Covid jab hero Clapton should be praised, not demonised

PHILIP Norman has written many best -selling biographies of rock stars, including that of the mercurial, brilliant Eric Clapton. In a Daily Mail article on March 22 to celebrate Clapton reaching the unlikely age of 80, given his lifestyle over the years, Norman wrote:

‘The years haven’t left him totally unscathed: he now suffers from a condition called peripheral neuropathy which impairs the hands, a tragedy for someone whose guitar has always been like an extra limb. And he showed that musicians aren’t always great thinkers during the Covid pandemic by becoming a fervent anti-vaxxer and threatening to boycott venues that required audiences to show vaccination certificates.’

Clapton’s anti-vax stand goes back to 2021 when he announced that he would not play at venues that required proof of vaccination. Clapton himself had experienced a ‘disastrous’ reaction to the jab which he feared would leave him unable to play again. He later tested positive for covid.

As one might have expected, the mainstream media in both Britain and America came out in force against Clapton, calling him a conspiracy theorist and accusing him of spreading dangerous misinformation about the covid vaccine. Clapton had blamed propaganda for overstating the safety of the vaccine and here, once again, he was demonised by the mainstream who endlessly repeated the received wisdom of the time that there was ‘overwhelming evidence of safety’ from the jab.

Daily Mail readers, however, took issue with Norman’s pronouncement that, in being a fervent anti-vaxxer, Clapton was not a great thinker. In the comments underneath the article, they wrote that Clapton was a ‘true hero’ in standing up against government control, that he was ‘spot on’ and that, ‘with hindsight, the best thinkers were those who refused the jab’.

I have known Philip Norman, one of the very best and most intelligent commentators on the rock and pop scene, since we were teenagers, and as an old mate, I felt that I could not let his comment about Clapton not being a ‘great thinker’ go by without a comment of my own. I wrote to Philip saying that I was also a fervent anti-vaxxer and had been studying vaccines since the 1970s. This research had led me to the conclusion that they are largely a con and always have been, with special opprobrium being reserved for the covid jab. Philip wrote back graciously, saying that he was sure I had solid data from my time with my ex-husband Neville. He and Neville were both at one time journalists at the Sunday Times, and Philip no doubt remembered Neville’s many articles and investigations into AIDS and HIV.

Whether or not my words will hit home I have no idea, but I do feel I have a duty to align myself with great thinkers like Eric Clapton, one of the finest rock guitarists and songwriters of our time, despite his years of alcoholism and heroin addiction. Such free spirits – Van Morrison is another – often have insights that most others don’t have and are not afraid to make a stand against the prevailing orthodoxy. Both have spoken out against lockdown, forced vaccinations and other restrictions during covid, and been relentlessly hounded by the mainstream as a result.

All of which brings me to the spring covid campaign, now in full swing. I and my over-75 like-minded friends have had a phone call, email or text, and sometimes all three, inviting us to come for ‘our’ covid jab. This is in spite of us saying in the past that we are not interested and please do not contact us again about the jab. Even though the NHS is drowning in debt, there still seems enough money to buy these jabs and even though it’s hard, if not impossible, to see a doctor these days, they all somehow have time to contact their elderly patients in three different ways to come and have the jab. When was the last time I had an actual phone call from my doctor? Only when he tried to persuade me to come for a previous covid booster.

The jab is free for the elderly, those in care homes and the immunocompromised. Big deal! I’ve heard it said that the NHS has massively overstocked on this spring booster and so doctors have to try everything they can to cajole patients to roll up their sleeves before the campaign ends in June. Otherwise they will be left with thousands of unusable jabs.

And at the weekend a Mail on Sunday headline read: ‘I’ve had 10 covid jabs. Do I really need another?’ For this story, top virologists were asked to give their answers and the consensus from the ‘experts’ was that people should be reassured there is no risk associated with taking multiple jabs. Really? Have they not read Professor Angus Dalgleish, Dr Peter McCullough and many others on the dangers associated with the mRNA vaccine? Have they not read Sally Beck and my ex-husband Neville Hodgkinson presenting hard evidence against the jab on this very website? Clearly the Mail on Sunday are talking to the wrong experts!

And once again readers came out in droves in the comments below this story, with many of them describing a bad reaction similar to that suffered by Eric Clapton and maintaining that they will never succumb to another such jab.

If we thought the fight against the covid jab was won, we were sadly mistaken. It is being pushed as hard as ever by the government and the NHS, with the able assistance of the media. They are still not, it seems, taking any notice of us great thinkers.