Ayrshire nurse suspended after comparing Covid vaccine rollout to the 'holocaust'

An Ayrshire nurse has been suspended after comparing the Covid vaccine rollout to the “holocaust” and promoting conspiracy theories.

Tracey McCallum made a number of posts on social media between 2020 and 2021 regarding the NHS and government response to the pandemic.

McCallum worked for NHS24, Scotland’s provider of digital health and care services, from 2009 until her suspension in 2021.

She described the global pandemic as a “scamdemic,” said that “giving the vaccine without proper testing is as good as genocide, like the holocaust” and that the government “created covert intelligence health bill – allows them to rape, murder, torture or anything else they feel like doing to us”.

Her colleagues and members of the public, concerned about the spread of misinformation, reported these posts to NHS24 and the Nursing and Midwifery Council, leading to her suspension.

In addition to the social media posts, McCallum also made similar comments on digital radio shows and podcasts The Richie Allen Show and Shelly Taskter Cornwall Revolution Show.

McCallum described Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates as wanting to “re-populate the world” through the vaccine and described the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) as “corrupt” after she was taken off the nursing register.

She also repeated claims that vaccination would be a “massive cull” that was “all about saving money as far as the government is concerned, will save a fortune in pensions and care homes and all that”.

National newspapers picked up the story after McCallum posted about her suspension on social media.

Commenting in the Daily Record and Mirror, she said she “stood by” her posts and repeated a false claim that anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine “could be key to tackling the pandemic”.

McCallum was also found to have shared a patient’s details in a social media post, breaching confidentiality.

In a hearing, the NMC found that her actions fell “seriously short of the conduct and standards expected of a nurse and amounted to misconduct”.

The panel went on to say that, while no patients were directly harmed by McCallum’s actions, there was a risk her views could have deterred someone from seeking medical advice.

It also added that if a member of the public was to follow treatment advice suggested by her, there was a “serious risk of harm”.

Overall the panel concluded that McCallum had shown an “abuse of position when spreading misinformation” and “harmful deep-seated attitudinal behaviour”.

The Council found that a suspension order was the most appropriate sanction as her actions did not involve clinical failings.

A temporary suspension order was placed on McCallum, which will be replaced by a 12-month suspension if no appeal is made.