The Victorian Civil and Administrative Council (VCAT) has advised a western Melbourne pharmacist to seek legal advice and reconsider her application for a review against the suspension of her registration by the Pharmacy Board of Australia because of her expressed views against official health measures taken to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a report in The Age on Wednesday, the pharmacy regulating body told the VCAT tribunal that it had suspended the Greek-Australian pharmacist on 1 March because it had decided that she posed a “serious risk” as she had not complied with directions given by the Victoria’s Chief Health Officer and had disregarded her patients’ health and public safety.

The board went on to say that the pharmacist had failed to show sound judgement and would not give sound advice to clients concerned about COVID-19 and who were not sure about the vaccines or how they should comply with public health advice.

“Over many months, in the midst of a pandemic, the applicant has [practised] in defiance of laws designed to protect public health and safety,” the Pharmacy Board of Australia reportedly told the tribunal. “She has made known her views about [COVID-19] and vaccinations that are contrary to public health advice.”

The board pointed out that in one of the documents submitted to VCAT, the pharmacist had said that mRNA vacccines caused AIDS and this was one reason to doubt her judgement.

The board also drew attention to one of the documents the pharmacist submitted to the tribunal in which she alleged Pfizer had paid a $2.8 million to bribe the US Food and Drug Administration to approve its vaccine for COVID-19. Another submitted document referred to the vaccinations as “experimental” and that they allegedly posed a “real risk of an unprecedented genocide.”

The pharmacist told the tribunal that the chair of the Pharmacy Board of Australia was not qualified to suspend her and that her application should be heard in the Magistrates Court.

VCAT senior tribunal member Anna Dea said it was a matter of concern that a health practitioner had relied on material from the internet for views on vaccines that were made to protect people from COVID-19. Ms Dea said the pharmacist had fallen “under the spell of a world view that is remote from reality and entirely inconsistent with standards of the pharmacy profession”.

“In my view, her theories regarding health measures directed at protecting Victorians from the COVID-19 pandemic might, at best, be described as misguided and, at worst, as dangerous nonsense,” Ms Dea said.

She advised the pharmacist seek legal advice and consider if she still wanted a review of her suspension and that she submit her decision in writing to the tribunal and to the pharmacy board by 19 April.

Ms Dea also rejected the pharmacist’s application to attend to the pharmacy on the basis that the tribunal did not have the power to grant such an injunction.

Neos Kosmos made numerous attempts to contact the pharmacist on Wednesday and Thursday.