Doctor fined $6,000 for posting covid-19 misinformation

Dr. Marta María Roa De Gracia de Salteiro has been fined $6000 by the Ministry of Health (Minsa), because she made “statements in alternative media attributing deaths in children, adults and health professionals to vaccination against Covid-19 without providing scientific medical evidence, among other faults.”

“By hindering, with her statements, the vaccination actions established by the health authority, Dr. Roa has violated article 20 of Law 48 of December 5, 2007, which regulates the vaccination process in the Republic of Panama.”

It also points out that it violated Resolution No. 1420 of June 1, 2020, which establishes the mandatory use of masks “by inciting the population not to use the chinstrap and personally not to use it, as there is evidence during a protest in the Supreme Court of Justice”.

A report from Minsa indicates that the doctor offered unauthorized statements in the media and social networks on November 15, 2021, November 16, 2021, and January 21, 2022.

“In these statements, Dr. Roa encourages the population not to get vaccinated against Covid-19. She assures that there are more than a thousand deaths due to the vaccine in Panama, that there are deaths of children and adults due to the vaccine, that healthy people are dying after applying the vaccine, that there is death among health professionals who attend hospitals, among other indications given without providing scientific evidence, ”