Musk extends financial aid to Indian-origin doctor battling lawsuits over 'defamatory' Covid vaccine posts on X

SpaceX owner Elon Musk recently extended support to an Indian-origin doctor who has been battling legal suits since after she expressed her stance against lockdowns that were imposed in 2020 owing to coronavirus outbreak.

Dr Kulvinder Kaur Gill is an immunologist and a physician practising in Canada. In 2020, she was vocal against the government imposed lockdowns and the mandatory orders passed over administering the vaccines for Covid-19. One of her posts on quoted by NDTV from X (then Twitter) read: "If you have not yet figured out that we don't need a vaccine, you are not paying attention. #FactsNotFear."

Many medical bodies filed law suits against Kaur while the previous management of Twitter barred her posts from the platforms on censorship concerns. After she posted a series of posts on Twitter (now X)— calling out on the lockdown and vaccine shots, her debts have piled owing to the massive CAD 300,000 (Rs 1,83,75,078) that she has to pay in legal fees.

Dr Kaur later sued 23 doctors, journalists, and news outlets while claiming that they were part of a defamation campaign launched against her. However, citing anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) law, a judge in Canada scrapped Kaur's application stating that she wanted to silence the voices of her critics. The judge even ruled that Dr Kaur would bear the legal expenses of the defendants.

Coming out in support of the Indian-origin doctor in Canada, Elon Musk's X posted recently posted: "Because she spoke out publicly on Twitter (now X) in opposition to the Canadian and Ontario governments' Covid lockdown efforts and vaccination mandates, she was harassed by the legacy media, censored by prior Twitter management, and subjected to investigations and disciplinary proceedings by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario that resulted in "cautions" being placed on her permanent public record."

The post on X, and by X also shared a link through which people can extend help to Dr Kaur through crowdfunding. The post read: "When Elon Musk learned earlier this week about her crowdfunding campaign to pay the judgment (https://givesendgo.com/kulvinder), he pledged to help. X will now fund the rest of Dr. Gill's campaign so that she can pay her $300,000 judgment and her legal bills".