GROUNDUP
‘Anti-vax’ doctor disciplinary inquiry underway over use of unproven remedies to treat Covid
Shankara Chetty is accused of failing to act in the best interests of patients.
The disciplinary hearing against “anti-vax” doctor Shankara Chetty got underway in Durban this week, after changes to the charge sheet were made.
This comes after Chetty asked that the charges be dismissed or revised — or he would approach the high court for relief.
The charges are based on allegations by Francois Venter, a medical professor at Wits University who was at the forefront of Covid research in South Africa. He said Chetty was practising “pseudo-science” at the height of the pandemic, with Chetty claiming that vaccines made no sense.
Dr Shankara Chetty (Photo: X)
Chetty’s argument, in the main, focuses on his right to freedom of expression and claims that expressing a view is not a violation of the ethical guidelines of the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA).
His lawyers argued that the charges should have been dropped. Instead, the disciplinary committee ordered that they be amended.
The revised charge sheet contains four charges of unprofessional conduct.
They include that he contravened norms and standards by using unproven and unrecommended health technologies, namely Chetty’s “8th day” protocol, and that he failed to act in the best interests of patients by prescribing ivermectin, corticosteroids, and hydroxychloroquine for Covid, which were not approved by the South African Health Products Regulatory Council for this purpose.
He is also charged with casting aspersions on expert healthcare professionals who were authorised to provide advice and develop protocols, by stating that they engineered protocols in hospitals to “cause death and damage” to Covid patients.
The final, and fourth charge, is based on allegations that he “mischaracterised the cause and identification of the Covid illness, spike proteins and the toxicity of the virus”, which was not in line with the tenets of science.
In his complaint to the HPCSA, Venter said Chetty had made unprecedented claims in a video regarding the toxicity of Covid vaccines and that they were a “deliberate mass poisoning and planned to kill billions”.
He said Chetty, on his own website, had also made “outlandish physiological claims” which undermined the most basic tenets of accepted science about the vaccines, and advocated outpatient remedies of his own.
He said the video and the website “were more than enough evidence of gross misrepresentation of the vaccine programme: anybody watching would be justified in being severely alarmed at the prospect of mass poisoning”.
Chetty’s narrative, Venter said, went against the Department of Health, local experts, and international guidelines.
“This level of pseudo-science within the profession needs to be firmly and quickly clamped down on. The HPCSA must do its duty in protecting the public and discipline Chetty.”
In his written response, Chetty said the video was taken at a three-day Caribbean Summit held by the Word Council for Health, which brought together experts in various fields to share opinions and insights on the pandemic. (Wikipedia describes the World Council for Health as a pseudo-medical organisation dedicated to spreading misinformation to discourage Covid-19 vaccination and promoting fake Covd-19 treatments.)
The summit was not open to the general public and was a behind-closed-doors robust discussion.
Chetty said he did not consent to any recording being shared with the public.
He said he was not an “anti-vaxxer” but he was of the view that the vaccine technology had been rushed to market, with poor safety surveillance by clinical trials, and with a disregard for informed consent and individual choice.
In a written response, Venter said Chetty’s right to freedom of speech did not absolve him of his ethical duties.
This included not posting opinions on the professional reputations of their colleagues on social media “lest the public lose faith in the healthcare profession”.
Chetty is expected to plead not guilty to all the charges. According to the minutes of a pre-inquiry conference, both the HPCSA and Chetty intend to call expert witnesses. DM
First published by GroundUp.
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It’s good that health professionals are taken to task by the medical fraternity.
We have verifiable indicators that anti-COVID claims have damaged the campaign against serious diseases like Measles (Rubeola). Some reports show that Measles has surged back into circulation, with an 18% increase globally and an increase of deaths by 43% in 2022 from 2021. (The WHO considers this causal.). If doctors want to be trusted, they need to do better science. Those who don’t do good science, need to take responsibility for the consequences of their public claims.
A copy of the report is available from Diane Abad-Vergara, Communication Officer [email protected]
Science has become a single view narrative owned & governed by big Pharmaceuticals who manufacture the “recommend” the drugs. Great examples of this was HIV which recently “disappeared” cause the 20yr patent expire & there was no return on investment to fund NGOs & continue creating hype on HIV. These same Pharmaceuticals provide grants on research, & only approve grants on research that provides a favorable exposure to their products. The trend seems to be that medicine are developed & then followed by the virus. One cannot help but question if viruses are created.
