Bridgen suspended for antivax antisemitism, but what about the other MPs supporting conspiracy theorists calling for Nuremberg 2.0?

Jan 11, 2023

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has suspended the whip from MP Andrew Bridgen. Having already caused much controversy recently with his descent into antivax conspiracy theories, it was likening vaccines to the holocaust that proved the final straw with Sunak describing the comments as Antisemitic.

Bridgen is also now promoting ivermectin as an alternative to vaccination.

It’s no surprise Bridgen has slid into making inappropriate holocaust comparisons considering he has been in contact with Michael Yeadon since early 2021. Previously he hasn’t been public regarding his support for the conspiracy theorist who has said the vaccines are a plot to kill 90% of the world’s population, however with his antivax meltdown in recent weeks has led Bridgen to publicly show his support for Yeadon and Del Bigtree.

Unfortunately Bridgen is not the only parliamentarian to have provided support to groups and individuals who have made holocaust comparisons and promoted the Nuremberg 2.0 rhetoric that calls for those involved in the vaccine programme to be imprisoned (they have already decided on the outcomes of their proposed trials).

Bridgen’s statements go far beyond a few mistaken errors, the inaccuracies in his speech on the 13th are so numerous FullFact has produced an extensive response laying out the many misleading and factually false statistics and claims. His claims regarding vaccine safety for pregnant women during PMQs comes from a misrepresentation of an out of date document from 2020 from before vaccines had been approved for pregnant women, the Department of Health and Social Care previously had to release a public statement in response to this disinformation being distributed online.

Bridgen's statements are being used in propaganda by antivax and conspiracy theorists that has gone viral around the world, his speech during the parliamentary debate has over six million views. Some of the groups and individuals who feel emboldened by Bridgen's statements have previously suggested hanging MPs, healthcare workers and government advisors like the CMO and CSO.

Bridgen’s own comments entered the territory of conspiracy theories when he made claims the British Heart Foundation was involved in a cover up whilst also questioning the independence of the MHRA. The British Heart Foundation has released a strongly worded response rebuking the claims.

Bridgen has responded to criticism by repeating his claims, publishing the evidence base he is relying on. The evidence base is an assortment of youtube videos, books, statistics taken out of context and widely discredited papers including a piece written by Aseem Malhotra who Bridgen quotes extensively. The evidence base includes a number of links to the website of the HART group.

Bridgen has also been sharing a message of support by David Cartland who is also an associate of HART. Cartland has claimed the whole pandemic is a scam, covid does not exist, vaccines make people magnetic, and shares posts about chemtrails and Free Masons controlling the world.

When Facebook put up a warning besides Bridgen’s posts of his speech, his response was “It seems Facebook have decided to add warnings to my posts, presumably because I don’t fit their narrative. Is it any surprise that they are the largest donor to the ironically named Full Fact charity? What are Facebook scared of?”

GB News, which is currently under multiple investigations for its promotion of disinformation and conspiracy theories, platformed Aseem Malhotra to speak about Bridgen’s speech. “We are dealing with something that is truly very disturbing and is continuing to cause harm to people” claiming Bridgens speech will “go down in history”.

Malhotra and the HART group are Bridgen’s main sources of evidence and despite Bridgen’s claims to the contrary, Malhotra's paper has been widely rebuked. Criticism of Aseem Malhotra and HART goes beyond political tribes of left and right, or anti lockdown and those who saw lockdowns as a necessity, for instance Christopher Snowden of the IEA wrote an extensive substack on Malhotra’s track record. In February 2022 in response to a complaint by Dr David Nicholl the General Medical Council agreed that Malhotra was spreading health misinformation.

These comments are also being widely shared by anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists. Malhotra has recently been interviewed by a number of individuals with a reputation for promoting anti-vax narratives and conspiracy theories like Del Bigtree. Many in the medical community are comparing Malhotra to the discredited Andrew Wakefield who became infamous due to his false claims the MMR vaccine causes autism.

Bridgen seems intent on continuing to provide parliamentary support to conspiracy theories, on the 17th of December he appeared on the Irreverend podcast hosted by HART associate Jamie Franklin. In the podcast Bridgen suggested Pfizer deliberately designed their vaccine to damage our immune systems and that the media was engaged in a smear campaign against him.

He said "the only way it makes sense" for vaccines to target the spike protein "is that every time it mutates you have to have another vaccine. I can't work out any other motive apart from pure money. You have to have more and more vaccines." He continued by saying "everyone who's been boosted and vaccinated is in danger."

On the 22nd of December in an interview with NHS100k Briden claimed he is now vax injured, citing the development of hayfever and the need to take antihistamines each day otherwise his face swells up. Bridgen says this is evidence his immune system has been harmed by the vaccine.

