A former GP who spread ‘dangerous’ and ‘baseless’ conspiracy theories about the Covid-19 pandemic has been struck off.
At the end of last month, the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) found that statements made by Dr Sam White in videos online amounted to serious misconduct and that erasure was necessary to protect public safety.
Dr White, who qualified as a GP in 2010, had resigned from his Hampshire GP practice ahead of the events described in the GMC’s allegations, which took place between 2021 and 2022.
During that period, he appeared in several interviews which were posted online and made a number of claims which centred on the idea that the Covid pandemic had ‘been planned and orchestrated’ by Big Pharma, ‘globalists’, Bill Gates, or Elon Musk.
The interviews also revealed Dr White’s belief that the Government had ‘gone along with those plans as part of some kind of evil tyranny’, the tribunal found.
He referenced ‘The Matrix’ film, from which the tribunal concluded that he believed ‘humanity is living in a dystopian world in which intelligent machines control and exploit humanity’.
‘Many of the statements related to conspiracy theories and the deliberate manipulation of the population by those with another agenda for the infection and vaccine development,’ the tribunal document said.
Tribunal chair Malcolm Dodds concluded that the former GP’s comments about the pandemic and vaccines were ‘dangerous’ and ‘baseless’, and that they ‘undermined’ public confidence in both the medical profession and public health information.
The panel found Dr White ‘used his position as a doctor to promote his opinion’, and that his views ‘went far beyond’ the ‘scope of legitimate debate and the right to freedom of expression of a minority view’.
The tribunal also found that since videos were posted during the pandemic, Dr White’s views amounted to ‘unreasonable scaremongering’.
It said: ‘The Tribunal is satisfied that Dr White’s baseless claims and scaremongering is likely to have caused patients and the wider public (worried and confused about the pandemic) distress and greater confusion.’
In 2021, Dr White was called to an Interim Orders Tribunal where an order was imposed which attempted to restrict his ability to post his opinions on social media platforms.
But Dr White appealed this order at the High Court, which found that his rights to freedom of expression had been breached by the order, and the interim order was quashed.
At this separate MPTS hearing, the GMC argued that suspension would be the most appropriate sanction, but the tribunal went further, concluding that erasure was ‘necessary’ given the ‘seriousness of Dr White’s misconduct, lack of any evidence of insight, and the continued risk that he posed’.
He did not attend the hearings and had not engaged with the GMC since 2023.
The tribunal heard evidence of some of the comments he made in the interviews circulated online, which included the claim that the pandemic was ‘all planned’ at least a decade ago.
Dr White also said: ‘My stance is that I think….I think there is a virus. Because I think these people have been creating these viruses for many years and that is going to come out shortly.’
He referenced the ‘middle levels of the military overthrowing the tyranny’ and the need to ‘be afraid of the Government’.
After resigning from his NHS GP role, Dr White set up his own practice in functional medicine.
Last year, GP Dr Jayne Donegan was erased from the medical register after a tribunal concluded that her statements on vaccines amounted to misconduct.
The tribunal found that she ‘encouraged parents to mislead healthcare professionals about their children’s diet or immunisation history’.
Earlier this year, the GMC said it will reconsider its decision not to investigate a high-profile cardiologist amid concerns he is spreading ‘vaccine misinformation’.
If he turned up as a patient one would want to exclude a delusionary problem. Otherwise he has risked lives