A senior NHS surgeon with a 37-year career in medicine has been struck off for posting conspiracy theories about Covid – including that it was a scam for Bill Gates.
Muhammad Adil, 64, was hauled before a disciplinary tribunal after he dismissed Covid as a ‘flu-like virus’ and repeated various conspiracy theories about the illness on YouTube and X, formerly known as Twitter.
In June 2022 the married father-of-three, who lost his job as Locum Consultant Colorectal Surgeon at the Royal Oldham Hospital in Greater Manchester over the posts, was suspended from medical practice for six months after he apologised for what he called his ‘silly’ remarks.
But he then doubled down on his original views, claiming he was entitled to ‘free speech’ under the European Convention on Human Rights, adding he had an unblemished clinical record and that his beliefs were aired outside work hours.
At the Medical Practitioners’ Tribunal Service in Manchester, a fitness to practise panel ordered Adil’s name to be erased from the medical register following a review hearing which he refused to attend. He is currently appealing against the sanctions.
Adil, who qualified in 1986, had started making his remarks about Covid in April 2020, a month after the UK went into lockdown.