Jeff you need to do some serious reading in a decent library to educate yourself.
I can assure you that viruses do exist and that HIV has certainly not disappeared – there are over 12 million infected people in SA at the moment !
Stop following nonsense on social media
The claims that Covid vaccine production was rushed and safety protocols not adhered to is not unique to this doctor. Worldwide leaders are being taken to court for the near forced covid vaccination of the population. The Italian health minister cannot move outside without masses of people screaming mass murder due to covid vaccines. Safety data that was hidden from the public by the manufacturers released recently indicate that a lot of people knew that there were more issues than they let on. I agree that the whole issue of covid vaccinations led to people doubting vaccines in general, but that is the fault of covid vaccine producers and the hard punters like Francois Venter. Not the fault of people who said hold on. This doctor apparently has affadavits of 24 000 patients whom he brought through Covid in KZN, to state that he helped them to survive covid. At the time that he was treating patients at the height of the pandemic there was no cure for covid, people were dying in hospitals and he put his own life at risk to literally help thousands of patients. The issues that Francois Venter took him to the HPCSA for are issues debated internationally in Canada, the USA, the UK, Europe. The Indian government sent ivermectin in home care packages to covid patients in case it may help them to survive. There are hundreds of medical professionals worldwide who said and did the same things as this doctor in the genuine belief that they were caring for and protecting their patients
You also need to stop reading nonsense on social media
Hmmm, the problem is when it is not nonsense but the inconvenient truth. Of course no mainstream media or governments or the hard punters want to highlight that there are more safety data issues coming out now after modern and Pfizer were forced to reveal some of their data they didn’t previously share. The social media nonsense that I don’t know if it is true is that both Francois Venter and Shabir Modi have shares in covid vaccine companies and that their extreme persecution of anti covid vaxxers are not quite as unbiased as one thinks. Maybe ground up can also give us the correct information on the share holding of all these prominent covid vaccine punters, if they have any shares in any covid vaccine producing company.
Truth requires proof. Social media provides no proof, only constant repetition of the same untested rumours.
I think it is absolutely awful that Francois Venter made a case against this doctor at the HPCSA. I don’t think the doctor did anything wrong. He disagreed with Francois Venter and with the covid panel but it is a genuine debate, and who knows who will end up being right in twenty years time. In twenty years time we may look back and say yes, there may have been issues with the mRNA covid vaccines . They were rushed, the safety data was suppressed. It was a pandemic and those who punted the vaccines were trying to help people, in as much as those who said hold on, is it safe, were trying to help people. Health ministers are being taken to court about covid vaccinations and being blamed for the increase in autoimmune diseases, myocarditis blamed on vaccines. I don’t think it is right that health ministries are being blamed for covid vaccine side effects. They were trying to do their best with the information available at the time. I don’t think Francois Venter should be taken to the HPCSA for being such a hard proponent of covid vaccines if one day they are deemed not safe enough in their current form, but neither do I think people who tried to help patients survive covid using what was available and affordable to them at the time should be taken to the HPCSA either.
It is not a debate it is science. His actions if you read the article was not based on science and he actively marketed his remedies causing unnecessary deaths
How many deaths may I ask?
I and many thousands took ivermetcin and not only “cured” ourselves and are still here, unvactinated and very healthy.
Ivermectin treats roundworm, Covid is a virus and would not be affected by an anti parasite medication. At best Ivermectin did nothing and your immune system fought Covid and kept you alive.
He treated patients as a GP, as did many many other health professionals worldwide. Not everyone could afford the insanely overpriced covid anti virals and monoclonal antibodies. How many government officials have court cases pending against them because of covid vaccinations in other countries. Maybe ground up should report how many countries have potential class action law suits. I don’t agree with suing government officials and hard covi vaccine punters like François Venter and Shabir Modi. That is doing the same wrong from the opposite side. But there has to be some acknowledgement that there are a lot of questions coming out about covid vaccines, and that maybe the science is not as hard as these punters claim. And that is the problem. There is very little truth and a lot of posturing on both sides of the covid debate
Well this comment section is about as entertaining as I thought it would be. The antivaxxers live amongst us – like those kids who never contributed to the group project – in an essentially Covid free world because of the stellar work of scientists and health professionals like Prof Venter.