Maria Stogiannis: Yarraville pharmacist suspended over Covid vaccine ‘mass murder’ claims

Authorities have suspended a Melbourne pharmacist who described the Pfizer vaccine as a “bioweapon”, a tribunal has heard.

A “loved” Yarraville pharmacist poses a “serious risk” to public health and should not be allowed to return to work, a tribunal has heard.

Maria Stogiannis, who practised at her Wembley Ave, Yarraville pharmacy until late last year, appeared briefly in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal on Wednesday where she is challenging a decision by the pharmacy board to immediately suspend her registration.

Barrister Ben Jellis, for the pharmacy board, said Ms Stogiannis’s registration was suspended because the board feared she posed a serious risk to public health and because the public interest would best be served by her being sidelined from the profession.

“There was a sound basis for the board to take immediate action,” Mr Jellis said.

Mr Jellis said Ms Stogiannis an investigation by AHPRA concluded Ms Stogiannis had disregarded public health directions and practices while she was subject to prohibition order.

Mr Jellis said she recently referred to the Pfizer vaccine as a “bioweapon” and queried whether “we may be witnessing the greatest organised mass murder in the history of the world”.

Mr Jellis said the community should be able to trust pharmacists to provide health advice.

Yarraville pharmacist Maria Stogiannis poses a “serious risk” to the community because of her views on the Pfizer vaccine. File photo: NCA NewsWire/Joel Carrett

Ms Stogiannis was represented by a friend, who told the tribunal he was not a lawyer and accused Mr Jellis of being “very clever”.

Ms Stogiannis’s friend made a long series of incoherent arguments about the United States Supreme Court, the 1999 republican referendum, the Constitution and treason.

He said there was “no free country called Australia” and said Ms Stogiannis should be allowed to return to work, where her customers “literally love her”.

The tribunal rejected Ms Stogiannis’s challenge to the tribunal’s power to hear her case, and refused her application for an injunction to allow her to work as a pharmacist.