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Vernon Coleman

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Vernon Coleman
Coleman in 2019
Born1946 (age 77–78)
Occupations
Years active1970–2016 (as a GP)
Notable workMrs Caldicot's Cabbage War

Vernon Edward Coleman (born 1946) is an English conspiracy theorist and writer, who writes on topics related to human health, politics and animal welfare. He was formerly a general practitioner (GP) and newspaper columnist. Coleman's medical claims have been widely discredited and described as pseudoscientific conspiracy theories.[1][2][3]

Early life

Coleman was born in 1946, the only child of an electrical engineer.[4] He was raised in Walsall, Staffordshire, in the West Midlands of England, where he attended Queen Mary's Grammar School[4] and a medical school in Birmingham.[5][6]

Career

Coleman qualified as a physician in 1970 and worked as a GP. In 1981, the Department of Health and Social Security (DHSS) fined him for refusing to write the diagnoses on sick notes, which he considered a breach of patient confidentiality.[7]

After publishing his first book, The Medicine Men, in 1976, which accused the National Health Service of being controlled by pharmaceutical companies, Coleman left the NHS.[4][8][9]

Coleman has since written under multiple pen names; in the late 1970s, he published three novels about life as a GP under the name Edward Vernon.[10]

In 1987 Coleman appeared on the Central Weekend Programme as a sceptic against jogging for fitness.[11] An anti-vivisectionist, Coleman provided a supplementary memorandum for the House of Lords on the topic of vivisection in 1993.[12]

In 1994 Coleman was ordered to pay damages for threatening scientist Colin Blakemore, who had been targeted by anti-vivisection activists after a letter bomb sent by animal rights group calling itself 'The Justice Department' was sent to Blakemore's home, with another exploding and injuring three people. Blakemore was later granted a temporary injunction by a High Court judge after Coleman had said he would publish a pamphlet with Blakemore's home address and telephone number to encourage the public to 'get in touch with you to discuss your work'. Coleman was ordered not to publish anything that might jeopardize Colin Blakemore's safety and to give solicitors the names of anyone to whom he might already have given the information.[13][14]

In 1995, Coleman published the book How to Stop Your Doctor Killing You, which the Advertising Standards Authority later subjected to an advertisement ban.[15]

Coleman went on to work as a newspaper columnist for a number of publications, including The Sun and The Sunday People,[4] where he was an agony uncle until he resigned in 2003.[16][17][18]

He relinquished his medical licence in March 2016 and is no longer registered or licensed to practice as a GP.[19]

Coleman was reported to have been made an honorary professor by the International Open University based in Sri Lanka.[5]

Writing and media appearances

Coleman's self-published books and blog have been reported as a major source of misinformation regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, cancer, HIV/AIDS, vaccines and human health.[20][16][21][22][23][24][25]

A 1989 editorial in the British Medical Journal criticised Coleman's comments made for The Sun as the 'Sun Doctor' on leprosy as a 'particularly distasteful piece of tabloid journalism...[containing] a catalogue of selected facts and misinterpretations' following the announcement that Diana, Princess of Wales, was to shake hands with a person with leprosy. The incident was later covered on Channel 4's Hard News, with Coleman declining to defend his statement without a fee covering travel costs.[26]

Coleman's 1993 novel Mrs Caldicot's Cabbage War was turned into a film in 2002 with the same name.[27]

Whilst working for The Sunday People, Coleman wrote that if children diagnosed with autism were "stuck up to their necks in a vat full of warm sewage for 10 hours they would soon learn some manners" and that diagnoses of hyperactivity and autism were "misused by middle-class, aspirational parents to excuse the behaviour of their obnoxious children."[28] Following the article, autism charities received phone calls from distressed parents. The Chairman of the East Anglian Autistic Support Trust, Owen Spencer-Thomas, whose elder son has severe autism, condemned Coleman's remarks as "irresponsible, medically unsound and deeply hurtful" to families that had a child with autism. Spencer-Thomas challenged Coleman to spend 24 hours caring for his son in the presence of fully trained carers who understood the effects of autism. Coleman declined and refused to withdraw his remarks leading to an investigation by the Press Complaints Committee.[29] During his time at the paper, Coleman was again censured by the Press Complaints Commission for making misleading medical claims.[5][30]

