HSE physiotherapist found to have committed professional misconduct over Covid-19 remarks

A physiotherapist working with the Health Service Executive (HSE) committed professional misconduct by making various public comments criticising Covid-19 public health guidelines, vaccines and face masks, a committee has found.

Anna Marie Stack Rivas appeared before a fitness-to-practice hearing held by Coru, the regulatory body of health and social care professionals, on Friday morning, where a professional conduct committee found that multiple allegations against the physiotherapist constituted professional misconduct, and recommended that she be censured, by way of sanction.

Among the comments that constituted professional misconduct were Ms Stack Rivas’s claims that masks were causing brain damage to children and making people sick; that vaccines contained “dangerous” ingredients like neurotoxins and can cause cervical cancer; and that public health guidance regarding vaccines was “maiming or murdering our children”.

Of a number of allegations made against Ms Stack Rivas, the committee found that 10 were both factual beyond reasonable doubt, and individually constituted acts of professional misconduct.

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The allegations related to comments made by Ms Stack Rivas, identifying herself as a physiotherapist or healthcare professional, on three separate occasions: at a public event outside the GPO on Dublin’s O’Connell Street on June 29th, 2020; at another event in a location unknown on December 19th, 2020; and in an online interview given on December 27th, 2020.

Four other allegations, relating to the December events, were found to be factual beyond reasonable doubt by the committee, and when considered together, constituted professional misconduct. The four allegations related to direct claims or inferences made by Ms Stack Rivas that the pandemic was a conspiracy.

The committee’s findings relied on transcripts of comments made by Ms Stack Rivas.

The committee’s chairperson Georgina Farren said that committee’s findings were “serious”, noting that Ms Stack Rivas, while identifying herself as a physiotherapist and healthcare professional, misinformed the public with her comments about the pandemic. Ms Farren said that the comments constituted “scaremongering”, were “irresponsible”, and “caused risk to the public”.

Ms Farren noted that Ms Stack Rivas “expressed little or no remorse” for her actions.

The committee considered mitigating factors in recommending a sanction, including the fact that, before the allegations made against Ms Stack Rivas, the physiotherapist enjoyed a “blemish free career”. Ms Farren also noted that Ms Stack Rivas made the offending comments “outside the physiotherapy context”, and there was no indication that she was not compliant with Covid-19 guidelines in the workplace.

Ms Farren said that the committee’s recommendation highlights the “serious view” the committee has of the findings, to both Ms Stack Rivas and other members of the healthcare profession.

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