Piers Akerman: PM bows to left-wing mob in reprimanding Craig Kelly

Craig Kelly’s confrontation with the ambitious Tanya Plibersek was dramatic but Prime Minister Scott Morrison should never have castigated him over it, writes Piers Akerman.

Shutting down discussion in your own party is not leadership but Scott Morrison doesn’t seem to care.

Bowing before the clamour from Australia’s state-owned Left-wing media, the Nine Network, Crikey, the Guardian and the rest of the noisy woke folk he hauled Craig Kelly in and upbraided him for discussing various medications which have proved effective in the treatment of the Wuhan flu.

One of those was Hydroxychloroquine, which, because former US President Donald Trump was an early supporter, was subsequently ridiculed by the global Left.

Liberal MP Craig Kelly was hauled over the coals by Prime Minister Scott Morrison last week. Picture: Sam Mooy/Getty

As it happens, prominent Irish physician Dr Marcus de Brun, who resigned from the Irish Medical Council last April over his government’s failure to protect those in nursing homes, last week tweeted: “Now that there is so much evidence for Hydroxychloroquine, safety & efficacy, I deeply regret following all guidelines and not using it to try to help many of my patients who died from COVID.

“It now looks like Ivermectin faces the same censorship, as per the Big Pharma agenda.”

Dr de Brun is not a nutcase or isolated in his views on Hydroxychloroquine or Ivermectin but he is unafraid to challenge the so-called experts politicians have been hiding behind to justify their lockdowns and the consequent economic carnage caused by their actions.

Immunologist Professor Robert Clancy, AM, an emeritus professor at the University of Newcastle, told The Sydney Morning Herald last week he did not agree with everything Kelly said but thought he was “absolutely right” in advocating the drugs Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin as COVID-19 treatments.

Now that there is so much evidence for Hydroxychloroquine, safety & efficacy, I deeply regret following all guidelines and not using it to try to help many of my patients who died from Covid

It now looks like Ivermectin faces the same censorship, as per the Big Pharma agenda.

— Dr. Marcus De Brun (@indepdubnrth) February 1, 2021

The medical bio-scientist didn’t want to enter the political arena but was reluctantly dragged into the debate after Kelly was very publicly attacked by grandstanding Labor leadership aspirant Tanya Plibersek for supporting the use of these drugs.

“The data is crystal clear, overwhelming in support of the benefits of these drugs when used early in the treatment of the disease,” Professor Clancy said in an interview with Liam Bartlett. Those who were attacking the treatments “either don’t know the data, they don’t follow it or they don’t understand it, maybe a combination of all three.”

He said there have been about 30 studies of Ivermectin, including several meta-analyses, which have shown an 80 per cent reduction in mortality.

The results being so stark that one researcher concluded it was unethical to continue to do further studies using so-called placebo patients (those who were ill but were not given any actual dosage).

“Numerous studies have shown that if you’re on Hydroxychloroquine (many Australians are already on the drug for other maladies) and you have significantly less chance of getting serious COVID-19 and dying of it or going to hospital,” the professor said.

The confrontation between Labor MP Tanya Plibersek and Liberal MP Craig Kelly (left). Picture: Instagram

After writing up to 10,000 Hydroxychloroquine prescriptions for people with auto-immune disease, he can’t recall one case of serious side effects from the drug.

“These are very safe drugs,” he stressed.

So Morrison and Plibersek are both relying on unreliable information from their experts in criticising Kelly for supporting the use of drugs which are increasingly being taken up by other nations which have subsequently experienced dramatic downturns in COVID deaths, most particularly with the use of Ivermectin and to a lesser degree with Hydroxychloroquine.

As Professor Clancy said, he’s not a supporter of all Craig Kelly’s views but does think it “very sad when people start dragging the guy apart”.

“It’s bad enough when you drag someone apart on facts but if you do it without the facts or understanding what the argument is it’s disappointing.”

Drugs save lives and this is a serious issue.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison is not a conviction politician. Picture: Sam Mooy/Getty Images

Too serious for ill-informed politicians.

Morrison is generally politically astute but he is not a conviction politician and he is concerned more about polls than on any feel for the Liberal Party base.

His shutting down discussion in the party room brings to mind the anecdote often told about Margaret Thatcher taking her cabinet out for dinner. When the waiter takes her order, she says: “I’ll have the steak.”

He then asks, “What about the vegetables?” To which Thatcher replies: “They’ll have the same as me.”

Closer to home, former Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett famously gagged his MPs in the lead-up to the 1999 election and had only himself to blame for the loss. Political vaccinations may have saved both Thatcher and Kennett. Morrison should consider their fates.