After the publication of his peer-reviewed two-part research paper calling for the suspension of all COVID-19 mRNA vaccines in September 2021, Dr Aseem Malhotra became a household name among vaccine sceptics. Malhotra’s COVID-19 journey has been particularly transformative. As one of the UK’s most eminent cardiologists and a fierce public health advocate, he was among the first to get the double-dose Pfizer COVID-19 mRNA vaccine in January 2021 – not thinking or even comprehending the possibility of a vaccine doing any harm. The premature death of his father in July 2021, six months after he had received the second Pfizer shot, was the catalyst which precipitated Malhotra’s examination of the mRNA vaccines. In anticipation of his keynote address at the upcoming BizNews Conference, Malhotra sat down with BizNews in Cape Town to discuss his findings and insight into Big Pharma, public health and his campaign to cure the pandemic of misinformation. – Nadya Swart
Timestamps for the interview:
00:00 Introduction
00:49 Dr Aseem Malhotra’s background
01:32 On becoming a public health advocate
03:30 The reason he became a cardiologist
06:10 Spending the last ten years highlighting the excesses and manipulations of the pharmaceutical industry
07:12 Thoughts on traditional vaccines and COVID-19 vaccines
08:55 Recounting his father’s premature death
12:43 How his father’s death precipitated his examination of real-world data relating to mRNA vaccines
14:23 Information uncovered during his investigation
15:53 How the introduction of vaccine mandates increased his suspicion
17:44 Motivating factors which drove him to write ‘Curing the pandemic of misinformation on Covid-19 mRNA vaccines through real evidence-based medicine’ (the peer-reviewed two-part research paper calling for the suspension of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines published in September 2022)
19:01 Challenges faced during the peer-review process against the backdrop of today’s censorious landscape
19:37 How Big Pharma’s capture of most medical journals
20:46 On the benefits of a rigorous peer-review process
21:57 On the principles of ethical Evidence-Based Medical Practice
24:10 The evidence uncovered by applying these principles to the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines
25:56 The deliberate and unprecedented suppression of the truth
27:15 Big Pharma’s fraudulent business model
27:41 How Big Pharma’s model encourages good people to do bad things
29:11 Whether the damaged trust in the medical fraternity can be rebuilt
30:43 How the medical establishment’s refusal to admit wrongdoing is going to exacerbate the eventual fallout and pushback
33:00 The pushback and fallout caused by the publication of his research paper
34:39 Getting his message into mainstream media
36:04 His next steps
37:18 His keynote address at the upcoming BizNews Conference
38:29 His history with Professor Tim Noakes
Excerpts from the interview with Dr Aseem Malhotra:
Dr Malhotra on his background
I’m a medical doctor. I qualified from Edinburgh Medical School in 2001, so I’ve been practising medicine for well over 20 years. I subspecialised within cardiology, which probably started 2006, 207 and completed my training as a cardiologist in interventional cardiology, more specifically. A lot of people will understand keyhole heart surgery. So I did that for my early career.
And then, from a practising medicine perspective, for the last five or six years or so, I’ve been focusing much more on prevention. But within that time, I have become a public health advocate, and an activist, initially starting very much on trying to understand the root cause of our chronic disease pandemic: specifically diet-related disease and obesity. I influenced health policy in the UK around understanding the harms of excess sugar consumption and helping bring about a sugary drinks tax.
And then, very shortly after that, I also became very much concerned and aware of the overmedicated population, which again is another major public health issue. And I have been campaigning to help understand the roots of that problem. But also, everything I do is rooted in medical ethics and informed consent because it isn’t just a binary; this is good or bad. It’s like, ‘let’s try and understand what is influencing our mental and physical health.’ Where is that information coming from? Is it reliable? And what does independent evidence tell us for ultimately how we are going to get to the point of optimising our overall health?
And that really sums up me as a person, as a doctor. I want to be the best possible doctor I can be. How do I help my patients to lead the best possible lives? But that doesn’t, unfortunately, stay within the consultation room. Many of the things that drive our health happen well outside the hospital grounds. That’s what I’ve been working on for many, many years.
On the principles of ethical Evidence-Based Medical Practice and his application thereof to the mRNA vaccines
In 1996, a paper was published in the BMJ by somebody who’s one of the founding fathers of the evidence-based medicine movement. It’s called the evidence-based medicine triad. So in simple terms, as doctors, what do we want to do when we’re helping our patients and improving their outcomes? What does that mean? Managing risks. Treating illness. Relieving suffering. That’s at the centre of this triad.
And three major components feed into that as part of that triad to improve patient outcomes. Those are your clinical experience, clinical intuition and expertise, managing patients and your knowledge. [Second], the best available evidence on whatever intervention you’re using, whether it’s surgical, whether it’s a drug, or it’s [regarding] lifestyle, which is also really important. And last but not least, which is crucial and even David Sackett said is the most important, taking into consideration individual patient preferences and values. That means informed consent.
To do that, that means transparent communication of risk and benefit. In many instances, whether it’s a drug or whatever else. This is what the benefit is in absolute terms; this is what the harms are. And then they make a decision, and you support it. That’s what ethical, evidence-based medicine is. I’m not just coming up with this idea. I’ve adapted it and tried to inculcate this within general medical practice. It still takes time. So I took those principles and asked how we apply that to the vaccine.
Read more: Dr Aseem Malhotra: Mediterranean diet is heart healthy – if it’s high-fat
