr, US President Donald Trump's secretary of health and human services.
Reform has said Malhotra will speak about "making Britain healthy again" and he has insisted his main topic in Birmingham will be the "commercial influence over science" and the importance of health living, but, his inclusion in the conference has raised concerns that Farage may be tempted to follow Kennedy's lead in scrapping vaccine research, and replacing expert advisors.
Over the summer, Kennedy cancelled $500 million in funding for mRNA vaccines and earlier sacked all 17 members of the official government committee that advises on immunisation.
Jeanette Dickson, chairwoman of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, the professional standards body for Britain's 400,000 doctors, told The Times: "We must not let ignorance and ideology replace evidence-based medicine. It is a very dangerous step to replace peer-reviewed, proven science with simple-sounding populism."
The decision to embrace Malhotra is one of several actions by Farage that suggest Reform is heading towards closer policy alignment with Trump and Project 2025.
In May 2024, Farage was himself accused by the World Health Organisation (WHO) of "spreading misinformation" after becoming the face of Action on World Health (AWH), a campaign for the UK to end its membership of the World Health Organisation (WHO).
EXCLUSIVE
Sacked, Expelled, or in the Dock: All the Reform UK Councillors Nigel Farage Has Lost in Just Four Months
Party faces questions over candidate screening after string of resignations, expulsions and criminal investigations
Josiah Mortimer
AWH has received favourable coverage in right-wing newspapers, repeating the narratives of groups associated with coordinated COVID disinformation that has seeped into the mainstream media via outlets like the Telegraph, GB News and TalkTV.
Malhotra's speech comes as health officials warn that vaccination rates in children starting school in September have fallen below the levels required to prevent spread through herd immunity, while in the US the Centre of Disease Control (CDC) has been pitched into chaos after CDC chief Susan Monarez was fired and several other top officials resigned in protest at RFK Jr's assault on established vaccine science.
This comes in the wake of a gunman's attack on the CDC building, which killed a police officer, after the man was reportedly inspired by anti-vax conspiracies.
On 27 September 2022, Malhotra published a paper with Clare Craig of the anti-vax HART group in his own journal calling for the immediate halt to COVID vaccinations.
The paper was released via a press conference by the World Council for Health (WCH), founded by Tess Lawrie of disinformation groups HART and Pandata as an umbrella organisation for groups promoting a range of alternative treatments from ivermectin to protection from 5G. WCH's coalition partners includes Children's Health Defence that was founded by RFK Jr.
Lawrie also founded the British Ivermectin Research Group (BIRD). BIRD is the sister organisation to Pierre Kory's Frontline Covid Critical Care (FLCCC) organisation in the US, together they led the way in promoting ivermectin as an alternative treatment for COVID, long COVID, and "spike detox...
Activity