A Dublin GP who described the use of Covid-19 vaccines in children as a “crime against humanity”, and criticised face masks, lockdowns and the Government in a series of social media posts is facing 10 allegations of professional misconduct.
On Tuesday, the Irish Medical Council opened a fitness to practise inquiry into Dr Marcus de Brun who ran Rush Family practice in north Co Dublin, but rose to prominence online due to his outspoken criticism of the State’s handling of the pandemic.
According to the list of allegations read out at the inquiry, Dr de Brun attended an anti-mask rally on August 22nd, 2020, at Custom House in Dublin at which it is alleged he did not adhere to the public health guidelines and also spoke out against Covid-19 measures.
In relation to his social media activity, Dr de Brun was critical of the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet), describing them as a “threat to public health”, and expressed disagreement with the use of vaccines against the virus in children and healthy young people.
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He shared multiple tweets advocating for the use of Ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for the virus, the efficacy of which was under dispute at the time.
He also shared multiple tweets against the introduction of lockdowns, stating they were about “protecting politicians, contracts and corruption”, warning that face masks were a “waste of time” and “dangerous” and said many doctors are “charlatans”.
According to the medical council, the comments, which were posted between May 2020 and October 2021, were “inappropriate and/or undermined public health guidelines and/or public health authorities”.
Barrister Neasa Bird, representing the chief executive of the medical council, said Dr de Brun was entitled to express “contrary views and express criticism”.
However, she said the fitness-to-practise committee must decide whether he did it in a way that was in line with his ethical obligations as a doctor.
“Doctors ought to know that their status as a doctor mean public comments by them on issues of public health issues carry weight,” Ms Bird said, adding that these comments must be “accurate, evidence-based, not misleading and will not undermine response to public health emergencies”.
Ms Bird on a number of occasions clarified that Dr de Brun operated under HSE guidelines within his practice despite his own personal opinions on the matter, including the use of social distancing, masks and hand sanitiser.
In his opening remarks, Dr de Brun, who was representing himself, said it was “important to put things in perspective” as some of the tweets were “taken out of context”.
He said some of the tweets were humorous in nature but they were “cherry picked in an attempt to defame my character”.
“The reason for some of the anger and upset evidenced in my tweets is my patients died. They died as a consequence of government guidelines,” he said.
“Before I began to post on Twitter, I tried my best to inform the medical council and to inform the authorities but I was ignored.”
He added: “I would like the council to be cognisant of the circumstances and the deaths I was compelled to witness because of government guidelines and inaction by the medical council.”
Dr de Brun said while the inquiry was not a court case, the “impact of this on myself and my family is no different to a criminal trial”.
On a number of occasions members of the public gallery erupted into applause in support of his comments.
Dr de Brun was appointed to the Irish Medical Council in 2018 by then minister for health Simon Harris but resigned in April 2020 over what he described as failures to protect nursing home residents earlier in the pandemic.
He no longer runs his own practice, having ended his HSE contract due to his dissatisfaction with the way in which the pandemic was handled.
The inquiry will resume on Wednesday.
