Laurence Fox has been roasted by a doctor over his vaccine views.
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A helpful rule for journalism: if an interviewee begins by questioning the point of your existence, you might be starting off on the wrong foot.
That’s the situation GB News pundit Laurence Fox found himself in recently, and the former actor has been mocked online after a car-crash interview with a doctor who told him “I sometimes wonder why you exist.”
Fox brought infectious disease specialist Dr Bharat Pankhania onto his GB news show to discuss a report into COVID-19 vaccine approvals.
Fox claims to have a report showing failings by the Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency in licensing the COVID-19 vaccine.
But Dr Pankhania said he had “never heard of” the report and had not been shown it prior to his TV appearance.
“[The MHRA] do a great job in protecting the health and wellbeing of the nation,” he said.
The report is authored by the Perseus group, a vaccine-sceptic group of mostly anonymous authors.
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However, numerous peer-reviewed studies have proven the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines. The jabs saved countless lives throughout the pandemic, Dr Pankhania told Fox.
“With respect to the many, many millions of doses of the vaccines that have been administered, we’ve had a few unfortunate side effects … but overall on the balance of good versus harm, the good outweighs the harm. By a large, large margin,” he said.
I don’t usually share anything from Laurence Fox but, oh my goodness, this is worth watching from @doctorshaib 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 https://t.co/EEov33vC5V
Fox has long been an opponent of the COVID-19 vaccine. Launching his campaign for London mayor in 2021, in which he received less than 2 per cent of the vote, he declared he would not get the jab until after 2023.
In early 2022, he posted a picture of himself wearing a T-shirt with a slogan saying, “No vaccine needed, I have an immune system.” Four days later, he contracted the virus.
But he boasted that he was “joining the natural immunity club” and treating in with Ivermectin, an anti-parasitic medicine used to treat humans and animals for worms.
Fox has gained notoriety for his vaccine-sceptical and mysoginist views over the past few years.
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The actor and one-time singer-songwriter pivoted into politics in November 2020, co-founding the Reclaim party – first registered as Brexit Express.
In May 2021, he stood for London Mayor, promising to “fight against extreme political correctness” and to “end the Met’s obsession with diversity and inclusivity”.
He received 1.9 percent of the vote (47,634 ballots) and finished in sixth place. He lost his £10,000 election deposit.
Fox now hosts a regular Friday night slot on GB news, but hopes one day to return to the silver screen. “Laurence was, and one day hopes to be again, an actor,” his Reclaim bio reads.
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Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
