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USask faculty member apologizes for outing anti-mandate advocate with COVID-19

A faculty member at the University of Saskatchewan’s College of Medicine has apologized for posting personal health information on social media without permission.

The faculty member said they went too far and apologized for any harm done by their actions.

The USask faculty member said they are now taking a step back from social media.

The Dean of Medicine, Preston Smith, is taking a strong stance on health privacy after the member of his faculty outed a well-known opponent of COVID restrictions for being in hospital with COVID-19.

The person in question has not been confirmed by Global News to be in hospital or COVID-19 positive at this time.

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The faculty member claims they called the Royal University Hospital and that staff confirmed the person was in a COVID-19 ward.

A USask faculty member posted this tweet which outed a well known opponent of COVID-19 restrictions for being in a COVID-19 hospital ward.
A USask faculty member posted this tweet which outed a well known opponent of COVID-19 restrictions for being in a COVID-19 hospital ward. Twitter

Smith says calling the hospital for this reason is harassment of staff, and that posting the information goes against the USask College of Medicine‘s privacy policy.

“I wanted to be out there in front of that and say no, this is something that’s really, really important to the College of Medicine,” Smith said.

“And we do not think it’s right for whatever reason to be going public with someone else’s health information.”

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While some people on Twitter are defending the posts, others are calling for the faculty member to be disciplined.

Smith would not comment on whether the employee’s job is in question.

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