A gagging order that barred a Covid-sceptic family doctor from posting on social media has been lifted by the UK’s highest court.
Dr Samuel White had been banned by the UK’s medical regulatory authority, the General Medical Council (GMC), from posting any articles that questioned the conventional narrative on Covid-19, including testing, vaccinations and treatments.
Last summer, Dr White, who practises in Hampshire, had posted several videos on Instagram in which he questioned the safety of the vaccinations, claimed that mask wearing was useless and that proven treatments for Covid were being suppressed and doctors were not being allowed to use them.
In its response, the GMC initially barred Dr White from practising—but rescinded the order a month later—but imposed a ban on his social media activity because his views were a danger to the public and discredited medicine, it claimed. He was barred from posting his Covid views and was not permitted to respond to other posts.
Dr White appealed the ruling on the grounds that his freedom of speech rights had been violated. The UK’s High Court of Justice last week agreed that the GMC had not followed proper process in imposing the ban, and also felt that it had failed to demonstrate that Dr White was wrong in his views.
(Source: https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/White-v-GMC-judgment-031221.pdf)
