A GP and former Medical Council member has been found guilty of professional misconduct over social media posts during the pandemic that were highly critical of Covid-19 vaccines and public health guidelines.A fitness-to-practise committee of the Medical Council also found allegations of professional misconduct proven against Marcus de Brun over his attendance and comments made at a public rally in August 2020 when he failed to maintain social distancing or wear a face mask.The doctor, who had operated his own practice in Rush, north Co Dublin, claimed he had turned to social media only after his attempts to raise his concerns with the Medical Council, the regulatory body for doctors, were “flatly dismissed and ignored”.The council’s ruling followed an inquiry held over seven days since September into 10 counts of professional misconduct against de Brun over his criticism of vaccines, lockdowns and face masks as well as the National Public Health Emergency Team and the medical profession.Most allegations related to 67 posts by the GP on social media network Twitter, now X, between May 2020 and October 2021 when the number of his followers rose to 40,000.The committee found seven allegations of professional misconduct proven, including four for which the actions of de Brun were considered both “disgraceful and dishonourable” and falling seriously short of the standards expected of doctors.The findings related to posts about Covid-19 vaccines, particularly for children, lockdowns, and his attendance at a public rally at the Custom House in Dublin on August 22nd, 2020, which was attended by up to 7,000 people.In one tweet, de Brun claimed giving healthy children a genetic-based vaccine was “the greatest crime against humanity that this century has witnessed so far”.In another post, he implied that parents bringing children for vaccines was a form of child abuse.[ New HSE autism assessments may ‘harm children’ and lengthen wait lists, groups sayOpens in new window ]The inquiry chairperson, Prof Deirdre Murphy, said some of the GP’s comments were “grossly irresponsible” given his status as a doctor, while other posts were “deliberately emotive, misguided and reckless”.She claimed posts that suggested lockdowns were unnecessary and introduced for nefarious purposes were “very concerning”. The committee said it was “troubling” that the GP had posted “in a rather boastful manner” about his hands being sore from all the handshakes he received at the public rally when he was treating patients in his own surgery less than 48 hours later.Murphy described his behaviour at the gathering as “completely and utterly unacceptable”.Murphy said de Brun had sought to give additional credence to his posts by highlighting that he was also a qualified microbiologist.She said doctors had a responsibility to ensure their words and actions on public health matters, particularly during a health crisis, were accurate, evidence-based, not misleading and not undermining responses to a public health emergency.Although the committee found the GP’s posts criticising the use of face masks breached guidelines on the use of social media, Murphy said they did not amount to professional misconduct.[ ‘You can’t force people to stay’: How to stop the exodus of Irish medical graduates?Opens in new window ]She said it was surprising that a doctor would use coarse language such as “gobshite” and “peasants” when referencing people wearing masks.After the ruling had been issued, de Brun told the committee their comments suggesting he stood over references to vaccines and child abuse was “a grossly unfair characterisation of me”.He said he had used strong language to try to get people thinking about the issue.“I still believe vaccines for children were grossly wrong,” he said.De Brun, who resigned from the Medical Council in April 2020 over what he claimed was the State’s failure to protect nursing home residents, admitted he was wrong to attend the rally.However, he said he had attended the event on behalf of nursing home patients dying at an alarming rate “because of government policy and neglect”.A few dozen supporters of the GP who attended the public hearing burst into regular rounds of applause as various of his tweets were read out, and gave de Brun a standing ovation when he made a closing submission.