Re: Fundraiser
Dear ERditor
The legal case being brought by early-career doctor Matt Kneale against the General Medical Council is important, because it seeks to establish whether the GMC is being reasonable in refusing to investigate doctors who are credibly accused of spreading anti-vax misinformation widely on social and mainstream media. The GMC’s argument is that if doctors advise their OWN patients not to get vaccinated and the patients come to harm as a result, this is within the GMC’s remit, but if doctors advise millions of people not to get vaccinated, that’s usually outwith the GMC’s remit. This is logically and morally puzzling. As we prepare, in a high-income country in 2023, to deal with a measles epidemic caused by vaccine hesitancy, we are starting to normalise the ‘medical celebrity anti-vaxer’. The GMC is the regulator of doctors. Doctors’ public statements about vaccines matter because the public trusts doctors. The duty of a doctor to be honest, trustworthy and work in the best interests of patients and the public does not cease when the doctor exits the clinic. It is deeply shocking that the GMC is prepared to go to court to DEFEND doctors’ rights to spread misinformation about vaccines.
Dr Kneale will be personally liable for the GMC’s costs if he loses this case. His fundraiser is here:
