My husband could not believe the above, when Fiona Bruce, the host of “Question Time” invited anti-vaxxers to appear on the programme.
Especially for people like us, anti-vaxxers are highly dangerous. They have a choice of choosing to not get a jab; we do not have this option.
I think it is highly irresponsible, ignorant and insensitive, besides being dangorous to have these people in an audience and I have written to the BBC to complain about this. At least these people will have the option to be part of a studio audience, which we cannot be.
Please feel free to complain to the BBC about this. At the same time, I attach an article from “The Guardian” about this comment on the programme.
We cannot change ignorance, but we can certainly stop it becoming mainstream.
@Lulu999 totally agree, let’s hope they don’t promote any further ignorance or persuade anymore to join their cause. I heard the other day that there are only 12 criminals in the UK that promote all the anti vax campaigns and misinformation. I guess that’s the disadvantage of social media, so easy to influence. Ironically spreads like a virus.
I was equally annoyed when GMTV was suggesting to Sajid Javed that all NHS workers should no longer need to have compulsory covid vaccinations now all covid safety measures have been dropped. I guess that they don’t need to go to hospital and face the threat of covid on top of any existing illness, lucky them
The problem is all us “vulnerables” have become invisible; after all we cannot go out and demonstrate in our situation. At the same time, the government has made it illegal, I believe, from charities to do certain work as they say it is “political”, so that no doubt also means holding government to account. The Charity Commission will come down on any charity the government feels is a threat.
Totally agree giving mainstream TV time to “explain” i e promote the anti vaccine point of view when the most vulnerable have virtually disappeared off the map is unfair and likely to deter take up among undecided if there are any such left! I think the momentum for abandoning the requirement to be vaccinated for health service workers is growing and if there is sufficient popularity to be gained from kicking it into the long grass this Govt will do so. Personally I have zero respect for health service staff who refuse the vaccine and continue to treat the most vulnerable, personified for me by a young doctor interviewed who felt having caught the alpha variant early in the pandemic he was sufficiently well protected to avoid what he described as a vaccine developed in a rush. It turned out he was happy to to thrust the said questionable vaccine into his 85 year old Granny but it was not good enough for him - coward.
Wish everybody on the forum would complain about Fiona Bruce’s comments. I feel that we must all be heard and support the health charities who are trying to do their best, like Blood Cancer UK. I wrote to the BBC and wrote to the Radio Times. It is not much, but it is a start.
I dont think your wish very likely to be fulfilled @Lulu but I think you have a point and I put in an email complaint myself. My late Dad was an activist and always said if you want to stick your head above the parapet never look behind you to see if anyone is following suit then you wont be disappointed.
I was taught, “nothing ventured, nothing gained” Ismo.
I just hate the way that 3.7 million of vulnerable people are ignored, just like we do not exist, but the “Question Time” comments are even worse. To me it sends a message that anti-vaxxers are more news worthy than us vulnerables. In highlighting their opinions, it gives publicity to those that say it is ok to go around as pre-Covid, where in our cases, it is not.
The BBC and other media should be publicising our plight, not just because there are more vulnerables than anti-vaxxers, but it is morally the right thing to do. The news media highlighted what was done to the elderly in residential/nursing homes who became sitting targets when Covid patients were placed in these homes, but we are just invisible.
Interesting focus n the article it implies that an anti vaccine view is perfectly reasonable choice and ought to be explored. I am not sure what discussion the BBC hopes to engender from this I mean people who are virulently anti vax or even those who have refused to date have been exposed to lots of data from the experts across the world so I hardly think any minds will be changed. Also apart from the mad conspiracists the reasons they don’t take the vaccine are pretty well known, they don’t think it has been sufficiently tested and is not fully safe. As it happens most scientists I know agree with them to some extent but it was the best that could be done in the timescale available, for many, perhaps most, the disease was the much bigger risk and the vaccines will be refined and eventually be more effective and also even safer.
As you have written, yes the problem is seen by the BBC that the anti-vaccine point of view is a perfectly reasonable choice. I presume it is, by that measure, perfectly reasonable not to have a polio jab, smallpox jab, malaria jab or any other jab that protects mankind from illnesses.
In this time of a pandemic, people should be grateful that there are brilliant scientists out there, doing their best, trying to save people’s lives through vaccinations. Sure there is a risk with new vaccines coming along, but we have not seen millions of people dropping dead from the vaccinations, but you have from Covid.
