A Kiwi doctor who text 600 patients raising concerns around the Covid-19 vaccine has had his practising certificate referred to the Medical Council. Photo / NZME
A Kiwi doctor who sent an unsolicited text message to 600 of his patients saying he didn’t support the Covid-19 vaccine has been slated by the Health and Disability Commissioner.
But the doctor, who subscribes to views ranging from vaccine-induced magnetism to a conspiracy it will be used for biometric control, was not named in the decision of the commissioner, saying his privacy must be protected.
The GP has not been named in the decision released today.
In her decision commissioner Morag McDowell said 11 people complained about the doctor last year, some of whom had received the text message and others who were patients, or related to patients, who felt they hadn’t been provided with a full picture of the safety of the vaccine.
The text message, sent on August 19, read: “Hi [name], your GP here. I cannot in conscience support Covid vaccination of, particularly, children, and pregnant and fertile women, from my assessment of current risks and benefits.”
“All to make their own best decision. I apologise for any distress. My views are my own, not the consensus.”
He linked a website with debunked conspiracies surrounding the vaccine but also reminded patients that the rollout at the practice would continue.
Soon after sending the messages, the GP informed other doctors at the practice.
“We have never formally discussed my departure from the consensus and I have been grateful for the, thus far, tacit support of my right to my views. Certainly plenty of my patients have been vaccinated, without me throwing myself in front of them,” he wrote to his colleagues, offering to pay the cost of the SMS messages himself.
“Professional suicide is one thing but I’d prefer not to go down in the hail of bullets that has already descended on the email account,” another doctor at the practice replied the next day.
Three days later, the local primary health provider got in touch with the practice to say that the doctor’s contract had been cancelled.
The GP still showed up at work the next day, only to be told the news that evening. His ability to send text messages was immediately revoked, and he didn’t see another patient at the practice again.
Commissioner reviews 27 complaints
Investigating the matter, the Office of the Health and Disability Commissioner received 11 complaints directly and was provided with another 16 complaints that had initially been sent to the practice.
Some of those complaints included allegations the GP had used in-person consultations to spread misinformation on the vaccine.
One patient who spoke to the commission said the GP told her the vaccine would “settle in her ovaries”, and that Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern had taken a fake dose of the injection.
That same patient told the commission she wholeheartedly believed the doctor’s advice that she would have a reaction to the vaccine, and consequently, she chose not to take it.
Another complaint, this time from a concerned daughter, said her parents chose not to be vaccinated after being told by the GP it was unsafe and untested.
A third complainant, the mother of an intellectually-disabled man, told the commission when she asked if the clinic was taking bookings “[the doctor] rolled his eyes and started a spiel on why I should not sign up and that the vaccine had not been tested enough”. The doctor denied he rolled his eyes.
Responding to the commission, the doctor remained firm in his view that his actions stemmed from a place of professional responsibility.
“In the end, I prepared a hastily contrived text message which has come at a huge financial, personal and professional cost. I simply did not feel that I could, in good conscience, ignore [reports of vaccine injuries],” he said.
He said he targeted the text message to those aged under 65, although one of the complainants was aged 77.
“The medical centre had no policies regarding the use of patient lists. However, in my view, it is self-evident that a text message was an inappropriate means of communicating information that needed to be nuanced, balanced, and personalised to individual consumers,” McDowell concluded.
“Informed consent is vital, and indeed it is the cornerstone of the code. I do not accept that the information in the text message was sufficiently balanced to enable the patients to make an informed choice as to whether or not they would be vaccinated.”
McDowell recommended that the doctor apologise to each individual patient referred to in the decision,and, should he return to the medical profession, he undertakes training on professional and ethical standards.
