{"id":117564,"date":"2025-09-06T01:02:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T01:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/117564\/"},"modified":"2025-09-06T01:02:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T01:02:10","slug":"vaccine-sceptic-doctor-set-to-be-given-platform-at-reform-uk-conference-despite-outcry-from-health-experts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/117564\/","title":{"rendered":"Vaccine-sceptic doctor set to be given platform at Reform UK conference despite outcry from health experts"},"content":{"rendered":"

By GREG HEFFER, POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT<\/a> <\/p>\n

Published: 07:48 EDT, 5 September 2025 | Updated: 07:49 EDT, 5 September 2025 <\/p>\n

Nigel Farage<\/a> has been urged by leading doctors not to ‘put lives in danger’ after Reform UK handed a top slot at their party conference to a vaccine sceptic.<\/p>\n

Dr Aseem Malhotra, an NHS-trained cardiologist, is due to speak from the main stage at the Reform conference in Birmingham<\/a> on Saturday.<\/p>\n

He has claimed that mRNA vaccines developed during the Covid pandemic did ‘more harm than good’ and called for them to be suspended.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dr Malhotra is also a medical adviser to the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) initiative of Donald Trump<\/a>‘s vaccine-sceptic health secretary\u00a0Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.<\/p>\n

Mr Kennedy Jr. has alarmed health experts in the US since taking charge of the\u00a0Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in February.<\/p>\n

In June, he sacked all members of a committee that issues official recommendations on immunisations, having previously cancelled\u00a0$500m in funding for the developlment of mRNA vaccines.<\/p>\n

Jeanette Dickson, chairwoman of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, the professional standards body for Britain’s 400,000 doctors, stressed that ‘a reliance on scientifically established fact’ had to be the foundation of healthcare.<\/p>\n

‘When we move away from what the evidence tells us, we put lives in danger,’ she told The Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n

‘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.’<\/p>\n

\"Nigel <\/p>\n

Nigel Farage has been urged by leading doctors not to ‘put lives in danger’ after Reform UK handed a top slot at their party conference to a vaccine sceptic.<\/p>\n

\"Dr <\/p>\n

Dr Aseem Malhotra, an NHS-trained cardiologist, is due to speak from the main stage at the Reform conference in Birmingham on Saturday<\/p>\n

\"Dr <\/p>\n

Dr Malhotra is a medical adviser to the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) initiative of Donald Trump ‘s vaccine-sceptic health secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr<\/p>\n

Professor Peter Openshaw of Imperial College London, a former president of the British Society for Immunology, said British experts were watching with ‘dismay’ what was happening in the US.<\/p>\n

‘We are feeling intense concern about what would happen if we had a similar flavour of government in the UK,’ he added.<\/p>\n

‘It has the potential to decimate not only all the science that goes into creating great vaccines but also huge potential to damage health.’<\/p>\n

Dr Malhotra told the newspaper he had ‘a lot of respect for what Kennedy is doing’ to tackle commercial influence on health policy but stressed that ‘America has a lot to learn from Britain’.<\/p>\n

He has no formal role with Reform but said he was ‘potentially’ open to a role with Mr Farage.<\/p>\n

‘There is a mutual respect there. He listens to me,’ Dr Malhotra added. ‘They’ve given me carte blanche [for the speech] because they trust me.’<\/p>\n

Reform said Dr Malhotra had been invited as a medical professional and party supporter to speak about ‘making Britain healthy again’.<\/p>\n

Dr Malhotra insisted his main topic would be ‘commercial influence over science’ and the importance of healthy living.<\/p>\n

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