Coleman became a self-published author in 2004 after Alice's Diary, a book about his cat, was turned down by traditional publishers.[30][8]

AIDS denial

Writing for The Sun newspaper in 1989, Coleman denied that AIDS was a significant risk to the heterosexual community.[31] He later claimed AIDS is a hoax, writing, "it is now my considered view that the disease we know as AIDS probably doesn't exist and has never existed".[32] Such claims have been rejected by the medical community.[33]

On 17 November 1989, The Sun published an article under the headline "Straight sex cannot give you AIDS—official", claiming "the killer disease AIDS can only be caught by homosexuals, bisexuals, junkies or anyone who has received a tainted blood transfusion". The following day, Coleman supported The Sun's claims with an article under the headline "AIDS—The hoax of the century", similarly claiming AIDS was not a significant risk to heterosexuals, that medical companies, doctors and condom manufacturers were conspiring to scare the public and had vested interests in profiteering from public service announcements, and that moral campaigners were attempting to frighten young people into celibacy to establish traditional family values. Coleman also claimed gay activists were "worried that once it was widely known that AIDS was not a major threat to heterosexuals, then funds for AIDS research would fall".[34][31]

Journalist David Randall argued in The Universal Journalist that the story was one of the worst cases of journalistic malpractice in recent history.[35]

Anti-vaccination and conspiracy theories

Coleman has claimed that COVID-19 is a hoax, that vaccines are dangerous, and that face masks cause cancer. All these claims have been debunked by more senior medical professionals.[36][37][38] Coleman has also claimed the Coronavirus Pandemic has links to the Agenda 21 Conspiracy Theory and the Great Reset Theory, which both suggest a cabal of elite figures are attempting to depopulate the global community. No evidence has been found to support these claims.[39]

In 2019, Coleman wrote a book entitled Anyone Who Tells You Vaccines Are Safe And Effective Is Lying which booksellers were criticised for selling.[40][41][42][43]

Coleman later claimed "no one can possibly know if the COVID-19 vaccine is safe and effective because the trial is still underway; thousands of people who had the vaccine have died or been seriously injured by it; legally, all those people giving vaccinations are war criminals".[1][44] These claims were debunked by Health Feedback, a member of the World Health Organization-led project Vaccine Safety Net.[45][46] Coleman later claimed "COVID-19 vaccines are dangerous" and that "bodies of vaccinated people are laboratories making lethal viruses". Both claims were similarly debunked as inaccurate, misleading and unsupported by the Poynter Institute due to a lack of evidence from the legitimate medical community.[47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55] Coleman has also claimed in a viral video that "the jabbed will be lucky to last five years" which was again proven to false due to a lack of evidence.[56][57] In a similar widely circulated social media post, Coleman claimed "more children will be seriously injured or killed by the vaccination than the COVID-19 infection itself" which was again found to be false as there is no evidence that children suffer more from COVID-19 vaccines than from COVID-19.[58][59]

At an anti-lockdown protest in London on 24 July 2021, Coleman claimed that the wearing of face masks caused cancer, dementia, hypoxia and hypercapnia, bacterial pneumonia due to oxygen deficiency. These claims were similarly debunked by the medical community due to a lack of peer-reviewed evidence.[60][61][2] Coleman later claimed that the wearing of face masks caused mucormycosis, despite no link being found between mask wearing and mucormycosis.[62] All evidence suggests that wearing masks are safe and an effective way towards protecting individuals from COVID-19.[63]

In November 2021, Coleman made the false claim that "this [vaccination] jab was an experiment certain to kill and injure" which was debunked due to its lack of evidence and a reliance upon a discredited research report authored by Steven Gundry.[64][65][66][67][68]

