In a compelling piece of live television, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was recently confronted by a COVID-19 vaccine injury victim during an unscripted question and answer session. Describing the pain and trauma he suffered, audience member John Watt told the Prime Minister how he had been left with no help at all after the vaccine caused him to develop a heart condition. Already under pressure over his links to a hedge fund that has seen massive returns from an investment in COVID-19 vaccine maker Moderna, Sunak was like a rabbit caught in the headlights.
Broadcast on the GB News channel during what had been billed as a ‘People’s Forum’, the incident occurred while Sunak was being posed a mostly innocuous series of questions by members of a studio audience. But the atmosphere quickly changed when Watt stood up and demanded that the Prime Minister look him in the eyes. Stating that he knows people who have had limbs amputated as a result of COVID-19 vaccines, Watt asked why he had had to set up a support group to look after those affected.
Visibly furious, Watt also asked Sunak why tens of thousands of British COVID-19 vaccine victims had been left to rot. Telling the Prime Minister that the country’s so-called ‘Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme’ was not fit for purpose, he said that in Scotland alone more than 30 thousand people have had adverse reactions to the shots. Tellingly, Watt’s contribution was given an enthusiastic round of applause by the assembled audience.
Predictably, Sunak’s response largely avoided Watt’s concerns. Despite claiming that he was very sorry to hear about Watt’s circumstances, it was quickly clear that straight answers to his questions would not be forthcoming. As Sunak’s evasiveness became apparent, Watt interrupted saying that he and other victims had been silenced on social media. “We are the most silenced people in this country,” he said.
The event then briefly descended into chaos with another vaccine-injured audience member speaking up and the television program’s presenter desperately trying to regain control over the situation. Despite being told that the Prime Minister would look at his concerns, Watts will have heard little to reassure him.
Sunak’s alleged links to Moderna
The reasons behind Sunak’s failure to address this issue properly are not simply down to politics, as he has recently been facing scrutiny over his connections to a hedge fund, Theleme Partners, which has seen substantial gains from an investment in COVID-19 vaccine maker Moderna. A co-founder of Theleme Partners before entering politics in 2013, Sunak says his involvement with the fund is managed through a blind trust, meaning he supposedly has no knowledge or control over its investments. Nevertheless, questions persist regarding whether he personally benefited from the dramatic rise in Moderna’s share price during the pandemic.
Despite repeated criticism, however, Sunak maintains he is unaware of any financial gains. But with publicly available evidence indicating that the Theleme Partners investment in Moderna is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, concerns over potential conflicts of interest have continued.
Only rarely are senior politicians confronted by the victims of COVID-19 vaccines. The fact that this latest incident occurred on live television makes it all the more remarkable. Realizing that the handling of the pandemic is coming under increased worldwide scrutiny, Prime Minister Sunak may be less keen on taking live unscripted questions in future.
