Ofcom issue warning over false claims.
British broadcaster ITV was issued a warning by regulators Ofcom after its resident Doctor, Hillary Jones, falsely claimed that 90 percent of COVID patients in ICU were unvaccinated.
The spurious remarks were made by Dr. Hilary Jones and Lorraine Kelly during a segment on the Lorraine show last month.
The smug, sanctimonious Jones claimed “Those people who haven’t been vaccinated, we’d really love you to think again and be vaccinated because 90 percent of people in hospital are unvaccinated right now with Covid,” Lorraine Kelly, who was also cited in the warning repeated the lie “That’s a figure that we have to really concentrate on, 90 percent of people in hospital have not been vaccinated,” Kelly repeated.
However, both the doctor and the host of the show were sharing medical misinformation. The actual figure at the time was just 36 per cent.
Ofcom received nearly 4,000 complaints from well-informed viewers about the broadcast, with the TV regulator forced to issued a statement:
“This programme incorrectly referenced the proportion of unvaccinated COVID-19 patients in hospital,” it said. adding; “We have told ITV that greater care should be taken by trusted medical experts when presenting facts and figures on public health issues.”
However, despite the erroneous claim, no official retraction will be given on the show, and will no doubt still be believed by millions of viewers as a result. Ofcom said it wouldn’t be launching a formal investigation either, stating “vaccination against COVID-19 offers greater protection against serious health consequences” and as a result, “we do not consider that the error was sufficient to materially mislead viewers on this main point of discussion.”. So it's OK to tell lies about an already victimised minority, just as long as it's those terrible anti-vaxxers.
A 'clarification' was broadcast on the show two days later, explaining the statistic related to patients in intensive care units rather than the proportion of unvaccinated COVID-19 patients in hospital. However, that was false also. In reality, Hillary Jones probably wouldn't know the truth if it hit him in the face.
To be clear, it was entirely false to claim 90% of Covid patients in ICUs were unvaccinated, the actual figure was 36%. The inconvenient truth for Dr Hilary Jones is that the MAJORITY of patients in ICU at that point were VACCINATED, something we’ve pointed out many times before on this website. So even the “clarification” was a falsehood.
Dr. Hilary Jones has been a vehement lockdown advocate regularly spouting his views on Breakfast television. The pandemic has significantly heightened his profile (and fattened his bank balance) as a result of regular ITV appearances over the course of the last two years spouting Covid Propaganda as scientific fact. Jones has also been ridiculed by thousands on social media for stating face masks were useless in stopping the spread of Covid at the start of the pandemic, before ‘getting the memo’ and doing a complete 180, and demanding that people wear them everywhere.
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