GP with unblemished 40-year career gets 6-month suspension for ‘vitriolic’ anti-vaxx comments

A GP with an unblemished career has been suspended for six months over ‘vitriolic’ comments she made about Covid and vaccines. 

Londonderry-based Dr Mary McCloskey claimed the pandemic was a ‘figment’ of the media and the Government and that jabs don’t work and were killing people. 

She also claimed tests and face masks were being used as a psychological weapons to spread fear and experts were ‘laughing’ at the public via how they named variants of the virus. 

In one of her most inflammatory statements on Covid vaccines, she claimed parents were being ‘told to line up our children to get something that might kill them, to protect them from something that can’t kill them’.

Dr McCloskey, who also goes by her middle name Anne, made the comments in a series of videos uploaded online between August and November 2021.

A Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) hearing held late last month heard how, in a video on August 21, she claimed the dangers of the pandemic had been invented and promoted to the public. 

‘This whole hype has largely been a figment of the media and the government and their lying scientific advisers’ deceptions,’ she said. 

In another she claimed Covid vaccines weren’t being used to protect people’s health but instead harm them. 

‘Let people see that these injections are killing people; they are harming people; they are not preventing sickness and they are not about health,’ she said.

The 66-year-old also claimed people who received Covid jabs had done so under duress being ‘coerced, bribed or bullied’ to have the injection. 

Then, in another video on August 24, she claimed PCR tests for the virus were a ‘psychological weapon by governments to push people into fear and terror’.

In that same video she claimed, ‘masks are there to keep us afraid’ and that medical professionals were being ‘coerced’ to go along with the pandemic.

The MPTS also noted another video in November that same year where Dr McCloskey claimed experts were ‘laughing’ at the public via how they named Covid variants. 

‘Well it seems to me with the naming they’re actually having a laugh, like using an anagram of moronic,’ she said. 

‘These people are actually laughing at the population, you know.’

Her ‘anagram’ comment is a reference to how the letters of Omicron, at the time the most pressing Covid variant of concern, can be rearranged to spell ‘moronic’. 

This is a coincidence, with the World Health Organization naming Covid variants after the Greek alphabet, starting with Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and so forth. 

Dr McCloskey also claimed nurses were not working in hospitals but were ‘doing TikTok videos and learning songs’. 

The MPTS found these comments had the potential to undermine public health information, undermine public confidence in the medical profession and discourage people from getting the Covid vaccines.

‘There was clear evidence Dr McCloskey’s actions had the potential to undermine public health information and to impact on the health and safety of the public,’ she said. 

While stating Dr McCloskey, like any medic, had a right of freedom of expression, they added this was not an ‘unfettered right’ and in her case she had gone beyond what was unacceptable. 

They stated: ‘The words and opinions stated went beyond legitimate freedom of expression and that Dr McCloskey was making ominous and inflammatory statements and using alarmist language.’ 

The tribunal also took particular note of Dr McCloskey’s ‘moronic’ comment as having ‘detracted from the gravity of the situation’.

‘There was clear evidence that Dr McCloskey’s actions had the potential to undermine public confidence in the medical profession and that by doing this there was a risk to public health and safety,’ they said. 

In their ruling, the MPTS also noted how Dr McCloskey had repeatedly introduced herself as a GP in these videos to give her views extra authority. 

‘Dr McCloskey herself should have known that the audience of these videos and radio interview would perceive her as a doctor; and therefore give more credence to her opinion as a result of this position,’ it read.  

They also took note of statements she had made in videos to encourage her audience to share her views.

‘I want you to talk to people. I want you to inform yourselves… I have leaflets available. I’m going to get posters made’ she said in one.

‘I want you to share this video,’ she said on another occasion. 

The MPTS also found that she had clearly acted to discourage members of the public from getting a Covid vaccine.

In their ruling, the tribunal said Dr McCloskey had ‘used her judgement poorly’.

‘She has not shown any awareness of how her behaviour would adversely influence the public and that she undermined her medical colleagues, when she did not respect their contribution with regards to management of the pandemic,’ they said. 

‘Given the vitriolic language she had used, Dr McCloskey was causing alarm and was forcing her own opinion on the general public.’

However, in determining what sanction to hand the GP, they highlighted there was no suggestion Dr McCloskey wasn’t a competent medic, with no issues being raised during her extensive career. 

They also noted that given the unique circumstances of the Covid pandemic at the time, there was little risk of repetition of these specific events.

But, they added that considering Dr McCloskey has offered no apology or remorse for her actions, there was a continued risk from letting her practise. 

‘A risk of Dr McCloskey expressing views and undertaking actions, which would constitute a risk to public health and safety, remains given her lack of recognition of her serious misconduct,’ they wrote. 

Suspending her for six months, they said a review will be held at the conclusion to determine if Dr McCloskey is ready to return to working as a doctor.

The tribunal wrote that: ‘The onus will be on Dr McCloskey to demonstrate how she has remediated and developed insight into her actions.’

Dr McCloskey has 28 days to appeal the ruling. 

Covid vaccines, like any medical product or drug, carry a risk of side effects, some of them serious.

Some Brits have died as a result of the vaccine, though the figure officially stands at less than 100. 

This includes those who died after being struck down with a blood clot triggered by an extremely rare reaction from AstraZeneca’s jab missed during the original vaccine trials. 

However, anti-vaxxer claims that thousands have died from the jabs are way off the mark, leading experts say.

Covid vaccines, which have been rolled out in their millions, have repeatedly been proven to be, overall, both safe and effective in preventing people from becoming severely ill with the virus.

They have also been credited with stopping the endless lockdowns that crippled the nation. 

Globally, Covid vaccines have been credited with saving almost 20million lives during the first year of their existence.