The @ukmfa1 are spreading anti-vax disinformation from America's Frontline Doctors, the far right group whose co-founder was arrested for taking part in the US Capitol riots.
Unsurprisingly the AFD article is wrong, and partly based on an old, widely misinterpreted study.
The story repeats ridiculous claims that 82% of vaccinated pregnant women had miscarriages.
As explained before, that's because the study only counted pregnancies that had ended, and most of the women were still pregnant when the data was compiled.
The article also cites a study claiming fertility rates are lower in countries with high vaccination rates.
Hardly surprising when those are mostly wealthy, western countries with lower birth rates to start with.
When they correct for this, they end up with an almost flat line.
Ironically, heavily vaccinated Israel has a very high birth rate. The authors bizarrely claim without evidence that "Israel is Pfizer’s laboratory, and must have been given a high percentage of placebo recipients".
Or, you know, it could be cultural or demographic differences.
The real stinger though is that fertility rates this year are HIGHER than in 2019. No evidence of vast numbers of miscarriages or fertility issues.
Again they claim this is lower in countries with high vax rates, but again it looks like random scatter around an almost flat line.
As a reminder, the UKMFA are closely linked to (and share members with) HART, who said that raising unfounded concerns about fertility would be a good way to scare young women off getting vaccinated.
Apparently they're sticking to this unethical tactic.
A number of politicians, including the CRG and senior backbenchers like @SirGrahamBrady, have been working with anti-vax group HART.
One member of the House of Lords even joined the group, and offered them media training to help them get their message across!
At the beginning, HART's strategy (set by founder Narice Bernard and political fixer Bernie de Haldevang) was to work as a "scientific partner" to the Conservative backbench 1922 Committee and Covid Recovery Group, providing them with evidence to use to sway government policy.
Andrew Rosindell (Con, Romford) provided an early opening in mid January, before HART officially launched.
Bernie claimed to be "quite pally" with Rosindell, who was "completely on side".
He then uses Rosindell as a gateway to Liam Fox and the CRG's Mark Harper and Steve Baker.
The private lab is one of many that the government paid to process PCR tests for them.
There have to be serious questions now about what oversight @UKHSA has over these labs, given the error is reported to have started in early September but was only identified this week! 😳
More here from the BBC. Although the problem mostly affected people in the South West, "some may also be in the south east of England and in Wales".
Looks like we may have solved the mystery of people getting negative PCR test results after (multiple, strong) LFT positives. As suspected, there was an issue at a lab that resulted in false negatives.
One question that needs answering is why it took so long to spot the issue. Positivity rates in some local authorities in the South West went haywire over a month ago, and there have been widespread anecdotal reports of unexpected negative test results.
Don't think @NakedScientists on @BBCBreakfast today were right to tell someone with 3 (!) +ve LFTs and 1 -ve PCR that they should consider themselves covid free.
Even if PCR is the "gold standard", getting 1 false -ve PCR result is FAR more likely than 3 false +ve LFTs in a row!
The fact is, there have been several similar anecdotal reports recently. We don't know if it's coincidence, an issue with the LFTs, or an issue with PCR testing.
Until we do, the precautionary principle would suggest treat yourself as positive, especially if you have symptoms.
There's a good explanation of the maths behind this here:
The new covid sceptic All Party Parliamentary Group on Pandemic Response and Recovery is backed by Gupta and Heneghan's Collateral Global to the tune of over £30,000.
£5,000 in financial benefits plus £25,501 - £27,000 benefits in kind (CG is acting as their secretariat).
The details are included in the APPG register, updated tonight. This also confirms the group's officers include UsForThem fans Esther McVey and Miriam Cates, and climate change sceptics Sammy Wilson (DUP) and Graham Stringer (Labour). Go figure.
The group also has possible links to anti-vax conspiracy cranks HART.
Jemma Moran (HART's media coordinator) seems to have sent out the press release announcing the group, and HART member Dr John Lee spoke at their inaugural meeting alongside former JCVI member Robert Dingwall.