Davos speaker: doctors are part of vaccine ‘conspiracies’


January 17, 2022
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An infectious diseases professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine has launched a stinging rebuke of doctors and the scientific community, claiming that they have been “part of the conspiracy theories” on vaccines. At a Davos event with Dr Anthony Fauci and Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel, Prof. Annelies Wilder-Smith argued that medical schools are contributing to vaccine disinformation. Asked about whether she would like to include vaccine education in schools to try and curb misinformation, the professor responded:

Start with the medical schools. We need to educate a lot of doctors and medical students and the scientific community because they are part of the conspiracy theories. So yes, education on vaccines and their benefits, their cost effectiveness, and their relative safety. The public health benefit needs to be strengthened around the globe.
- Prof. Annelies Wilder-Smith, Davos 2022

It is unclear which conspiracies Wilder-Smith is referring to, but there is growing political controversy around vaccine mandates for doctors and healthcare workers. Currently around 6% of doctors are unvaccinated (with a further 41,000 who have only had one jab) — they have until April to get vaccinated in order to work at the NHS. According to King’s College hospital chief Clive Kay, this figure is closer to 10% at his hospital. In an interview with UnHerd, KCH consultant Steve James said:

For the last month or two, colleagues have been winking and nudging each other and having meetings outside the hospital grounds and making small social media groups to support each other. Because they’re worried like hell about losing their jobs, or being forced to have a vaccine. And those people don’t know, or haven’t had the opportunity to have their voices heard. So, if there are all these people around, and we’re talking about 10% of the NHS, who are being threatened with the loss of their livelihood  their voices should be heard.
- Steve James, UnHerd

It’s unclear if Professor Wilder-Smith had Dr James in mind, but whether his chosen course of action would have been any different if he was “educated” by Wilder-Smith, remains to be seen.


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