Taking a jab at scientific conspiracy theory

There was a moment when I realised my faith in science had gone too far. I had attended St Thomas’s hospital in London, in August 2020, taking part in a trial to find a vaccine for the coronavirus.

I had to sit through the introductory talk but barely listened because I’d volunteered for medical trials as a student and I knew that, if anything went wrong, I was already in expert hands. The doctor finished speaking and I duly signed the consent forms. Then rolled up my sleeve and the nurse gave me a jab. It was painless. The staff kept an eye on me for 30 minutes and then let me go. 

Back at home I received a follow-up email, “Thank you for joining the ChAdOx trial.” For the first time, I was struck by the word ChAdOx. The spelling was bizarre. And why the mixture of capitals and lower-case letters? I looked it up online: ‘Ox’ meant Oxford; ‘Ad’ meant adenovirus; And ‘Ch’ meant chimpanzee.

I imagined [incorrectly] I’d allowed myself to be injected with some gloop scraped from a monkey’s tonsils. Thinking back, I couldn’t recall the doctor mentioning ‘chimpanzee’ during the talk. It’s a word that leaps out and grabs your attention. But when I checked the consent forms, I found that ‘chimpanzee’ was indicated clearly. So, I had been informed but my faith in scientists had stifled my curiosity. 

A general mistrust of scientists has since spread across the world. Conspiracy theorists are openly claiming that Big Pharma has a secret agenda

I suffered no ill effects and when the AstraZeneca vaccine was rolled out, I took the injections along with everybody else. But a seed of doubt had been planted. 

A general mistrust of scientists has since spread across the world. Conspiracy theorists are openly claiming that Big Pharma has a secret agenda: ‘Kill none, cure none.’ Supposedly,the ultimate goal is to infect the entire population with a mild but untreatable disease that allows people to earn enough to pay for their medication but doesn’t bump them off. 

This myth flourishes alongside another rumour that deadly diseases have already been cured and that drug firms suppress the truth in order to protect their income. Scientists work hard to counteract this falsehood. Worldwide Cancer Research, issued a press briefing last May: ‘Could somebody be hiding the cure for cancer?’ They quoted research from the US suggesting that 25 per cent of Americans believe that the suppression of cures is ‘absolutely true.’ Other studies put the figure still higher. 

These urban myths damage the culture of scientific research. ‘Suggesting that there’s some kind of conspiracy,’ says a spokesperson for Worldwide Cancer Research, “insults the people who contribute every day to finding new ways to prevent, diagnose and treat disease [1] .

Ellie Ellicott, the head of communications at the Children and Young People’s Cancer Charity, says that baseless allegations about scientists “can cost lives by stopping people from seeking real and effective treatments” [2]. She points out that concealing a cure would require constant subterfuge. And if scientists agreed to hide a new treatment, surely they would probably give it to their loved ones anyway, and the truth would soon emerge.

This is the starting point for my play, One Jab Cures All. A team of biochemists at a commercial lab stumble on a miracle cure. The bosses want the discovery hushed up so that they can flog the treatment to their wealthy friends. But the junior medics seize control of the lab and insist that the cure is handed out for free. The clinicians face a stark choice. Behave morally and save millions of lives. Or behave wickedly and make millions of pounds. For comic effect, I amplified the discovery and turned it into a drug that heals every disease known to medicine.

And although the play is a fantasy, the choices faced by the medics are genuine. And I added a happy ending too. I felt that the audience deserved a lift after the Covid enquiry: the good characters come out on top and the wicked ones are punished. My research made it plain that scientists would never hide an effective treatment, nor could they. And yet a strange doubt lingers in my mind. Whenever I buy a tub of cream for my psoriasis, I ask myself this: why are humans able to walk on the moon but not to cure my itchy skin?

[1] https://www.worldwidecancerresearch.org/cancer-and-cancer-research-explained/cancer-myths-and-questions/could-somebody-be-hiding-the-cure-for-cancer/

[2] https://www.cclg.org.uk/news-updates/busting-conspiracy-is-there-hidden-cure-cancer

One Jab Cures All, written and produced by Lloyd Evans and directed by Matthew Parker opens at the Tabard Theatre, London W4, from 14 January, 2026