The row between the denialist doctor, Ángel Ruiz-Valdepeñas, and the Balearic Islands College of Physicians, which in May imposed the harshest sanction in the organisation’s history, is far from over. The collegiate body has received complaints from Ibizan schools claiming that this doctor from Formentera hospital, suspended from membership for six years for his stance on the pandemic, has issued certificates exempting students from wearing masks.
The facts are admitted by both parties, but it remains to be seen if the doctor was authorised to issue the certificates. According to the College, under no circumstances can Ruiz-Valdepeñas sign an “Official Medical Certificate” such as the ones he has issued using his COMIB membership details. However, the Formentera emergency doctor says that “ I am not officially suspended, they are only proposing a sanction. We’ll need to see if I decide to sue them for slander and defamation“.
The College insists that Ruiz-Valdepeñas’ suspension is final, such that his suspended status appears in the official register of doctors who can practise in the Balearic Islands. The doctor claims that he appealed the decision, but medical authorities have replied to say that the Collegiate Medical Organisation of Spain, the umbrella organisation for the regional colleges, flatly rejected the sanctioned medic’s allegations. The doctor allegedly invoked freedom of expression to justify his numerous criticisms of the official approach to the pandemic.
Ruiz-Valdepeñas adds that issuing the certificates does not contradict his denialist position, something often attributed to him but which he rejects saying “I am not crazy”. He is against the use of masks, because in his view it has more harmful consequences than benefits, he states that “as a doctor I issue the certificate when a patient asks me to”. Before coming to him, the recipients of the exemption “ask many doctors, who are reluctant to sign them”.
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