Additional reporting by Niamh Uí Bhriain
A GP who openly questioned aspects of the government’s response to Covid-19, including lockdowns, face-mask use, and the vaccination of children, has been found guilty of misconduct by the Irish Medical Council.
Wexford-based GP Dr Billy Ralph was brought before the council on foot of a number of tweets he made during the lockdown, which were deemed to be “entirely inappropriate, dangerous and undermining of the National Public Health Emergency Team and public health guidance”.
Dr Ralph’s wife, Paula Byrne, told the council that “independent thought is not the same thing as professional misconduct” and that it was “sad to see” her husband’s over 30 years of service as a GP “reduced to a few tweets”.
As Gript previously reported, MEP for Ireland South, Michael McNamara, described the Medical Council’s inquiry into Dr Ralph for posting ‘inappropriate tweets’ during the Covid-19 response as an “inquisition”.
The MEP, who is a barrister and previously represented Clare as a TD, quoted Dr Ralph as saying previously “in a slightly different context” that the inquiry was “all about control. Not about health” – and added, “The Medical Council’s Inquisition is not about health.”
On 14 December 2021, Dr Ralph tweeted: “I will not be injecting any child with this completely untried product in this cohort. 27 years of practice, I have never seen an experimental product used on children. Especially for a condition that holds less risk than the treatment. Smacks of regulatory and moral capture.”
The Council also examined tweets where it is claimed that Dr Ralph supported the use of ivermectin as a treatment for Covid-19, and was critical of the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) and the State’s response to the pandemic.
In addition to saying that the tweets were inappropriate, the council found that they undermined public health guidelines.
Before the determination was made today, Michael McNamara told Gript that the IMC hearing “smacks of inquisition” and that he now understood why doctors who did not agree with the policy at the time were afraid to speak out.
“It smacks of inquisition,” he said.”I knew many doctors agreed with the Medical Council position, but also some who did not but remained silent. Now I understand why,” he said.
On December 14th, 2021, Dr Ralph tweeted in response to a tweet from RTÉ News on the same date in regard to vaccination of under 12s:
“I will not be injecting any child with this completely untried product in this cohort. 27 years of practice, I have never seen an experimental product used on children. Especially for a condition that holds less risk than the treatment.”
Dr Marcus de Brun, who faced an IMC hearing in February, accompanied Dr Ralph at the hearing today, posting on X that: “I know now how honest men and women must have felt and what they experienced when they faced the Inquisition many centuries ago, and how Galileo felt when he was being punished for daring to suggest that the earth revolves around the Sun.”
The committee in the inquiry into Dr de Brún has yet to announce its findings.
Counsel for the Medical Council, Neasa Bird, said that while Dr Ralph had a constitutional right to freedom of expression which included questioning strategies adopted during the pandemic, this was not an absolute right and was subject to public order and morality.
Dr Ralph’s wife Paula said, “Over the course of these proceedings I have listened carefully to everything that has been said. I have listened to arguments about tweets, professional obligation, public confidence and standards. What I would like to speak about today is the man at the centre of all of this.”
“I have known Billy for 42 years. I have watched him study into the night for exams, work 80 hours as a junior doctor, get up in the middle of the night for patients. I have watched him carry worries about people home with him. I have watched him cry when he lost patients. I have watched him dedicate his life to medicine, not because it was lucrative or easy but because he genuinely cared about people.”
“That is the man I know, and it has been difficult, at times heartbreaking, to sit in this room and watch 32 years of service reduced to a handful of posts made during one of the most divisive and uncertain periods in modern history.”
“The Billy I know is not reckless. He is not indifferent to suffering. He is not motivated by ego or personal gain. He is someone who asks questions. He is someone who thinks for himself. He is someone who has always been willing to stand alone if he believed something needed to be said.”
“That quality may be uncomfortable at times; it may even be unpopular, but it is also a quality that has driven progress in every profession throughout history. I am not asking you to agree with Billy. I am not asking you to endorse what he said. I am asking you to recognise that he said those things because he believed them, not because they were fashionable, not because they were safe, not because they were profitable, but because he genuinely believed he had a duty to speak.”
“Whatever conclusions have been reached about that decision, I ask you to remember that conviction is not the same thing as malice, disagreement is not the same thing as dishonesty, and independent thought is not the same thing as professional misconduct,” she said.