Despite being debunked, Coleman's conspiracy theories have been used to push COVID-19 denial, pseudoscience and anti-mask propaganda. Police officers urged residents in Prestwich, Greater Manchester to dismiss anti-vaccination leaflets in May 2021 which had been distributed in the area and credited to Coleman. In a statement, the local authority "requested the public to dismiss the message being sent out and is encouraging all relevant age groups to take up the offer of a vaccine".[69] The same leaflets were also distributed in Luton, Bedfordshire with Luton Council warning that the leaflets contained "dangerous misinformation".[70] Similar leaflets have been distributed across Scotland and condemned by Shirley-Anne Somerville of the Scottish Parliament.[71][72][73] The Catholic Church has also urged parishioners to "read the Vatican document on vaccination morality" after Coleman's anti-vaccination videos and quotations were circulated in 2021 by a Franciscan priest in Gosport, Hampshire. In an investigation, the Diocese of Portsmouth announced "The Catholic Diocese of Portsmouth is very disappointed that one of the Family of Mary Immaculate and St Francis in Gosport has publicly expressed a personal view about the Covid vaccination programme that is contrary to the official position of the Catholic Church and the Diocese. We would encourage all our parishioners to benefit from the protection afforded by the vaccine."[74]

Coleman has also claimed the National Health Service "kills more people than it saves" referencing a flawed study by The BMJ to support this claim.[75] He has also falsely claimed the NHS reduced "screening tests" to lower carbon emissions. Although there were a reduced number of cancer screenings due to a lack of resources during the COVID-19 pandemic, no evidence was found to support Coleman's claim that screenings were being limited in effort to combat global warming.[76]

Coleman denies climate change and claims global warming is a “malicious, dangerous myth”.[77]

Advertising Standards Authority rulings

In 2005, the UK's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) banned an advertisement for a book published by Coleman entitled How to Stop Your Doctor Killing You which claimed doctors were "the person most likely to kill you". The ASA upheld complaints that the advert was misleading, offensive and denigrated the medical profession. The ASA found Coleman's claims were lacking evidence, "irresponsible" and "likely to discourage vulnerable people from seeking essential medical treatment".[78] In response to the ruling, Coleman called for the ASA to be banned and later made a complaint to the Office of Fair Trading, claiming "the ASA's action(s) are in breach of Article 10 of the Human Rights Act".[79] The Office of Fair trading did not pursue Coleman's complaint.[80]

In 2007, the ASA again found Coleman had made misleading claims in an advertisement promoting a supposed link between eating meat and contracting cancer. Coleman failed to respond to the ASA's enquiries and was subsequently found to have again breached the organisation's code of conduct, with the ASA deeming Coleman's advert was again lacking evidence and likely to cause undue fear and distress. Coleman was instructed not to further run the advertisement and informed to respond to future ASA investigations.[81][15]

Personal life

Coleman is married.[82] He is a vegan and supports animal rights.[5] He has stated that he cross-dresses, and has written several articles about men who cross-dress.[5]

