A TOP politician accused of trafficking in “fake news” after he seemed to suggest UK approval of a coronavirus vaccine had in part been hastened by Brexit, has deleted his tweet.
Buckinghamshire Council leader Cllr Martin Tett at first endorsed a claim the green-lighting of the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine had been facilitated because the UK is “not an EU member state”.
That post on Twitter has since been taken down.
Mass vaccination against the virus was paved after the UK became the first country in the world to approve the Pfizer jab.
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Care home residents and staff are priority recipients of the jab, followed by over 80s and healthcare workers.
Cllr Tett was challenged after he ‘retweeted’ a Twitter post by Lichfield MP Michael Fabricant.
“If we were still in the EU, we would not have been allowed to roll out the Covid vaccine. UK passed regulations last week permitting this,” wrote Mr Fabricant.
To which Cllr Tett replied: “Expect the @BBCNews mentioned this. What?….no?”
A wave of criticism followed.
“This is actually Fake News as far as I am aware. We are still following all EU rules until the end of December,” someone wrote.
“Actually, it’s been in spite of being in the process of leaving,” wrote another.
“Martin, you have a public responsibility role, this is untrue. Please fact check before you promote untruths,” posted @RussGreen8.
“That’s because it’s not true so please take this post down,” wrote @NaomitimT.
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In response, Cllr Tett posted: “I have been accused of RTing ‘Fake News’ re the UK being able to approve the Pfizer vaccine ahead of EU countries.
“If that is shown to be the case, I will remove it immediately. However, having checked this does indeed appear to be correct and not ‘Fake News’.”
In a thread Cllr Tett then proceeded to explain his defence, saying ‘the UK is not an EU member state, as a result of Brexit’. Adding it is therefore not “locked” into a “common approach” to vaccine approval.
“If this is shown to be untrue, I will of course remove and retract this posting,” he ended.
In response, Buckingham Town Cllr Jon Harvey wrote: “Not that this will probably matter to you – but I am disappointed in you Martin. You are twisting the truth in order to claim Brexit has allowed us to approve the vaccine so rapidly. This not true. At this critical time – we need truth tellers. Please be one.”
According to BBC Reality Check correspondent Chris Morris: “The EU – through the European Medicines Agency (EMA) – has yet to approve a coronavirus vaccine.
“But the idea that Brexit enabled the UK to press ahead and authorise one is not right.
“It was actually permitted under EU law, a point made by the head of the UK’s medicines regulator on Wednesday.”
We’ve launched a new Facebook group for local news junkies, politics fans and everyone who wants to keep up to date with the latest issues affecting Buckinghamshire. Please join the conversation over at Buckinghamshire Politics
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