Former TVNZ presenter and doctor Samantha Bailey has had her medical registration binned and has been ordered to pay almost 150k after posting COVID-19 misinformation to her YouTube channel, which garnered almost 18 million views.
Bailey was previously one of four presenters on the TVNZ health series The Checkup and posted videos to her channel talking about the “mythology” of the COVID-19 vaccine efficiency.
In many of her videos, Bailey promoted a book she co-authored which looked at “how the medical industry continually invents epidemics, making billion-dollar profits at our expense”.
In another video, she claimed she was let go from TVNZ for “not sticking to the narrative” regarding the vaccine.
In 2023, the medical council’s charges of “misleading and inappropriate” information were heard in the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal (HPDT) but Bailey did not turn up to the hearing.
A week before however, Bailey posted a video titled “Will I be Struck off?”, claiming the tribunal “does not even pretend to be impartial” and was “rigged from the start”.
She also said she would not pay any costs if ordered to do so and had no wish to return to the medical profession.
In the HPDT’s decision, it found she “imparted misinformation to a wide audience and in doing so has undermined New Zealand’s public health response to Covid-19″.
“She has published extensively and has refused to address the concerns raised by the Medical Council. The conduct is objectively serious.”
The tribunal ordered her to pay $148,450.41 in legal costs the council’s Professional Conduct Committee incurred prosecuting her.
She was also fined $10,000 and her registration was cancelled.
Photo Credit: RNZ