Notes

  1. ^ a b McDonald, Jessica (12 February 2021). "Video Makes Bogus Claims About 'War Crimes' and COVID-19 Vaccine Safety". FactCheck.org. Retrieved 20 August 2021.
  2. ^ a b Norton, Tim (19 August 2021). "Trafalgar Square "Freedom Rally" speech littered with false claims". FullFact.org. Retrieved 20 August 2021.
  3. ^ "Conspiracy theories run wild on Amazon". POLITICO. 22 December 2020. Retrieved 31 October 2023.
  4. ^ a b c d Walker, Esther (14 May 2008). "The doctor will see you now: Who does Vernon Coleman think he is?". The Independent. Archived from the original on 15 May 2008. Retrieved 23 August 2019.
  5. ^ a b c d e Bedell, Geraldine (7 April 1996). "Doctor on the Make". The Independent. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
  6. ^ "Volunteer for Kirkby", The Guardian, 14 May 1965
  7. ^ "ATV Today: 08.07.1981: Sick Notes". MaceArchive.org. ATV. 23 June 2017. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
  8. ^ a b Johnson, Rachel (6 March 2004). "You have been warned, Mr Blair". The Spectator. London. Retrieved 24 March 2020.
  9. ^ Khashimova Long, Katherine (28 January 2021). "Amazon algorithms promote vaccine misinformation, UW study says". The Seattle Times. Retrieved 6 February 2021.
  10. ^ Tickety Tonk (Vernon Coleman's Diaries), Blue Books, 2019
  11. ^ "Central Weekend [Programme 043]". MaceArchive.org. Central Television. 23 June 2017. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
  12. ^ "Supplementary memorandum by Professor Vernon Coleman". UK Parliament, Select Committee on Animals In Scientific Procedures - Minutes of Evidence. 2002.
  13. ^ "Animal rights man restrained". The Guardian. London. 3 August 1994.
  14. ^ Schoon, Nicholas (3 August 1994). "Scientist wins right to keep address secret: Professor hounded by anti-vivisectionists wins court battle with journalist". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 11 August 2022. Retrieved 22 March 2020.
  15. ^ a b "ASA Non-broadcast Adjudication: Publishing House; complaint 20331". Advertising Standards Authority. 30 May 2007.
  16. ^ a b 'Conscientious Objectors'. Financial Times. London. 8 August 2003
  17. ^ The Morning Show with Patrick Timpone, 31 January 2017
  18. ^ Burrell, Ian (21 March 2021). "How we can fight back against anti-vaxxer scaremongering on social media". inews.co.uk. Retrieved 21 October 2021.
  19. ^ "Vernon Edward COLEMAN". GMC - UK. General Medical Council. Retrieved 24 September 2020.
  20. ^ Fennel, Oliver (27 June 2020). "An 'old man in a chair' pulling rabbits from his bag of 'truths'". Bangkok Post. Retrieved 24 September 2020.
  21. ^ Robson, David (29 November 2020). "It's only fake-believe: how to deal with a conspiracy theorist". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 December 2020.
  22. ^ Wilkinson, Sylvie (20 July 2021). "'Aggressive' anti-lockdown camp set up on Hackney Downs opposite schools". MyLondon. Retrieved 26 July 2021.
  23. ^ Gilbert, David (12 August 2021). "This Woman Secretly Runs One of the World's Biggest Anti-Vax Websites From Her House". Vice.com. Vice. Retrieved 17 August 2021.
  24. ^ Geraldine, Scott (29 December 2022). "Labour accuses Government of 'complacency' over vaccine misinformation online". Independent. Archived from the original on 11 August 2022.
  25. ^ "Anti-lockdown advocate appears on radio show that has featured Holocaust deniers". The Guardian. 19 October 2020. Retrieved 6 January 2022.
  26. ^ "Medicine and the Media". BMJ. 299 (6706): 1036. 21 October 1989. doi:10.1136/bmj.299.6706.1036. ISSN 0959-8138. S2CID 220191801.
  27. ^ IMDb: Release info - Mrs Caldicot's Cabbage War Retrieved 2013-02-02
  28. ^ Casebook column Sunday People' June 25, 1995.
  29. ^ "Autism 'advice' sparks outrage". Cambridge Evening News. 5 July 1995.
  30. ^ a b Ross, Deborah (12 July 1999). "What seems to be the problem Doctor Coleman?". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 11 August 2022. Retrieved 22 March 2020.
  31. ^ a b Felton, James (2020). Sunburn: The unofficial history of the Sun newspaper in 99 headlines. Sphere. ISBN 978-0-7515-8077-8.
