Maajid Nawaz And A Covid Rabbit Hole

The seemingly endless has now ended: Maajid Nawaz has stopped using the platform given him by broadcaster LBC to pitch the suggestion that the result of the 2020 US Presidential Election might be in doubt, and to the great relief of all those who wished he had never gone there in the first place. The problem is that Nawaz is now talking Covid-19 origins and vaccine nonsense - which unravelled almost as he pitched it.

Maajid Nawaz

This sad spectacle kicked off with the idea that The Rona had its origins in a Wuhan lab, from which it was then leaked. Nawaz brought on Sharri Markson, who was presented as an “investigative journalist”. She claimed not to support either of the main [US] parties, because she was in Australia. She just happened to have interviewed only those on the right of US politics, and just happened to be a host on hard right Sky News Australia.

She had interviewed Combover Crybaby Donald Trump. And Mike Pompeo twice. They had said there was a “very high probability” that Covid-19 leaked from a Wuhan Lab. Nawaz missed this from her Wikipedia entry: “In May 2021, Markson published excerpts of a document that showed Chinese military scientists ‘discussed the weaponisation of SARS coronaviruses five years before the Covid-19 pandemic’, the document was later shown to be a widely available book which promoted conspiracy theories”.

Ms Markson’s contribution should have come with a public health warning. But worse was to come, as Nawaz told his followers “WATCH: US military walk-outs occurred after Biden mandates vaccines for federal employees & military … Fighter jet pilots have walked out … ‘with the F-22s grounded, you can kiss Taiwan goodbye’”.

Daniel Dale of CNN had seen enough. “This viral video is nonsense. It begins with a bonkers claim that the Secretary of Defense sent a text to all active military demanding they get vaccinated by 10 AM the next day. There was no such text. Also, the military's actual vaccination deadlines begin in November”. His was not a solo opinion.

Fred Wellman of the Lincoln Project added “Complete and utter bullshit. From the ‘text message’ that went out to the idea that F-22 pilots ‘walked out’. None of this is real. Nice try though”. The Tweeter known as The Hoarse Whisperer simply responded “Stupid lies. Embarrassingly stupid”. And Mehdi Hasan, now at MSNBC, had seen it all before.

“First, it was Trump’s election lies. Now anti-vax nonsense. Remember when Nawaz was a Lib Dem parliamentary candidate and taken seriously by people in power? Lol. Some of us tried to warn you”. But then Nawaz fought back, warning “This Tweet is so obviously being trolled [by] hundreds of pro-Biden farmed PR Twitter accounts”. Yeah, right.

That’s how many of them got their blue ticks. Richard Bartholomew concluded “Criticism of Maajid Nawaz is ‘so very obviously’ a conspiracy that only a fool would ask for an explanation or hesitate to follow his instruction to block sceptics. This is the rhetoric and strategy of grifters, bad actors and cult leaders”. Faith over reality.

The most basic research would have disproved Nawaz’ takes. It could, and should, have been performed before his show was broadcast. An LBC explanation would be interesting.

Maajid Nawaz may not yet have exhausted LBC’s patience. But you can see it from there.

Enjoy your visit to Zelo Street? You can help this truly independent blog carry on talking truth to power, while retaining its sense of humour, by becoming a Patron on Patreon at

https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton