A Christchurch doctor accused of sharing “misleading and inappropriate” information about the Covid-19 pandemic on her YouTube channel to thousands of subscribers is being investigated by the health practitioner’s watchdog.

Dr Samantha Bailey, who previously presented a TVNZ show, shared 23 videos on her social media, between March 2020 and July 2021, including one titled “Wiki Wonka and the Covid-19 Factory”.

Now, the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal (HPDT) is investigating the doctors’s conduct after the Professional Conduct Committee (PCC) received 15 complaints about the content she shared online.

While Bailey has not engaged in the tribunal’s process, and did not make an appearance at today’s hearing, she had previously tried to stop an investigation in 2021 until a judicial review could be heard. That was declined by a High Court judge on the basis of the balance of convenience and the interests of justice.

The Christchurch hearing before HPDT Chair Winston McCarthy and four tribunal members had only been under way for an hour when it was temporarily adjourned when members of the public, claiming they represented “the truth”, began to interrupt.

They called the hearing a “kangaroo court” and said Bailey was simply expressing her “freedom of speech”. One woman went as far as to claim it should be the tribunal members on trial.

“I hope you know you’re gonna be on the wrong side of history, all of you,” she said to the tribunal members before being asked to leave by security.

McCarthy briefly adjourned the hearing as members of the public continued to speak, warning them that if they continued to interrupt, they would be asked to leave.

However, McCarthy added he understood that some people may disagree with what was being discussed and would allow members of the public to speak briefly after the PCC had finished presenting its case.

Dr Jonathan Coates for the PCC said the content, uploaded to Bailey’s YouTube channel, titled “Dr Sam Bailey” were “self-styled” health advice videos that were “inappropriate and misleading”.

She had more than 200,000 subscribers with more than 18 million views on her channel and attracted tens of thousands of comments, Coates said.

The tribunal heard that Bailey had written to the Medical Council stating she stood by the validity of her content and that the complaints raised about her should be seen as “trolling”.

Coates said Bailey “publicly shared harmful information” during the Covid-19 pandemic which amounted to professional misconduct “sufficiently serious” to warrant sanction by the tribunal.

On Monday Bailey’s videos, some of which were removed by YouTube for breaching its medical misinformation policy, and some removed by her, were played to the tribunal.

Coates asked the tribunal members to try and remember what life was like with many people experiencing “chaos and anxiety” during the pandemic while watching the videos.

The videos show Bailey sitting in front of the camera speaking about issues related to Covid-19. She often starts the videos by saying what she is discussing is her personal opinion and references various research papers in relation to the virus.

She states she is “definitely not” getting the Covid-19 vaccine and encourages people to read a book she co-wrote titled Virus Mania.

Coates said it wasn’t just what Bailey said but the way she said it which was problematic for her as a member of the profession, with the use of memes throughout her videos.

He described the difference between misinformation and disinformation, the former being false information shared with no harm intended, the latter being false information knowingly shared to cause harm.

Coates submitted that Bailey’s content included disinformation and had “no special legal or medical meaning”.

He said the videos had the potential to mislead people in relation to Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests as a way of detecting Covid-19, the Covid-19 vaccines and issues relating to the virus. He also said comments Bailey made about other medical practitioners were inappropriate.

The PCC will call four witnesses, including experts in infectious diseases, vaccines and information disorders.

The tribunal will also hear evidence from someone who described feeling “desperate for authoritative information on the pandemic”.

The hearing, expected to take a week, continues.

Emily Moorhouse is a Christchurch-based Open Justice journalist at NZME. She joined NZME in 2022. Before that, she was at the Christchurch Star.