A major British health charity has dismissed claims from a controversial Tory MP that it is ‘covering up’ data that the Covid mRNA vaccines harm the heart.
Andrew Bridgen, the MP for North West Leicestershire, made the comments in a parliamentary debate on the potential harms of vaccines earlier this month.
He claimed that someone in a ‘prominent leadership role’ in the British Heart Foundation (BHF) was ‘covering up clear data that reveals that the mRNA vaccine increases inflammation of the heart arteries’.
Responding to his comments a health minister said such if he has evidence of such ‘conspiracy theories’ he should present it.
Tory MP Andrew Bridgen made the explosives claims that the British Heart Foundation was hiding evidence that Covid vaccines harm in a parliamentary debate
A study suggests almost 20million lives were saved by Covid vaccines in the first year since countries began rolling out the jabs, the majority in wealthy nations
British grandmother Maggie Keenan was the first person in the world to get the world’s first approved Covid jab on December 8 2020
Covid vaccines have been known to, in extremely rare cases, cause myocarditis, a potentially dangerous inflammation of the heart muscle.
Though the vast majority of the tiny number of people who contract myocarditis make a full recovery some fatalities have been reported.
But health authorities have, on the whole, decided the benefits of vaccination in reducing severe illness and death and opening society are worth the risk, especially as studies point to the risk of myocarditis being higher after an actual Covid infection.
Mr Bridgen presented no evidence for his claims, other than it being from a ‘whistleblower from a very reliable source’.
He also called for an immediate end to the Covid vaccination programme claiming Government advisors on vaccine safety were in league with both the pharmaceutical industry and philanthropist Bill Gates.
‘Silence on this issue is more contagious than the virus itself,’ he said.
A BHF spokesperson said they didn’t recognise Mr Bridgen’s comments and strongly refuted his allegations.
They also called on the Tory MP should provide evidence for his claims.
‘As a trusted provider of heart health information, we are committed to being completely independent, and take great care to be accurate and transparent with all public health information,’ he said.
‘We would encourage those making these serious allegations to share specific, credible information with us which supports them.
Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures show 1.2million had the virus on any given day in the week up to December 9 in England
‘The BHF’s advice on vaccines is based on rigorous scrutiny of the latest evidence, which to date shows that the benefits of receiving the Covid vaccine greatly outweigh the risk of extremely rare side effects for the vast majority of people.’
Global reports about myocarditis following Covid vaccination, particularly in young people, spooked health chiefs earlier on the jab rollout.
However, rates in Britain have been lower than in the US and Israel, where concerns were sparked by a reported spike in cases in young people who got the jab.
Some experts have attributed the lower British rate to how the UK had longer intervals between vaccine doses that gave the body greater time to recover.
British data on vaccine safety is gathered through the UK’s Governments Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).
Its latest report, up November 23, found there had been 851 reports of myocarditis following a Covid vaccination in the UK since the start of the rollout, of which 15 reports have been fatal.
Considering the millions of jabs that have been dished out to Britons, this provides an overall risk of 10 suspected cases of myocarditis per million doses.
Myocarditis can be caused by a variety of conditions, including a Covid infection itself.
The MHRA says studies show the risk of myocarditis from contracting the virus has been estimated at about 1,500 cases per million patients.
A report of myocarditis from a vaccine submitted to the MHRA only indicates a suspicion a case was linked to the vaccine, not conclusive proof.
Of the three Covid vaccines that were rolled out in the UK, the ones made by pharmaceutical companies Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna use mRNA technology.
The latest analysis from the UK Health Security Agency estimates a Covid booster shot reduces the risk of hospitalisation from the virus by 50 to 60 per cent six months after being received.
Globally, Covid vaccines have been credited with saved almost 20million lives during the first year of their existence.
Junior health minister Maria Caulfield responded to Mr Bridgen’s comments in the debate itself, stating she ‘strongly disagreed’ with them, adding that the UK had some of the highest standards for vaccine safety in the world.
‘Vaccines have saved thousands of lives, reduced the pressure on the NHS, and allowed the economy and society to reopen, not just in this country but in countries across the world,’ she said.
‘I completely debunk the conspiracy theories about a whole group of people benefiting financially from the roll-out of the vaccine and would gently say to my honourable friend that if he has evidence, there are mechanisms in place for raising concerns, as we have seen with other drugs.’
Earlier this month Mr Bridgen was issued a five-day suspension from the House of Commons after an ethics committee found he had failed declare his financial interests in a company when writing to ministers about it.
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