DoH warns healthcare workers against Covid-19 misinformation
The Department of Health (DoH) has warned healthcare workers against spreading fake news and unverified information about the Covid-19 vaccines.
About a week ago, prominent heart surgeon Dr Susan Vosloo came under fire for anti-vaxxer remarks.
In a video published on BitChue, Vosloo talks about Covid-19 vaccines and describes it as “gene therapy disguised as vaccines”.
The South African Medical Association (SAMA) has since said it would not support any medical practitioner facing charges of disinformation about Covid-19 vaccines.
In a media briefing on Friday, the department's Director-General , Dr Sandile Buthelezi warned that any health professional spreading misinformation will be brought to task.
“We have regulators which is the South African Nursing Council (SANC) and the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA),” notes Buthelezi.
“The main function of the regulator is to deal with those issues in terms of the conduct of health workers to ensure it is within the acceptable ethical guidelines that are there.”
“We would like to warn our healthcare workers to ensure that they don’t do something that is deemed unethical because they can be taken to task through the regulatory bodies,” says Buthelezi.
He urged the public to report healthcare workers who spread fake news.
“We also want the public to be able to report those people to us as the department because all the professional healthcare workers have a body that they are registered with and we employ them on the basis that they are paying fees in those regulatory bodies that are responsible for dealing with their ethical conducts.”
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