  32. ^ Coleman, Vernon. "AIDS & HIV". VernonColeman.com. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
  33. ^ McCredie, Jane (21 November 2011). "Reining in Mavericks". InSight+ (44).
  34. ^ Eldridge, John (1993). Getting the Message: News, Truth, and Power. Routledge. pp. 198–224. ISBN 9781134895823.
  35. ^ Randall, David (2000). The universal journalist. Pluto Press. p. 135. ISBN 978-0-7453-1641-3.
  36. ^ Grimes, Robert (26 April 2021). "COVID Has Created a Perfect Storm for Fringe Science". Scientific American.
  37. ^ "Fact Check-UK government data does not show pandemic is a hoax". Reuters. 5 May 2021.
  38. ^ Aoife Gallagher, Mackenzie Hart and Ciarán O’Connor. (2021). Ill Advice: A Case Study in Facebook’s Failure to Tackle COVID-19 Disinformation. ISD Global. ISDGlobal.org. https://www.isdglobal.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Ill-Advice_v3.pdf
  39. ^ Kistauri, Ani (11 May 2021). "Anti-Vax Union, British Unlicensed Doctor Spread Conspiracy Theories". mythdetector.ge. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
  40. ^ Burgess, Sanya (5 March 2021). "COVID-19: Waterstones and Amazon urged to add warning tags as anti-vaccination book sales surge". Sky News. Retrieved 1 December 2021.
  41. ^ Tumilty, Ryan (21 November 2021). "Amazon books offering up pseudoscience on vaccines". nationalpost. Retrieved 2 December 2021.
  42. ^ Pasternack, Alex (3 June 2021). "How Amazon became an engine for anti-vaccine conspiracy theories". Fast Company. Retrieved 8 December 2021.
  43. ^ "Conspiracy theories run wild on Amazon". POLITICO. 22 December 2020. Retrieved 20 May 2023.
  44. ^ Fossen, Drew (6 February 2021). "Administering COVID Vaccine Does Not Make You A War Criminal". Misbar.
  45. ^ Carballo-Carbajal, Iria (11 February 2021). "COVID-19 vaccines approved for emergency use prevent the disease and are generally safe based on rigorous clinical trials and ongoing monitoring". Health Feedback. Response to a claim by Coleman, 2 February 2021.
  46. ^ "Fact check: Staff administering COVID-19 vaccines are not war criminals". Reuters. 4 February 2021.
  47. ^ Portela Carballeira, Rubén (1 April 2021). "COVID-19 vaccines don't hamper the function of the immune system and are likely to limit the generation of variants; no evidence that they produce more lethal variants". Health Feedback. Response to a 13 March 2021 claim by Coleman.
  48. ^ Danna, Ford (15 March 2021). "Fact Check: COVID-19 Vaccines Are NOT 'Weapons of Mass Destruction'". Lead Stories. Retrieved 31 May 2021.
  49. ^ Funke, Daniel. "Doctors and nurses who administer the coronavirus vaccine can be "tried as war criminals."". Politifact. Retrieved 31 May 2021.
  50. ^ "People giving Covid-19 vaccines won't be tried as war criminals". Full Fact. 5 February 2021. Retrieved 31 May 2021.
  51. ^ "FALSE: COVID-19 vaccines 'weapons of mass destruction'". Rappler. 30 June 2021. Retrieved 5 July 2021.
  52. ^ Golden, Hallie (14 February 2021). "Fact Check: mRNA Vaccines Are NOT Gene Therapy, Have NOT Killed 'Thousands' and Vaccinators Are NOT Violating The Nuremberg Code If They Don't Call It Human Experimentation | Lead Stories". leadstories.com. Retrieved 21 October 2021.
  53. ^ Tereszcuk, Alexis (2 June 2021). "Fact Check: Dr. Vernon Coleman Does NOT Give 'Proof The COVID-19 Jabs Should Be Stopped Now' | Lead Stories". leadstories.com. Retrieved 27 November 2021.
  54. ^ "3 claims by Dr. Vernon Coleman: 1. "Great Reset" and "Agenda 21" is a scenario plotted by the "evil elite" to achieve depopulation and seize total power; 2. The coronavirus vaccine is a dangerous, experimental gene therapy; 3. COVID-19 vaccines have not been created to prevent virus transmission, while vaccinated people pose a threat to unvaccinated people, because vaccines do not reduce virus transmission". Poynter. Retrieved 28 December 2021.
  55. ^ Kistauri, Ani (7 May 2021). "Anti-Vax Union, British Unlicensed Doctor Spread Conspiracy Theories". Myth Detector. Retrieved 28 December 2021.
  56. ^ Khandelwal, Devika (14 December 2021). "False: People are dropping dead of heart attacks because of COVID-19 vaccines". Logically. Retrieved 6 January 2022.
