Violinist Nigel Kennedy has said the Covid vaccine was the “worst threat” to his career and left him with partial deafness and turned him “into a zombie”.

Asked in a new interview with the Telegraph to name the “worst threat to your career”, the virtuosos replied:

After taking my third Covid vaccine in 2021, I developed partial deafness for three months – not great in my trade. It also turned me into a zombie. I was falling asleep at 4pm every day and wasn’t in a fit state to play concerts. BoJo was partying away while the rest of us were having reactions to this unresearched vaccine.

Elsewhere in the interview Kennedy recalls the 2013 BBC proms concert where he dedicated his performance “to all the forgotten and displaced heteros” – and says he hasn’t been invited back by the BBC since:

I caused friction in 2013 when the singer Joyce DiDonato declared she would be dedicating her performance “to transgender people around the world”. I subsequently dedicated my performance “to all the forgotten and displaced heteros”. I felt out of place as a heterosexual geezer with everyone proclaiming their sexual or life preferences when all we were meant to be doing was playing some music. I believe in a million types of genders, but I don’t want them rammed down my throat. Needless to say, I’ve never done a concert with those guys since. There’s a silent BBC ban in place, although I’ve not done anything politically incorrect. Maybe wearing an Aston Villa shirt on stage is what’s done it.

His comments on his vaccine injury come as the Covid Inquiry publishes its latest report, recommending that payouts from the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme should be doubled and eligibility expanded. From the Telegraph:

Payouts to the victims of Covid vaccines and their bereaved families should be doubled, an inquiry into the pandemic has found.

The Covid Inquiry said “opportunities had been missed” by successive governments to reform the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme (VDPS), adding that anyone injured by the jabs should receive “proper recognition”.

The families of those who died or people who suffered vaccine-related injuries as a result of the jab are awarded a one-off, tax-free lump sum of £120,000, but only if judged to have 60% “disablement”.

The payout, which was last revised nearly two decades ago, is not “sufficiently supportive” to those affected, the inquiry’s vaccine rollout report has found.

Baroness Hallett, the inquiry Chairman, described the scheme as inadequate and said victims felt “silenced, ignored or treated as vaccine deniers”, with many people waiting up to two years for a decision on their claim.

She said it was clear that the current maximum payment was too low and “should be raised at least to come into line with inflation”.

This would mean payments “in excess of £200,000” as of December 2025, Lady Hallett said, adding that the scheme should be reformed to allow more victims to qualify.

The Telegraph has also recently highlighted the story of Rebecca Stevens, who was left largely incapacitated by the AstraZeneca vaccine and subsequently died at the age of 48:

John Stevens, whose late wife Rebecca Stevens was wheelchair-bound and largely incapacitated after receiving the AstraZeneca jab in April 2021, said the Government’s compensation system was “not fit for purpose”.

Stevens told the Telegraph that the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme (VDPS) – which awards a flat fee of £120,000 to people seriously injured after having vaccinations – needed to be “brought up to date with modern costs”.

He criticised the arbitrary level of 60% “disablement” that patients must reach in order to qualify for a payout.

Mrs Stevens – known as Bec – received a payment under the VDPS, which Mr Stevens described as wholly inadequate given the level of care she required and the impact her disability had on her capacity to work.

She died in October last year at the age of 48. Her death was attributed to natural causes and “a complication which arose following administration of the AstraZeneca vaccination”.

Stevens said that his wife, the mother of two grown-up sons, had gone from being a highly eloquent lawyer to having very limited speech and being unable to wash, dress or feed herself.

The couple received financial assistance through her employer’s insurance.

Stevens said that while the money from the VDPS cleared the mortgage and reduced the bills, “in no way is this payment relevant to the impact on Rebecca and her family’s lives, their futures and the costs these days”.

He added: “Some people have lost loved ones or had their lives changed so dramatically that this does not even scratch the surface.”

Stevens said that the VDPS should be reformed. “This wouldn’t mean all should be paid massive amounts but only what is relevant to the individual cases,” he said.

“It is understood that the VDPS is not compensatory but it should be relevant to the individual and it would lessen the need for very lengthy, even more costly, legal cases.”

His wife was one of dozens of claimants who began legal action against AstraZeneca over its “defective” Covid vaccination. The pharma giant is defending the claim, which the Government is indemnifying, meaning taxpayers could ultimately be liable for some costs.

Stevens is continuing his wife’s claim. 

Mrs Stevens suffered a severe stroke in May 2021, after receiving the vaccination the month before.

She was given life-saving surgery to remove blood clots that had formed, but was left with little movement in her right side and struggled with speech and language tasks.

“From initially saying nothing, to then being able to only say ‘no’, was heartbreaking for her family and massively frustrating for Bec,” said Stevens.

As a lawyer, “her words were her sword and shield”, Stevens said.

“Her anger and sadness stemmed from this as she only wanted to do the right thing and have the COVID-19 jab so she would be protecting others as well as herself,” he said.

Rebecca Stevens’s story is worth reading in full.