In an interview with former footballer turned conspiracy theorist Matt Le Tissier, Bridgen wrongly claimed that “1 in 200 under 5’s were still in hospital 3 months after vaccination” before going on to say that billionaires had “prior knowledge” of covid before the pandemic began.

On 30th December in an interview with Lawrence Fox on GB News Bidgen claimed Oxford University was involved in suppressing information and questioned the government’s current vaccination policy. “There’s a lot of scientific, monetary and political capital that’s been put behind the efficacy of these novel vaccines, these mRNA gene therapies, it’s going to be very embarrassing for all concerned to find out that they are neither safe, effective or necessary”.

He also claimed “our health system has been captured by Big Pharma who are making an awful lot of money out of the vaccine, clearly that sort of profit buys a lot of influence, be it politicians or The Times newspaper”, referring to The Times decision to run a number of articles on Bridgens recent promotion of conspiracy theories.

On 2nd of January Bridgen shared a video of America’s Frontline Doctors’ lawyer Thomas Renz repeating the disinformation that the definition of vaccines had been changed to allow mRNA “gene therapies”.

Malhotra's paper that Bridgen quotes extensively was released with a press conference hosted by the World Council for Health, Clare Craig of HART and Pandata also worked on the paper. Other speakers at the press conference were Ryan Cole of America’s Frontline Doctors and Tess Lawrie founder of the World Council for Health and the British Ivermectin Research Development group, she is also an associate of HART. Tess Lawrie was named in a report by the BBC’s disinformation unit in an investigation into key individuals behind the promotion of ivermectin. Malhotra is now charging £10,000-£20,000 to speak at events.

The World Council for Health is promoting a range of alternative protocols and treatments including a “spike protein detox” which claims to remove spike protein produced by vaccination from the body, suggested treatments include hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin, ozone and chlorine dioxide. Their website says covid vaccines cause cancer and lead to “spike protein shedding” suggesting vaccinated people are potentially toxic to anyone that shares an indoor space with them. They also make claims regarding harmful nanoparticles and toxic contaminants in vaccine doses. Their coalition partners include a number of 5G conspiracy websites including 5G Virus News in Turkey and Action Against 5G in the UK. The World Council for Health has raised over $233,000 in donations.

Many individuals involved in covid disinformation aren’t just promoting unproven treatments and harmful information, they are also generating considerable revenues, and support from UK politicians is aiding them.

The HART group was named in the recent peer reviewed paper Understanding and Neutralising Covid-19 Misinformation and Disinformation which was published in the BMJ as part of its covid inquiry series. A number of media outlets have reported on HART’s internal chat messages being leaked, revealing them to be part of a cluster of overlapping organisations responsible for producing and promoting misleading and potentially harmful messaging regarding vaccines and other elements of the pandemic. The chats include a number of individuals associated with disinformation campaigns like Michael Yeadon, a former Pfizer employee who claims the vaccination programme is a global conspiracy to depopulate the world and kill around six billion people; he is also questioning. Another individual working with HART who features in the leaks is Patrick Fagan, the former lead psychologist from Cambridge Analytica.

Besides vaccines and unproven treatments, the HART website makes a number of other claims that aren’t substantiated by real world data, for instance “Not everyone can catch COVID-19, Many have pre-existing immunity so would never be a viable ‘host’; Studies show this is about 50% of the population.” They also claim asymptomatic transmission doesn't occur, stating that there has only ever been three recorded examples of this occurring.

The leaks also revealed the close relationship between HART and associated organisations with certain journalists and a number of politicians, primarily the Covid Recovery Group of MPs and Peers. The Electoral Commision has previously raised concerns regarding funding the CRG has received from the opaque Recovery Alliance organisation. Bridgen’s latest antics are not an isolated incident in regards to MPs using parliament to add the veneer of credibility to conspiracy theories.

On 7 December Miriam Cates spoke in Parliament in defence of a number of organisations whose accounts had been blocked by PayPal, the organisations she specifically named included the UK Medical Freedom Alliance (UKMFA), Law or Fiction and Us For Them. Cates suggested these groups were sanctioned simply for their anti lockdown stance, however UKMFA’s social media feed and website makes wild unsubstantiated claims regarding covid vaccines containing "paramagnetic nanopartices" that cause people to become "electromagnetised" after the first dose.

Under resources the UKMFA website has a section dedicated to unproven treatments like ivermectin for the vaccine injured citing FLCCC, the World Council for Health and the Truth for Health Foundation. Under alternative treatments for covid the website cites Peter McCullough and America's Frontline Doctors (AFLD).

