Possibly one reason why Australia’s taxpayer-funded leftist propaganda outfit public broadcaster so loves Jacinda Ardern is not just because of her juvenile socialism — but, because, like her, the ABC fancies itself the “sole source of truth”. The ABC constantly touts itself as “Australia’s most trusted news source” (an odd claim, considering it’s also Australia’s least-watched mainstream news source). During the pandemic, especially, Australians were finger-wagged to listen to the ABC’s pronouncements, rather than fall prey to “misinformation”.
Which is also odd, considering just how much information spewed out from the ABC’s Ultimo headquarters. Not least from its resident “expert”, Norman Swan.
ABC health editor Norman Swan’s apology for comments about the deaths of cricket great Shane Warne and former Labor senator Kimberley Kitching just reminds media consumers how much the national broadcaster has got wrong through nearly three years of the Covid pandemic.
Swan — who, it might be borne in mind, is not an epidemiologist, but a paediatrician who hasn’t practised in decades. Swan has been a consistent Covidian panic merchant, who, like most “experts”, has been wrong about nearly everything Covid. His latest dumbassity was citing Covid as a factor in the deaths of Warne and Kitching.
Doctors this column spoke to about Swan’s citing of Covid side-effects as a possible factor in the deaths of Kitching and Warne, both 52, from heart attacks earlier this year thought Swan’s behaviour unethical.
Swan had no knowledge of the cases, had not met Warne or Kitching, had not seen their medical records, and was forced to admit that Kitching had not even contracted Covid. Why drag her and Warne into his “Covid catastrophism”?
As is the way with the ABC, apologies and retractions are like pulling teeth — only a whole lot quieter. Swan’s apology was only read out on air on a breakfast program. It was never published on the ABC’s prolific Twitter feeds, let alone reported on any of its news programs.
But if the ABC were to loudly and openly apologise for everything Swan has got wrong about Covid, it’d be a long day indeed.
Swan’s mistake raises questions about his regular calls for harsher Covid restrictions. The Daily Mail on Wednesday said Swan had “dismissed the Covid restrictions in NSW during the Delta outbreak in late 2020 as not a proper lockdown’’. He had said NSW was not “the gold standard”, instead hailing the lockdown of Melbourne, the most locked down city in the world during the pandemic.
That’s right: Swan reckoned that Dictator Dan was doing a bang-up job.
The numbers show Swan is wrong.
By last Thursday, Victoria had reported 5936 Covid deaths from a population of 6.68 million for a total death rate since the start of the pandemic of 0.089 deaths per 100 people. That rate in NSW was much lower at 0.067 for 5476 deaths from a higher population of 8.16 million.
Swan also shrieked that Australia’s health system would collapse with days of the first Covid outbreak. He bellowed for schools to close.
And of course he ranted and raved against Sweden’s laissez-faire approach.
Swan tweeted out a piece from Nature in March this year which discussed “why Sweden didn’t follow the science … despite a long history of public excellence in health. The result was that many people died who shouldn’t have.”
In fact, as we know, Sweden ended up being one of the few pandemic success stories.
“Although Sweden was hit hard by the first wave, its total excess deaths during the first two years of the pandemic were actually among the lowest in Europe,” [Swedish medical researcher Emma Frans] wrote. “The decision to keep primary schools open also paid off. The incidence of severe acute Covid in children has been low … and Swedish children didn’t suffer the learning loss seen in many other countries.
Like so many “experts”, Swan is a hysterical advocate in a borrowed lab coat, not a dispassionate adviser.
Former federal deputy chief health officer Nick Coatsworth has been sparring with Swan all year, critical of Swan’s reliance on the opinions of members of the OzSage group of health professionals who regularly call for harsher Covid restrictions.
Coatsworth last Wednesday said: “I am tempted to say this was just a bit of a brain explosion but the problem with that is it means you assume Swan has been reasonable throughout the pandemic. If you took a list of the 10 most frequent commentators nationally on Covid, he would be at the top. He has been one of the most pro-restriction voices. This case represents his desire for Covid to be treated as still an exceptional issue.
The Australian
Of course that’s what he — and his fellow travellers, like Siouxsie Wiles and Shaun Hendy — want.
After all, when Covid gets forgotten, so do they.
