Laurence Fox was told ‘I sometimes wonder why you exist’ by a doctor during a heated debate over Covid vaccines on his GB News show.
The Inspector Lewis actor was joined by senior clinical lecturer at the University of Exeter’s medical school, Dr Bharat Pankhania, to discuss a critical report of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency’s (MHRA) roll out of the vaccines.
Dr Pankhania told the GB News host during his show on Thursday: ‘I sometimes wonder why you exist, to be honest with you.
‘A lot of these things that you spew out, just send things that are worrisome to people, are not verified, not factual.
‘You just have your own agenda, that’s what I think. You are just spewing out your biased views. That’s how I feel about you.’
Dr Bharat Pankhania, senior clinical lecturer at the University of Exeter’s medical school, accused Laurence Fox of having his ‘own agenda’ debating Covid-19 vaccines
Fox pictured arriving in support of the right-wing group Turning Point UK in March earlier this year
Shocked by the doctor’s comments, Fox replied: ‘I wasn’t asking you what you felt about me, I was asking you what you felt about the discussion.’
Pankhania then said: ‘I feel about you, your statements and the panellists that you brought together.
‘I was brought up on this programme right now, told I’m going to have a one-to-one conversation with you, and suddenly I find myself in a panel discussion.’
He also claimed the entire interview was an ‘ambush’ as he hadn’t been told they were going to discuss the report Fox referenced.
Asked what he thought about the MHRA, Dr Pankhania then added: ‘It is staffed by very competent, very able people who have served the nation well.
‘They have done their job in being independent and they do a great job in protecting the health and wellbeing of the nation… the MHRA is absolutely fit for purpose.’
Discussing the safety of Covid-19 vaccines, he concluded: ‘All in all on the balance of good versus harm – the good outweighs the harm by a large, large margin.’
The interview shortly went viral after it aired and it received mixed opinions from social media users.
One person tweeted: ‘Expert slapping the wet fish of reality around the smug, entitled chops of Laurence Fox.’
However another user wrote: ‘I think smug would be a very accurate description of this doctor, not Fox.’
Another also added: ‘Strange response, I see a rather rude and arrogant doctor responding to Laurence Fox’s perfectly straightforward and polite questions.’
Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk