Care home nurse who claimed Covid pandemic was a hoax while protesting against lockdowns in her uniform gets struck off

A nursing home nurse who attended a London Covid conspiracy rally in her nursing uniform and claimed the virus was a hoax has been taken down.

Carley Louise Stewart, from Preston, attended the mass protest in August 2020 carrying a sign reading ‘Nurse on call’. Where is the pandemic?’

The mother of two, who was fired from her job at the care home after the incident, was declared unfit to continue as a nurse by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) both for her attendance at the protest and multiple comments that sowed mistrust in official guidance.

These included accusing people who were abiding by the Covid restrictions imposed on the public at the time of “performing satanic rituals and wickedness in compliance”.

Stewart, in his early 30s, also bragged about flouting rules restricting holiday gatherings in 2020 by hiring friends and family as temps so they could visit his home.

She was dressed in her nursing uniform and brandishing a sign with the words “We have empty beds” on the side and “Nurse on call.” Where is the pandemic? in the other one

Stewart, who lost her job over her protest appearance, has now been struck off the nursing registry.

In striking her out, the NMC said her “inflammatory” comments were intended to “generate anger” during the pandemic and could have put members of the public at risk of harm.

Stewart, who did not attend NMC proceedings earlier this month, faced a total of 10 charges related to her conduct as a nurse.

All this related to her attending the protest in her nurse’s uniform and the comments she made through social networks and YouTube afterwards.

This included claiming that the Covid PCR tests people used to see if they had the virus didn’t work, and that she had seen “no evidence of a killer virus let alone a pandemic.”

He also claimed that the viruses were not actually contagious and that those who followed Covid restrictions in 2020, such as six-foot social distancing, were engaging in ‘satanic rituals’.

“6 FEET 6 PEOPLE 6 MONTHS 666 If you don’t know, you are performing satanic and evil rituals upon compliance,” she wrote on Facebook in September of that year.

Stewart also bragged about getting around the ‘rule of six’, a Covid restriction that limits social gatherings to six people at Christmas in 2020.

“At the time the UK government is joking with you,” he wrote on Facebook.

‘I’m not allowed to have my family around for Christmas.

‘However I am allowed to have employees around £6quid later, Fenn Settle Ltd. is now a legally registered company, registered with company house.

‘And now I can “hire” my family and friends on a 0 hour contract and invite them to an “unpaid construction event” at my house (registered venue) regardless of any tier system and totally regardless of the rule of 6 .

It is unknown if Stewart actually went through with this plan.

The NMC said that comments about covid, restrictions and health advice, as well as her appearance at the protest in her nurse’s uniform, were carried out against official health advice, encouraged the public to ignore the official guidelines and breaking the law, and sowed mistrust in other healthcare professionals with opposing views.

The fitness to practice panel said: “The panel found Ms Stewart’s comments to be openly critical of any of her nursing colleagues who disagreed with her views and accused healthcare professionals of not taking proper care of the residents in their charge and having a lack of knowledge.

“The panel considered that Ms. Stewart’s conduct would undermine the public’s trust in health professionals and have the impact that some members of the public would ignore the views of those professionals.”

They added: “The panel found Ms Stewart’s behavior to be serious, presenting misleading information to the public as a registered health professional that could encourage them to ignore official health advice, potentially putting members of the public at risk. risk of harm”.

In the ruling, the panel found all the charges against him proven, adding that Stewart had shown no knowledge of his behavior.

While the NMC noted that Stewart had free speech, this was overruled “in the interests of public safety and the protection of the public.”

Kate Shemirani was struck from the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s register for spreading misinformation about the pandemic

Given the evidence, the panel said that nothing less than removing Stewart from the nursing registry would suffice.

He has 28 days to appeal the ruling that was handed down on August 11.

While the NMC received multiple reports of his comments and his appearance at the protest in 2020, the fitness to practice proceedings were delayed in part due to Stewart requesting a postponement.

Stewart is not the first nurse to be spurned by the NMC for her role in promoting misinformation about covid.

Former nurse and embarrassed anti-vaccine activist Kate Shemirani, who compared NHS workers to Nazi war criminals and likened Covid lockdown restrictions to the Holocaust, was also rejected by the NMC in the 2021 ruling.

Almost 230,000 Britons are known to have died from covid since the start of the pandemic.