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Anti-vax nurse who says COVID-19 is a hoax is struck off NMC register

Campaigner Kate Shemirani opposes vaccination and says fellow nurses can’t be trusted
Anti-vax campaigner Kate Shemirani has been stuck off the NMC register

Kate Shemirani posed a threat to public safety and brought her profession into disrepute, NMC ruled

Anti-vax campaigner Kate Shemirani has been stuck off the NMC register
Kate Shemirani addressing a rally in Trafalgar Square. Picture: Wikimedia Commons

A nurse and anti-vax campaigner who said the pandemic was a scam and nurses should not be trusted has been struck off.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) removed Kay Allison – known as Kate – Shemirani from the register following a fitness to practise (FtP) hearing on 28 May.

Nurse encouraged public to mistrust her own profession

Ms Shemirani, an aesthetic nurse practitioner from the south of England, made claims on social media and at public protests denying the existence of the COVID-19 pandemic, describing it as a scam and claiming vaccinations are poisonous.

The NMC found Ms Shemirani encouraged the public to mistrust the health advice of nurses and healthcare professionals and that she used her status as a nurse to promote her own ‘distorted version of the truth’.

The FtP panel said it was striking Ms Shemirani from the register to protect the public and because she had brought the profession into disrepute.

It said Ms Shemirani had not displayed insight or shown remorse, adding she had not fully engaged with the process, and that she herself had indicated she wanted to be removed from the register.

Beliefs ‘appeared to be genuine’

Official papers state Ms Shemirani ‘appears to genuinely believe that there currently is not a global pandemic, that the COVID-19 virus does not exist, that people are not dying from COVID-19 and that vaccines are unsafe and harmful to a person’s health’.

Ms Shemirani has 28 days to appeal against the striking-off order. Until then, an interim suspension order is in place.


Further reading

Fitness to practise hearing papers – Kay Allison Shemirani


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