Naturopath’s indefinite Covid ban over opinion piece in local newspaper

A naturopath has been slapped with an indefinite ban on his actions after spreading ‘false’ Covid vaccine information.

An opinion piece that was published in a local newspaper has left a South Australian naturopath indefinitely banned from giving health advice or information about Covid-19 vaccinations.

The Health and Community Services Complaints Commissioner (HCSCC) Grant Davies issued a prohibition order against Wayne Liebelt after investigating the Mount Barker practitioner.

As of Wednesday, the naturopath cannot provide health education or information related to Covid-19 vaccinations or give any advice in relation to the provision of the specified health service of Covid-19 vaccination.

He is still allowed to continue offering naturopathy services as long as he doesn’t breach the order against him.

The peak health complaints service received a complaint about an anti-Covid vaccination article that was written by the Mr Liebelt and published in the Adelaide Hills Herald on June 24 this year.

He claimed the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines were “unnecessary” and “ineffective”.

It sparked an investigation into the Adelaide Hills naturopath that found he acted contrary to a number of clauses in the Code of Conduct for Certain Health Care Workers.

He was initially banned for 12 weeks in August while the probe was underway.

“The investigation found the claims contained in the article authored by Mr Liebelt were, on the balance of probabilities, manifestly false and misleading,” Associate Professor Grant Davies Davies said.

“His article made a number of claims and assertions, which when read together, suggest Covid-19 vaccines are unsafe, harmful and ineffective and that the vaccine industry is knowingly trying to deceive and enslave the world in an unsafe, ineffective and deceptive experiment.

“Mr Liebelt is not trained or qualified to provide educational information about Covid-19 vaccines and appears to have based his claims and assertions on articles and blogs which are not peer-reviewed and are mostly opinion and speculation.”

Anyone with concerns can contact the HCSCC on 8226 8666.