Doctor facing charges after calling colleagues murderers over Covid vaccines

A Pretoria general practitioner (GP) is standing firmly behind his allegations about his medical colleagues being “murderers” for not speaking up against Covid vaccines.

The SA Medical Association has laid charges against Dr Tros Bekker from Pretoria at the Health Professions Council (HPCSA) for calling his colleagues murderers for administering vaccines.

‘Man-made virus’

Bekker said all his statements were backed up by scientific evidence; people were not informed about Covid and the virus was “a man-made mutation of the virus that has existed for millions of years”.

He said he was waiting to hear from the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority for an open hearing while he continued to see patients.

“Yes, they are murderers. If you … administer a drug that kills people, you are a murderer. If you are a publisher and you don’t publish the truth, you are a murderer,” he said.

Bekker was planning on opening rehabilitation centres for vaccine injuries.

“I am a concerned doctor that wants to speak the truth. I believe there is a virus but the vaccine is not a vaccine, it’s a clot shot. It kills people,” he said.

Shadow Gauteng health MEC Jack Bloom said it was a strange allegation because doctors were not giving the jabs, nurses were.

“You can express an opinion about the vaccine but murderer means something else, killing someone with intent,” he said.

Irresponsible

Bloom said the allegations were irresponsible and malicious.

“Which doctors is he blaming because the vaccine programme is voluntary, it was never fully mandatory,” he said.

Medical expert professor Francois Venter described Bekker’s allegations as “conspiracy gobbledygook”.

“[It is] another consequence of the HPCSA not stamping firmly down on health professionals’ unethical behaviour, nor issuing guidance on this kind of thing, during the pandemic,” he said.

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Medical expert Angelique Coetzee said it was difficult to comment on fanaticism and conspiracy theories.

“His statements are dangerous and will land him in deep trouble. The problem is that his interviews are in Afrikaans and there is a small group of people that swear by what he says. They are like lambs being led to the slaughter,” she said.

Free speech

North-West University School of Communication lecturer André Gouws said it was easy to build a following online.

“Free speech should be encouraged and social media allows people to deliberate about ideas much more openly than before. There are now more news sources than ever before.

“People should not be stopped from expressing their views and there are probably no consequences for spreading an alternative narrative about the coronavirus.

“Free speech is important, with only some limitations – no hate speech, no incitement to violence, no discrimination in terms of race or gender.

“The onus is on the reader to judge for themselves whether the information is true,” he said.

– marizkac@citizen.co.za