A disciplinary hearing against doctor Shankara Chetty began in Durban last week after Wits University Professor Francois Venter lodged a complaint against him with the Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA) relating to his comments about vaccines during the pandemic.
Venter, who was at the forefront of Covid research in South Africa, said Chetty was practising “pseudo-science” at the height of the pandemic and claiming vaccines made no sense.
Chetty had asked that the unprofessional conduct charges be dismissed or revised – or he would approach the High Court for relief, reports GroundUp.
His argument hinges on his right to freedom of expression, and he claims that proffering a view is not a violation of the ethical guidelines of the HPCSA.
His lawyers had wanted the charges to be dropped but instead, the disciplinary committee ordered they be amended – and the revised charge sheet now contains four charges of unprofessional conduct.
They include that Chetty contravened norms and standards by using unproven and unrecommended health technologies, namely his “8th day” protocol, and that he failed to act in the best interests of patients by prescribing Ivermectin, corticosteroids and hydroxychloroquine for Covid, which were not approved by the South African Health Products Regulatory Council for this purpose.
He is also charged with casting aspersions on expert healthcare professionals who were authorised to provide advice and develop protocols, by stating that they engineered protocols in hospitals to “cause death and damage” to Covid patients.
The fourth charge is based on allegations that he “mischaracterised the cause and identification of the Covid illness, spike proteins and the toxicity of the virus”, which was not in line with the tenets of science.
In his complaint to the HPCSA, Venter said Chetty had made unprecedented claims in a video regarding the toxicity of Covid vaccines, saying they were a “deliberate mass poisoning and planned to kill billions”.
He said Chetty, on his own website, had also made “outlandish physiological claims” which undermined the most basic tenets of accepted science about the vaccines, and advocated outpatient remedies of his own.
The video and website were “more than enough evidence of gross misrepresentation of the vaccine programme: anybody watching would be justified in being severely alarmed at the prospect of mass poisoning”, Venter said.
He added that Chetty’s narrative went against the Department of Health, local experts, and international guidelines.
“This level of pseudo-science within the profession needs to be firmly and quickly clamped down on. The HPCSA must do its duty in protecting the public and discipline Chetty.”
In his written response, Chetty said the video was taken at a three-day Caribbean Summit held by the World Council for Health, which brought together experts in various fields to share opinions and insights on the pandemic. (Wikipedia describes the World Council for Health as a pseudo-medical organisation dedicated to spreading misinformation to discourage Covid-19 vaccination and promoting fake Covid-19 treatments.)
The summit was not open to the general public and was a behind-closed-doors robust discussion.
Chetty said he did not consent to any recording being shared with the public.
He said he was not an “anti-vaxxer” but believed the vaccine technology had been rushed to market, with poor safety surveillance by clinical trials, and with a disregard for informed consent and individual choice.
In a written response, Venter said Chetty’s right to freedom of speech did not absolve him of his ethical duties.
This included not posting opinions on the professional reputations of their colleagues on social media “lest the public lose faith in the healthcare profession”.
Chetty is expected to plead not guilty to all charges. According to the minutes of a pre-inquiry conference, both the HPCSA and Chetty intend to call expert witnesses.
GroundUp article – “Anti-vax” doctor’s disciplinary inquiry gets underway (Creative Commons Licence)
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