The general tenor of tweets posted by a Limerick-based general practitioner (GP) during the Covid pandemic went against guidelines on professional conduct and ethics for doctors, a fitness-to-practise committee has heard.
Dr Patrick Morrissey of Adare Medical Centre appeared before a fitness-to-practise committee on Wednesday for the second day of an inquiry into 39 factual allegations he faces.
Morrissey has been accused of professional misconduct and poor professional performance regarding tweets he posted during the pandemic that were critical of the Covid-19 vaccination programme and the public health authorities.
The allegations include that, while working at the centre, he prescribed hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin and co-prescribed azithromycin and hydroxychloroquine to a number of patients who had Covid-19 symptoms or who received a Covid-19 diagnosis.
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Hydroxychloroquine is used to manage autoimmune conditions including lupus and rheumatoid arthritis while ivermectin is used to treat parasitic infection.
Azithromycin is an antibiotic used to treat bacterial infections like pneumonia, strep throat and skin infections.
Prof Colin Bradley, a retired GP and professor of general practice, gave evidence for the chief executive of the Medical Council, Dr Maria O’Kane, regarding Morrissey’s prescribing of the three medicines and some of his tweets during the pandemic.
Bradley said the general tenor of the tweets went against the Guide to Professional Conduct and Ethics for Registered Medical Practitioners regarding the use of social media.
The guide states that when on social media medical practitioners should maintain professional standards.
They should also be cognisant of the impact posts may have on their colleagues, and, where they provide information online that patients and colleagues may rely on, to take all reasonable steps to ensure this information is accurate and valid.
Bradley said the tweets, which were posted from December 21st, 2020, to September 26th, 2021, amounted to poor professional performance and professional misconduct.
He found the majority of the tweets amounted to both conduct that doctors of good repute would consider “disgraceful” and a serious falling short of the standards of conduct expected among doctors.
He said the overall theme of the tweets was to be disparaging of the Covid-19 vaccines and the authorities rolling them out, and said this was “an important feature”.
He said the tweets “potentially undermined the public health effort, were likely to induce vaccine hesitancy”, were not factually based, and were “quite unhelpful”.
He said that in his tweets Morrissey was “actively” trying to undermine the public health vaccination programme, which Bradley said doctors of good repute would find to be disgraceful conduct.
Bradley said the vaccines had been “evaluated very thoroughly” by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and by the National Immunisation Advisory Committee (NIAC).
Bradley was particularly critical of the retweet posted on Morrissey’s Twitter account on July 31st, 2021, which included a picture of the gates of the Auschwitz concentration camp with the wording: “Vaccines will make you free”.
Bradley was critical of “the sarcastic tone” of the retweet which he also found “pretty disgraceful” and “an unpleasant way to make that sarcasm”.
He said the post was likely to cause offence, that in a sarcastic way it associated vaccines with Nazi Germany, and amounted to professional misconduct and poor professional performance.
He said that the prescribing of ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine on its own and in combination with azithromycin, to patients with the symptoms or diagnosis of Covid-19 amounted to poor professional performance and professional misconduct.
The committee will reconvene on Thursday to hear further evidence from Bradley.
