FACT CHECK Our analysis of Parliament’s vaccine safety debate
MPs recentlydebated an e-petition asking the government to conduct an investigation into whether Covid vaccines are responsible for an alleged “increase in heart attacks and related health issues”.
We’ve concluded our analysis of the MPs’ claims and found a number of them were misleading or missing important context.
We’ve checked many of the claims before, including about government advice on whether pregnantwomenshould be vaccinated, that Pfizernevertested whether its vaccine stopped transmission and whether vaccine side effects are underreported to the Yellow Card scheme.
We deserve the highest standards from our elected politicians. They should get their facts right, back up what they say with evidence, and correct the record when they get things wrong.
A GB News presenter has wrongly claimed that nurses going on strike is a contravention of a pledge taken by nurses in the United Kingdom.
Patrick Christys said he thought it was “morally unconscionable for nurses to go on strike” because “nurses in the UK take a pledge, the Nightingale Pledge”. He said that “going on strike clearly goes against that pledge.”
As part of the pledge, nurses vow to "abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous" and to devote themselves to the welfare of those committed to their care.
But when we asked the Royal College of Nursing about it, they told us: “There is no such pledge required in the UK.” And the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) told us: “Nurses are not required to take any pledge to join the NMC register.”
According to the Florence Nightingale Museum, the pledge “is most often taken by North American nurses and not generally found outside of the USA.” So this pledge has very little relevance to any strikes in the UK.
The NMC’s own code of conduct specifically gives nurses “the right to take part in lawful industrial action, including strike action.”
A tweet from Michael Gove, shared by over a dozen Conservative MPs, claims: “We’ve secured new free trade deals with over 70 countries since 2016. That’s over £800 billion worth of new global trade.”
It’s misleading to imply these trade deals will account for over £800 billion worth of “new” global trade. This is the total value of trade with these countries, not the additional amount that can be attributed to free trade deals themselves.
Additionally, most of these trade deals effectively mirror deals the UK was party to as a member of the EU prior to Brexit.
