UK Medical Freedom Alliance: Open Letter to Professor Devi Sridhar re BBC Newsround Episode on Children’s Vaccines
by UK Medical Freedom Alliance
June 14, 2021
UKMFA have sent a letter of complaint to Prof Sridhar following her claims made on BBC Newsround, which is shown in most UK schools, which made several false or misleading claims including that the Covid-19 vaccines are 100% safe, that children should have the vaccine to protect their parents, and that the benefits to children outweigh any risks.
To present such a simplified and biased message is, in our opinion, deeply irresponsible, amounts to propaganda, and negatively impacts on the process of giving fully informed consent. We have requested that Prof Sridhar immediately retracts the entire message and issues a clear public apology for misrepresenting the facts relating to the safety concerns of Covid-19 vaccines in children.
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14 June 2021
Open Letter from the UK Medical Freedom Alliance to:
Professor Devi Sridhar – Chair of Global Public Health / University of Edinburgh
Re: BBC Newsround – Pfizer Vaccine for 12 – 15 year olds
We would like to share with you our Open Letter to the MHRA dated 7 June 2021 regarding Covid-19
vaccines for children.
https://www.ukmedfreedom.org/open-letters/ukmfa-urgent-open-letter-to-the-mhra-re-emergency-
authorisation-of-the-pfizer-covid-19-vaccine-for-children
This is in response to your recent appearance on BBC Newsround, where you made several statements which are entirely unsupported by scientific evidence.
Concerns are mainly related but not limited to the following points:
- You state the benefit of the vaccine for children would be that they then “don’t need to worry about Covid-19”. Children are already in a position where they do not have to worry about Covid-19, as the risk to them is close to zero.
- You state that another benefit would be that they then are likely to not infect their parents. Children do not play a major role in transmission, and there is also no evidence from the regulatory trials that the vaccines prevent transmission. This is clearly a statement intended to provoke an emotional response of guilt followed by a sense of duty, and as such it is propaganda rather than factual advice.
- You state that the main downside of getting the vaccine is that it is “another injection into your arm”. This is a gross misrepresentation of the known and unknown risks of potential serious adverse effects of the Covid-19 vaccines for children. We are sure you are aware that the CDC in the US is calling an emergency meeting, specifically to discuss the hundreds of cases of myocarditis that have occurred in young people after the vaccine (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9672233/The-Latest-WHO-warns-delta-variant-hold-Europe.html).
Life-threatening effects and deaths have been reported in young adults and children in the US and Israel, which you do not refer to at all.
You will find the relevant references to all those points in our Open letter.
In the current situation, which is fraught with uncertainty and fear, the public is looking to professionals for balanced advice. To present such a simplified and biased message is, in our opinion, deeply irresponsible. When it is targeted specifically at a vulnerable group of children, it is unforgiveable.
We note that the currently accessible version of your statement on Newsround has already been redacted, as you originally claimed 100% safety for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. You must have been aware that declaring any medical intervention 100% safe undermines anyone’s credibility.
Editing a feature after it has already been circulated and viewed by huge numbers of the public and children, without a publicized explanation or apology, is highly irregular. The comment at the end of the written transcript, merely noting a correction, will not reach the majority of the audience who have heard and assimilated your initial claim.
We therefore request that you immediately retract your entire message and issue a clear public apology for misrepresenting the facts relating to the safety concerns of Covid-19 vaccines in children.
We request that your retraction and apology are circulated as widely as your initial message, and specifically to all schools where this material may have been shown to children.
We are expecting a response confirming that you have taken appropriate action, or otherwise justify the reasons why you have not done so.
Yours sincerely
UK Medical Freedom Alliance
Cc: BBC
Rt. Hon. Gavin Williamson – Secretary of State for Education
Rt. Hon. Oliver Dowden – Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Shirley-Anne Somerville – Scottish Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills
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