Andrew Bridgen MP and the Anti-Vax Conspiracy Theorists
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Andrew Bridgen MP resigned in late December 2023 from Laurence Fox’s Reclaim Party which he had joined only nine months previously, after being expelled from the Conservative Party for likening Covid vaccines to the Holocaust.
Bridgen stated his resignation from Reclaim was “because of a difference in the direction of the Party” but that he “will still wholeheartedly support the policies and the values of the Reclaim Party.”
The Reclaim Party’s statement wishing Bridgen every success said they had made “a considerable donation to Andrew’s campaign fund.” The Register of Members’ Financial Interests show Bridgen was paid £1500 for eight hours of consultancy for every month since he joined the party. Reclaim’s company accounts have been overdue since the end of August 2023.
The register also shows that Bridgen has received funding from sources such as Robert F Kennedy Jr’s anti-vax organisation, Children’s Health Defense, (CHD) to speak at various overseas anti-vax conferences, and Bridgen hosted his own anti-vax panel on 4 December 2023.
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Bridgen described the event online as a Parliamentary meeting, however it was held in the Wilson Room of Portcullis House and yet doesn’t appear on Parliament’s schedule of official business for that day. He claims 20 parliamentarians attended.
The event featured data from New Zealand obtained by Steve Kirsch, a Californian tech entrepreneur who claims it proves Covid vaccines have caused millions of deaths, however the data shows deaths only rose when New Zealand experienced its first Covid wave.
Kirsch told Byline Times on 25 November that the data was legally obtained. However, on 3 December, the man who provided Kirsch with the data was arrested in relation to the “unauthorised disclosure and misuse of data” for accessing a computer system for dishonest purposes. Kirsch has not said that he was aware the data was obtained illegally but describes the data as a whistle blower’s leak.
Kirsch’s use of the data received condemnation from those more usually counted as his allies: on X.com Nick Hudson of Pandata said he’d seen the data and that “little could be concluded from it” due to it being incomplete and so questionable “it has all the elements of a set up” although he maintains that vaccines are part of an “immensely destructive scam.”
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Karam Bales
Bridgen is rapidly becoming a favourite of the anti-vax movement, his December event was shared widely online, as have similar events he’s attended in the past year which appear in the register of financial interests:
14-16 April – Spotlight Conference in Norway, donation of £612 from CHD’s European chapter and the Binder’s Initiative. CHD is running a joint campaign against the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine with UK based organisation Safer To Wait.
1-3 September – Facts Matter conference in Denmark, donation of £555 from The Danish Freedom Movement
28 September to 1st October – On Guard for the Liberty of Mankind conference organised by CHD in Sweden, donation of £951 by The Doctors Appeal
Bridgen’s December event featured a number of high-profile US figures including:
Steve Kirsch is a California tech entrepreneur. Following the entire board of his Covid Early Treatment Fund resigning, Kirsch founded the Vaccine Safety Research Fund (VSRF) which sponsored the January 2022 Defeat the Mandates rally. The Washington Post reported marchers carried banners saying “Vaccines are mass kill bio weapons” and “Trump won”, however Kirsch said the event had speakers from all walks of life and was “an amazing event”.
Kirsch is supporting RFK Jr’s presidential candidacy and was an organiser of a 2023 Covid Litigation Conference.
Dr. Ryan Cole, founding member of the pro-Trump, hydroxychloroquine promoting America’s Frontline Doctors (AFLDS) alongside insurrectionist Dr. Simone Gold and Florida’s controversial surgeon general Dr. Joseph Ladapo. Cole, who referred to vaccines as “needle rape” is facing loss of license over his spread of disinformation, improper treatment of patients with ivermectin over telehealth, misrepresentation of his credentials, and interference with the Washington Medical Commission’s investigation into him.
In August 2023, Cole and three others responded by launching a countersuit against the commission calling for the court to strip the Washington Medical Commission of the power to punish doctors who offer unapproved treatments or promote misinformation liable to discourage vaccination.
Dr. Pierre Kory, co-founder of the Frontline Covid-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC) testified to the US Senate in December 2020 that ivermectin was a “wonder drug”. This inspired HART member Dr. Tess Lawrie to found the British Ivermectin Research Development group (BIRD), and the UK-based World Council for Health (WCfH) which lists FLCCC as a partner and has hosted previous events featuring Bridgen.
Kory and Lawrie both published ivermectin meta analyses in a journal which received formal expressions of concern. Kory suffered a retraction of a paper due to concern over inaccurate reporting of mortality data. The reported benefits of ivermectin in two ivermectin papers from Brazil, featuring Kory, which were promoted by WCfH, were found to be “entirely explained by statistical artefacts.” One of the papers has been corrected for unreported financial conflicts of interest, including payments from an ivermectin manufacturer to some authors.
Kory co-authored The War on Ivermectin: The Medicine That Saved Millions and Could Have Ended the Pandemic, promoting the anti-parasitic for long-Covid, RSV and flu, and selling merchandise of himself. Last summer he participated in a health policy round table for RFK Jr’s presidential campaign. He’s claimed vaccines cause spike "shedding" to unvaccinated individuals, and cancer.
The American Board of Internal Medicine recently informed Kory and his FLCCC co-founder Dr. Paul Marik that they would be losing their board certification for their spread of misinformation.
Dr. Robert Malone describes himself as “the inventor of mRNA vaccines”, however critics highlight he was one of many scientists working on early research into the vaccine technology. Malone participated in US Senator and Trump loyalist Ron Johnson’s panels alongside Cole and Kory which questioned the safety of covid vaccines and made multiple appearances on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast.
While Kirsch told the Byline Times that Malone has no involvement in VSRF, Malone is listed on their website under “meet our experts”, he is a member of California-based “The Unity Project” with both Kory and Lawrie, which is partnered to CHD. Malone recently appeared at a QAnon event supporting Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene’s vaccine injury panel which has been accused of exploiting rare injuries to support conspiracies.