GP’s anti-vax text draws censure

Doctor sent his unsolicited message to 600 patients

AKiwi doctor who sent an unsolicited text message to 600 of his patients saying he didn’t support the Covid19 vaccine has been slated by the Health and Disability Commission.

But the GP, who subscribes to views ranging from vaccine-induced magnetism to a conspiracy it will be used for biometric control, cannot be named, with the commission, which released its decision yesterday, saying they must protect his privacy.

Eleven people complained to the commission about the doctor last year. Some of them had got the text message and others 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 reminded patients the rollout at the practice would continue.

Soon after sending the messages, he told 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 text 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.

He 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.

Investigating the matter, the Health and Disability Commission had 11 complaints directly and a further 16 complaints that had initially been sent to the practice had been passed on.

Some of those complaints included allegations that the doctor at the heart of the complaints had used in-person consultations to spread misinformation about the Covid-19 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.

That same patient told the commission she wholeheartedly believed the doctor’s advice that she would have a reaction to the vaccine, and as a result 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 that 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,” he said.

“I simply did not feel that I could, in good conscience, ignore [reports of vaccine injuries].”

He said he targeted the text message to those aged under 65, although one of the complainants was aged 77.

Commissioner Morag McDowell recommended he apologise to each patient referred to in the decision, and, should he return to the medical profession, undertake training on professional and ethical standards.