08-09-2021, 04:28 AM
(08-07-2021, 08:14 AM)Mav link Wrote:I’ve noticed you tend to project your faults on others. You regularly engage in ad hominem attacks but accuse others of using that tactic. And then you condemn taking “swipes at the man” but you do so immediately after declaring “Those fact check sites are drivel.” Hypocritical at best.Surely, you understood that these were 2 separate (though related) criticisms of you, Flyboy. The first is that you regularly use ad hominem attacks against those who post in this thread. The other is that you regularly dismiss any expert we cite as being worthless or corrupt. Your “swipe at the man” directed at the fact checker who carefully analysed and rebutted the good doctor’s theories and also directed at all the experts cited is an example of the latter.
Interesting to see Nick Coatsworth, former deputy CMO to the Federal Government is still maintaining the rage against Victoria: Public health leaders regret failure to rebuke anti-vaxxers, ‘zero COVID’ advocates, the SMH.
Quote:Former deputy chief medical officer Nick Coatsworth, one of the government’s top advisers in the early phase of the pandemic, said authorities underestimated the influence of commentators and academics who advocated an indefinite zero-COVID strategy and denigrated the AstraZeneca vaccine – and deliberately chose not to call them out publicly.
We always took the view in government, myself included, that this was a small group of people who didn’t have that much influence, and we would create more problems for ourselves if we started questioning academic freedom or asking people to stay in their swim lane,” Dr Coatsworth told The Sun-Herald and The Sunday Age.
“I actually think that was the wrong position to take. We should have been a lot firmer. We needed stronger voices out there. If I had my time again I think I would have been as forthright as I have in the last couple of weeks, [but] six months earlier.”
Dr Coatsworth, who is now executive director of medical services at Canberra Health Services, has recently used speeches, opinion pieces and social media to speak out against an indefinite “zero-COVID” approach and warn Australians must prepare for the virus to circulate as borders open.
He had suggested reopening at a vaccination rate of 50 per cent but called for the country to unite behind the 70 and 80 per cent targets modelled by the Doherty Institute and adopted by national cabinet.
Dr Coatsworth said he regretted underestimating the influence of zero-COVID advocates in the academy, whose commentary has shaped the discourse on COVID-19 management in Australia.
“There’s a very strong network in Australian academia that is pro COVID-zero,” he said. “There’s some very influential policy people, particularly down in Victoria, who have that particular view.
Extreme zero-COVID views look good, but they can have a fair few negative consequences that are difficult to count.”
Long-serving former Health Department secretary Jane Halton – who also sat on the government’s National COVID-19 Commission Advisory Board – did not agree with Dr Coatsworth about COVID-zero advocates but admitted the public health community had failed to counter misinformation about vaccines, especially AstraZeneca, and it was possibly too late to reverse the damage.
“I think nobody really understood how really problematic information that’s been circulating on social media – unchecked and unchallenged – has been for confidence in vaccines generally, and in AstraZeneca in particular,” Dr Halton told The Sun-Herald and The Sunday Age.
“We’ve all been out advocating vaccination. But I don’t think we’ve said enough about why people shouldn’t believe a lot of what they read. We shouldn’t assume that people understand all of these issues.”
So, when Dr Nick was given a chance to lash anti-vaxxer misinformation, he lashes Victoria instead. And his threshold for opening up is when somewhere between 30% and 40% of the total population is vaccinated ...
Was this guy driving Slomo’s “We’ve got to open up and live with Covid” line or did he just fall in line? Is he now justifying his efforts or maybe trying to win preselection with the Liberals?
It seems to me that “zero Covid extremists” are a figment of his imagination. Those wanting elimination see it as a stopgap until vaccinations reach herd-immunity levels. That’s pretty much the National Covid Cabinet’s approach.
One comment to the article summed it up pretty nicely. To paraphrase, zero-Covid’s a thing because Covid 1 or Covid 300 isn’t - because of exponential growth, those numbers aren't stable. To keep new Covid cases around 300 as Gladys is doing, you still need harsh lockdowns and restrictions.