Blame Bill Gates and sue the school principal: Doctor who unmasked and shared COVID conspiracy tales gets 9-months suspension

An Ontario doctor who breached an undertaking to abide by pandemic directives on mask wearing, and who told a patient COVID-19 was a money-making scheme involving Bill Gates has been suspended for nine months and ordered to pay $6,000 in college costs. Dr. Jeffrey Rice Holmes Matheson, who is listed by the website HealthLocal as a family physician in Ajax, just east of Toronto, was reported to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario by a patient who visited him in February 2021. According to the decision document released by the Ontario Physicians and Surgeons Discipline Tribunal, Dr. Matheson didn’t wear a surgical mask at the start of the appointment and told the patient she didn’t need to wear one either. However the patient asked him to put on a mask, and he complied with her request. During a couple of visits with another patient the previous year, Dr. Matheson wore a mask to come to the front desk but removed it as soon as he and the patient went into the exam room. In both instances he told the patient she could remove her mask. The patient did so the first time he said this but kept her mask on the second time. Read: Man accused of selling bleach as COVID cure extradited to U.S. This same patient told the college that Dr. Matheson informed her that a mask would not help her with COVID-19 and that the pandemic was a media conspiracy and a scheme to make money, with Microsoft founder Bill Gates among those working behind the scenes. Dr. Matheson also told this patient children cannot contract COVID-19 and should not be made to wear masks. According to the decision document, the patient—who is a teacher—also heard from Dr. Matheson that he recommended to parents that they send their children to school without masks and threaten to sue school principals who challenge them. Dr. Matheson also stated that COVID-19 tests are being sold to China for DNA sequencing. This was not the first time Dr. Matheson has been investigated and sanctioned by the college. In 2017, he was suspended for four months and got his prescribing privileges restricted for his “cavalier and reckless approach to opioid prescribing” after four pharmacists raised concerns. Read: How do we come back from a pandemic of misinformation? In 2015 he was investigated for his actions involving medical records, treating himself and family members, and physician relationships with industry. In 2018, he came under scrutiny again for encouraging a patient to purchase about $300’s worth of supplements from his office. The following year the college cautioned him after receiving a complaint about his social media posts on vaccines. “The somewhat longer length of suspension here reflects the seriousness of this case,” wrote the discipline tribunal, “notably Dr. Matheson’s failure to follow fundamental public health measures during a pandemic, discipline history, immediate disregard for his own commitment and the fact that he did this in the face of having the importance of following the rules brought to his attention multiple times in recent years.” Read: Prohibitively unenforceable: Were Canada's COVID restrictions a repeat of its history with alcohol prohibition?

Blame Bill Gates and sue the school principal: Doctor who unmasked and shared COVID conspiracy tales gets 9-months suspension

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