A senior NHS psychiatrist who questioned the safety of Covid vaccines, saying they were “at the heart of a giant deception”, has been struck off the medical register for misconduct after a tribunal described his comments as “scaremongering”.
A hearing in Manchester concluded that Daniel Armstrong, a 35-year-old consultant psychiatrist, had undermined public health information and confidence in the medical profession after branding pharmaceutical companies “evil”.
The decision came after concerns were raised about a film published by Armstrong – who was based at Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital in Cramlington – on BitChute.
In the footage, reports MSN, the consultant identified himself as a doctor before questioning the safety and effectiveness of Covid vaccines, which he claimed was part of a massive conspiracy.
“I am using my doctor title, my registration under the GMC in the UK, to bring you this message about what the truth is, but also highlight the deception,” Armstrong said in a near two-hour video entitled Navigating the Truth-Deception Reality.
“We are being lied to on a cosmic scale, a global scale, and there is a huge agenda why they are lying to us… you know that you were lied to.
“Whether you took the jab or not, they lied to us all. They said it was safe and effective, and they couldn’t have known whether it was safe or effective.
“They couldn’t have known after three months. My message is clear to everyone: don’t take any more. You’ve a doctor here, he’s got his licence on the line – given it up. Don’t take any more of the injections. These guys are evil.”
A three-strong panel convened by the medical practitioners’ tribunal service acknowledged Armstrong’s right to freedom of speech under the European Convention on Human Rights.
But it concluded his words ranged beyond free speech, drawing on an “outlandish” rationale and “inflammatory” words to justify “unprofessional and unacceptable conduct”.
While it recognised he had a right to express himself freely, “the opinions advanced could be described as scaremongering in that they contained clear and unambiguous assertions that Covid vaccines are not safe and instruction/ direction that people should not take them”, found the panel.
“The tribunal found that much of the rationale relied upon by Dr Armstrong to support his opinions … bears no obvious relationship to medicine or medical research.”
The panel also questioned the relevance of Armstrong's references – which included allusions to freemasonry, ancient Greek and symbolism – to his broader argument about an alleged “cover-up operation” by the government and pharmaceutical industry.
Robin Kitching, counsel for the General Medical Council, noted that despite telling an interim orders tribunal in September that the video was a “one-off”, Armstrong posted a film entitled The God Conspiracy the very next month in which he said he was being “persecuted” by the GMC.
The tribunal concluded that Armstrong was “highly likely in future to act so as to put patients at unwarranted risk of harm”.
MSN article – NHS doctor struck off for sharing Covid vaccine conspiracy theories (Open access)
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