A member of FLCCC is being prosecuted in Brazil for crimes against humanity after an unethical trial killed many of their patients. The Truth for Health Foundation has set up an in-church telesales franchise in the US and is linked to far right militia groups like the Black Robe Regiment and the Oathkeepers while the founder of AFLD was imprisoned after pleading guilty to her role in the storming of Capitol Hill on 6 January 2021 and is currently embroiled in an internal legal battle regarding the misuse of donations.

Law or Fiction is a partner organisation to the World Freedom Alliance which was founded by the prominent Irish anti-vaxxer Dolores Cahill. On the 26th of January Law or Fiction and the founder of Us For Them called for those involved in the pandemic response and vaccine roll out to put on trial in international “Nuremberg 2” trials, sharing a post that compared them to Nazi war criminals. Us For Them’s founder has previously said those responsible for the vaccine programme should be imprisoned.

The Vaccine Harms APPG with Christopher Chope MP as chair has also been a cause of concern and come under criticism for drowning out the genuine voices of the small number of people who have had rare severe reactions Chope features in the HART leaks and regularly repeats incorrect information regarding vaccines, including in the House of Commons. In October Malhotra was invited to give evidence to the APPG shortly after releasing his anti-vax paper, the meeting was used to promote Malhotra and in attendance were a number of individuals from groups including HART, the British Ivermectin Research Group, World Doctors Alliance and the World Council for Health. Former Brexit Party MEP James Freeman Wells was even offering invites to attend the APPG to his Patreon donors.

Also in attendance was Mark Sexton who referred to covid vaccines as heinous crimes against humanity. The week before he had been arrested for aggravated trespass at a vaccine clinic in Windsor, previously he has threatened to “arrest MPs for genocide”. The Times and Independent have reported on a meeting between Sexton and other prominent conspiracy theorists with Sir Graham Brady, Chair of the influential 1922 committee.

Chope has written to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care calling for the approval of ivermectin.

Since its formation in September 2021 the Pandemic Response and Recovery APPG chaired by Esther McVey has relied almost entirely on associates of HART and other linked organisations to provide its experts, Jemma Moran and Rachel Marcus of HART are the group’s secretariat. Lord Moonie who is on the APPG is also a member of HART, although he isn’t listed on the website the leaked chats show he joined the group in February 2021.

Jemma Moran has now been employed by McVey as a member of staff in her parliamentary office.

John Bye @_johnbye

MP @EstherMcVey1 is now employing HART's Jemma Moran in her Parliamentary office! Jemma Moran was added to her staff in the latest "Register Of Interests Of Members' Secretaries And Research Assistants", published at the end of last year. h/t @CatNeilan publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmsecret…

Appearances at the APPG include Nick Hudson, founder of Pandata, who is on record saying in regards of those who called for lockdowns “a lot of the people involved in the policy rollouts will end up committing suicide. Their lives will be destroyed. As they should be.” This was shortly after a European academic committed suicide after a prolonged campaign of targeted abuse by conspiracy theorists.

Disinformation and conspiracy theories have real world consequences, as demonstrated when vaccines were approved for 12-15 year olds and schools were inundated with anti-vax protestors, staff and students were abused, schools faced numerous safeguarding issues as people tried to access school sites and two schools even had to be evacuated after hoax bomb threats were made. We’ve also seen how those working in vaccination centres have also suffered abusive and threatening behaviour

Recently senior officers in counter terrorism have warned of the rise of far-right terrorism that now often overlaps with covid conspiracy theories, this can be seen with Oliver Lewain’s recent conviction for plotting a terror attack due to his belief in conspiracy theories including those involving covid and versions of Great Reset and Replacement theories, narratives that have been promoted by some of the individuals and groups that Bridgen and other members of the CRG have associated themselves with. For instance the Together Declaration which held an event at the Conservative Party Conference has also been holding events on resisting the “globalists’ Great Reset.

There is a difference between asking questions or debating the science and promoting demonstrably false disinformation, for instance quoting NHS vaccine guidance for pregnant women from 2020 which has since been updated. There is also a difference between debate and incitement, considering in recent years two MPs have been murdered by extremists radicalised online, it should be alarming to all MPs that some of their peers have allowed parliament to be used to promote the message of individuals who are accusing MPs and healthcare workers of genocide and crimes against humanity.

This goes beyond questioning policy, or even the promotion of misleading or false information, Parliament should not be a platform for those promoting conspiracy theories with accusations that could increase the risk to others such as healthcare workers or MPs.

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References

BMJ Inquiry Series paper - Understanding and neutralising covid-19 misinformation and disinformation (Yuxi Wang et al)

https://www.bmj.com/content/379/bmj-2022-070331

Analysis and evidence behind the BMJ paper

Counter Disinformation Project

Bridgen suspended for antivax antisemitism, but what about the other MPs supporting conspiracy theorists calling for Nuremberg 2.0?

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