Brampton-based doctor Kulvinder Kaur Gill is facing plenty of scorn and criticism from fellow physicians and others after she put out a series of tweets about COVID-19.
A news outlet reviewed two email complaints about Gill’s tweets, including one by a family doctor to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, which sets regulatory standards for doctors in the province.
One of her tweets, from August 6, stated: “#Humanity’s existing effective defences against #COVID19 to safely return to normal life now includes: -Truth, -T-cell Immunity, -Hydroxychloroquine.”
That tweet has since been taken down for violating Twitter’s rules. Twitter doesn’t confirm what rules a specific tweet may have violated when it has been taken down. Many doctors also replied critically to Gill’s tweet.
Hydroxychloroquine is a drug used to treat malaria and it has been touted by U.S. President Donald Trump as a potential fix for COVID-19. However, the drug has been shown to be ineffective in combating the virus, according to a major study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
On August 4, Gill tweeted “If you have not yet figured out that we don’t need a vaccine, you are not paying attention,” adding the hashtag #FactsNotFear. Gill identifies herself as Kulvinder Kaur on her Twitter profile.
Another of Gill’s tweets on the same day states, “There is absolutely no medical or scientific reason for this prolonged, harmful, and illogical lockdown.”
Gill operates a clinic in Brampton, Ont., and she has over 22,000 followers on Twitter. She is also the president and cofounder of Concerned Ontario Doctors, a self-described grassroots group which has been critical of the Ontario Medical Association, the organization that represents 34,000 of the province’s doctors. All practicing physicians in the province are legally mandated to pay dues to the OMA, though they do not have to be members of the group. The Concerned Doctors of Ontario did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Gill and others have said the OMA attempts to muzzle doctors, and it refuses to be financially transparent and accountable to its members.
“In a democratic society: there must always be open, constructive, public debate. Voices of Physicians & Scientists must never be attacked, censored or silenced,” she said in a statement to the media.
Gill has also retweeted another doctor, Simone Gold, who claimed there was a financial incentive to discredit hydroxychloroquine as a treatment. Gold’s tweet was taken down for violating Twitter rules, but not Gill’s retweet.
This matter is far from resolved.
