AN academic told GB News host Laurence Fox “I sometimes wonder why you exist” after the broadcaster claimed “conspiracy factualists” had been proved right about the Covid vaccine.
Last week, Fox discussed a new report which, according to GB News, “slammed the MHRA’s (Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency) approval process over the Covid vaccine”.
‘Conspiracy factualist’
Fox specifically referenced a report by Perseus which was “intended to widen visibility of MHRA’s regulatory failings to Parliamentarians, the media and the public”.
The report claimed the vaccine had been licensed based on “limited short term data and no long term data”.
The host explained: “The report is brutal and if indeed it is, as many will suspect, part of a ‘limited hangout’, it certainly lets a lot hang out.
Stop what you are doing and watch this 30 second video of an academic confronting the risible @lozzafox with a dose of truth. Trust me. pic.twitter.com/enewvtMV9k
— Otto English (@Otto_English) April 28, 2023
“Going further than before and shredding the veil of secrecy and highlighting the reckless idiocy of our besieged health regulator.
“It concludes the MHRA has failed in its duty to protect the public from harm.”
Fox explained what he meant by a “limited hangout”, saying it was “CIA spy jargon for when the veil of secrecy is shredded, the government is caught with its pants down and the phony cover story can no longer be relied upon to misinform the public”.
He added: “It will take many years for society to come to terms with the evil meted out on us as quacks or crooks depending on which side of the cock-up conspiracy argument you fall on fumbled in the dark for a miracle cure for the Covid cold.”
Academic’s response
Appearing on the programme was Dr Bharat Pankhania - a senior clinical lecturer at the University of Exeter. Fox asked him what his thoughts on the report were.
The academic replied: “I sometimes wonder why you exist to be honest with you because a lot of these things that you spew out just send things that are worrisome to people, not verified, not factual, you just have your own agenda.
“You are just spewing out your biased views, that’s how I feel about you.”
The host replied that he was not asking for thoughts on him but on the discussion about the Covid vaccine.
Pankhania continued: “I haven’t read that report, I knew nothing about that report, I wasn’t brought on the programme to talk about the report.
“Therefore, it’s an ambush. How do I know? I haven’t read it, I know nothing about it.”
Asked what he thought about the MHRA, Pankhania said the staff “do a great job” to protect the health and wellbeing of the country when it came to ensuring which medicines were made available.
He added: “It is very unfortunate that further to Brexit we are, the MHRA, is working on its own for the UK rather than being as part of the European Medicines Agency because there is strength in numbers, strength in expertise.
“Having said all that the MHRA is absolutely fit for purpose.”
Fox re-tweeted the exchange with the caption: “After the good doctor started to sermonise about Brexit in relation to vaccine harms, the remainder of the interview was me trying not to giggle.”