  57. ^ Divek (14 December 2021). "False: People getting COVID-19 vaccines will die within five years". Logically. Retrieved 6 January 2022.
  58. ^ Kulsum (5 October 2021). "False: More children will be seriously injured or killed by COVID-19 vaccines than by COVID-19". Logically. Retrieved 6 January 2022.
  59. ^ Doak, Sam (9 December 2022). "False: Vaccines damage children's immune systems". Logically. Retrieved 19 December 2022.
  60. ^ Heyndyk, Rachel Muller. "FALSE CLAIM - ID:040df007 - Wearing a face mask can cause cancer". Logically.ai. Retrieved 27 August 2021.
  61. ^ "Fact check: Wearing masks does not cause cancer". Reuters. 5 October 2020. Retrieved 27 August 2021.
  62. ^ Kamdar, Dhriti. "India's Black Fungus Epidemic Sparks Misinformation Storm". Logically.ai. Retrieved 27 August 2021.
  63. ^ Mahase, Elisabeth (15 February 2021). "Covid-19: Are cloth masks still effective? And other questions answered". BMJ. 372: n432. doi:10.1136/bmj.n432. ISSN 1756-1833. PMID 33589420.
  64. ^ Tereszcuk, Alexis (24 November 2021). "Fact Check: Dr. Vernon Coleman Gives NO Medical Proof The COVID-19 Jab is Murder, Relies On Discredited Research Report". Lead Stories. Retrieved 27 November 2021.
  65. ^ "Fact Check-300-word journal abstract is not proof of mRNA vaccines being used to 'murder'". Reuters. 30 November 2021. Retrieved 28 December 2021.
  66. ^ Pallavi (6 December 2021). "False: A paper in the American Heart Association's journal Circulation gives evidence that mRNA vaccines cause heart damage". Logically. Retrieved 6 January 2022.
  67. ^ Muller Heyndyk, Rachel (26 November 2021). "Misleading: There is an increased risk of heart attacks following mRNA COVID-19 vaccines". Logically. Retrieved 6 January 2022.
  68. ^ "False: A paper in the American Heart Association's journal Circulation gives evidence that mRNA vaccines cause heart damage". Logically. Retrieved 6 January 2022.
  69. ^ Bowman, Jamie (4 May 2021). "Police urge residents to 'dismiss' anti-vaccination leaflets being distributed in Prestwich". Bury Times. Retrieved 8 May 2021.
  70. ^ Bolton, Josh (5 February 2021). "Warning as 'dangerous anti-vax' leaflets posted through doors in Luton". bedfordshirelive. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
  71. ^ Ryder, Gemma (22 September 2020). "Dunfermline MSP condemns coronavirus hoax leaflet". Dunfermline Press. Retrieved 28 September 2020.
  72. ^ Amery, Rachel (15 October 2020). "Coronavirus survivors hit out at hoax leaflets posted through doors in Perth". Evening Telegraph. Retrieved 6 February 2021.
  73. ^ Lennox, Toni (22 March 2021). "Covid anti-vaxxers blasted for spreading misinformation in East Ayrshire town". Daily Record. Retrieved 18 November 2021.
  74. ^ Pepinster, Catherine (4 August 2021). "Catholic priest warns against Covid vaccines". The Tablet.
  75. ^ "Vernon Coleman: how the Pandemic has brought some unpleasant people new fame". The Skeptic. 19 January 2022. Retrieved 3 May 2022.
  76. ^ Heyndyk, Rachel Muller (18 February 2022). "False: The NHS is reducing screenings and tests to fight global warming". Logically. Retrieved 22 March 2022.
  77. ^ Barnett, Adam; Herrmann, Michaela; Deane, Christopher; Deane, Adam Barnett, Michaela Herrmann and Christopher (16 February 2023). "Revealed: The Science Denial Network Behind Oxford's 'Climate Lockdown' Backlash". DeSmog. Retrieved 20 March 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  78. ^ "Criticism for 'deadly doctor' ad". BBC. 21 June 2005. Retrieved 5 January 2021.
  79. ^ Coleman, Vernon (June 2005). "Does The ASA Do More Harm Than Good?". VernonColeman.com. Retrieved 5 January 2021.
  80. ^ Coleman, Vernon (June 2005). "The Advertising Standards Authority and the Office of Fair Trading". VernonColeman.com. Retrieved 5 January 2021.
  81. ^ "Books and publications: Advice online". www.asa.org.uk. Advertising Standards Authority Committee of Advertising Practice. 22 July 2013. Archived from the original on 16 April 2021.
  82. ^ Mrs. Caldicot's Knickerbocker Glory, 2003, page 1