Portraits of the Resistance Vol. 8 | Dr. Kevin Corbett
The Dr, Nurse and Scientist on the right side of history | Dr. Kevin Corbett
I discovered Kevin Corbett while researching masks on one podcast or other. I ‘knew’ they were pointless, ridiculous and a sign of subjugation and oppression. I knew they were nothing more than a show of compliance, a litmus test for who will and who will not follow the ‘rules’ but it was his experience with and view on HIV/AIDS that interested me most. The parallels he drew between the Corona scam and the HIV/AIDS scam had galvanised me to just how corrupted and malevolent our medical system and pharmaceutical industry had become.
We spoke over the phone initially. I got the sense that Kevin was sussing me out. We chatted about the restrictions, lockdowns, viruses and the project I was inviting him to be a part of. By the end of the conversation Kevin had agreed to be a part of the project and we got to planning our meet.
I hadn’t met Kevin, on the protest trail or otherwise until I travelled up to the Northumbrian coastline to take his picture. It’s a beautiful part of the world. Fish and chips are still typically cooked in beef dripping (as they should be) and the people still infused with a Britishness that in the South seems sometimes forgotten. Kevin is quick with a smile and a hug, one that feels more like we’ve met before than being relative strangers.
Slightly delayed by the traffic, we meet in a quaint little village not far from the coast. The day before I’d called into a Go Outdoors in Bristol to pick up a cheap wetsuit to prepare myself for heading into the wild North Sea (something I had neglected to remember when I visited Danny Rampling in Hastings. After a brief exchange of pleasantries in the public car park in the middle of the old market square, we head off towards one of Kevin’s favourite beaches, in two cars, Kevin and his partner in one and my partner and I in ours. Kevin had told me that since moving to this part of the world he had built a sea swim into his daily routine. In truth, despite growing up in New Zealand, smack bang between two of the country’s best surf beaches, I’d hardly ever worn a wetsuit and unlike most of my local peers, I’ve never once surfed.
We park up on the shoulder of a deserted beachside road and Kevin joins us in our car, leaving his partner behind in theirs.
I had thought we would complete a brief interview. Nothing lengthy but just a kind of State of the Nation excerpt for the book before taking a few shots in the sea. Over the several hours which followed, we talked (Kevin mostly) about many topics covering Kevin’s life and career. From youthful encounters to nursing, the state of the NHS and the HIV/AIDS debacle. For three hours we sat and chatted while the wind in Northumbria whipped around the car.
Kevin has never been a shrinking violet. He’s a quiet troublemaker you might say. A man who doesn’t like orthodoxy or, frankly being told what to do or worse, what to think. He’s a disruptor, an independent voice, a maverick, and a renegade intellect. He was one of the first in this country to challenge PCR testing for HIV and even wrote about it in his PhD in 2001 whilst a senior lecturer at St Georges Medical School and Kingston University, rightly stating that it is not and cannot be a diagnostic tool. His PhD, it should be mentioned, was obtained part-time and self-funded which is a rare feat in itself that not many can claim.
He’s dealt with and weathered many storms during his career from homophobia to his research on HIV/AIDS and taken heat in the academic world simply for the path he chose to pursue in nursing. Kevin, it seems has the enviable ability to not only see through nonsense but also the uncommon ability to argue his position with eloquence and grace. It’s Kevin’s unwavering tenacity and courage to speak up for what is right and true which is what comes over most as he talks us through his academic and clinical career journey. I feel privileged to sit in the car with him, partly because the wind outside is cold and biting but chiefly because he’s so willing to share his story with us. He illustrates his life in vivid colour through a lens of youthful optimism. Despite the challenges he has faced along the way, and still faces now during the COVID era, he’s ceaselessly upbeat and cheerful.
As we wrap up our discussion in the car to head down across the dunes to the beach, I’m left with the sense that he’s always lived life according to his own standards and his own beliefs, whatever may have come his way.
I pull on my (slightly too small) wetsuit and we make our way out towards the shoreline of the pristine and deserted beach just as the sun is starting its glowing procession towards dusk.
Kevin is straight in the water and I find myself running along to catch up with him, trying to clip off a couple of frames before I have to get into the icy deep myself. Our partners nattering away on the sand, watching us like fools playing about in the sea. The bracing cold soon gives way to a kind of semi-warm blanket of salt once I’m in the water. I’m grateful for it and can see as I look back at the beach that the two we left there are feeling the chill much more than we are. I’d forgotten how much of a tonic it can be to swim in the sea. It’s not something I’ve done much since moving to the UK.
Kevin’s also an artist I discover through our discussion. We’ve exhibited together at an exhibition called The Cure is Worse Than The (alleged) Disease, held at the Secret Art Gallery in Brick Lane, London in May 2022, along with many other artists showcasing their work during or about the COVID narrative.
I even remember Kevin telling me off once… Some masked tourists had arrived at the gallery door and I had told them they wouldn’t need ‘those silly things’ in here. This assertion was met with the indignant doubling-down so typical of the die-hards and I was told unequivocally that they WOULD be wearing their masks. My response, ‘not in here you won’t’, and I let them tut in their disbelief and walk on. Petty, maybe, but at that time I didn’t feel like I wanted to convert them or enlighten them, I simply wanted to shame them. Much in the same way that those of us who didn’t follow the sCiENce had been and were being shamed and chastised endlessly to the point of exclusion from social life over the preceding 2+ years. Kevin, having the great capacity for humanity and kindness that he has pulled me to one side and told me that wasn’t a very nice thing to do if we want to open minds… He was absolutely right of course, but I just couldn’t let it slide after the onslaught of vitriolic attacks bordering on hatred that we’d all been enduring at the hands of both the state and the public so recently. It’s a testament to Kevin’s capacity for kindness in the face of adversity shining through.
It’s the final frame that I take before we head back to our respective cars below that I wanted to use for a printed book of this series. The light seemed right and somehow mirrored Kevin’s own glow of positivity and warmth.
At least to me…
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