Covid-19 inquiry: Controversial Senator shut down by Australia’s chief medical officer

A controversial Liberal Senator has been involved in a back-and-forth with Australia’s chief medical officer about the effectiveness of vaccines.

The inquiry is looking Picture: NCA Newswire / Gaye Gerard

Australia’s chief medical officer has hit back at a controversial Liberal Senator, saying “that’s not my opinion, that’s science” while talking about the effectiveness of vaccines in reducing transmissibility.

During a sometimes heated Senate inquiry into Australia’s Covid response, Queensland Senator Gerard Rennick was also shot down when he suggested children were being treated as “experiments”.

Senator Rennick had asked Professor Paul Kelly about whether giving kids aged five to 11 the Covid vaccine was safe enough based on evidence, given they were less likely to get ill or die from the virus.

“Don’t you think there needs to be more evidence (about the safety)?” he asked on Tuesday.

Professor Kelly said that more than 22,000 children had contracted Covid.

“The severity, there’s no doubt is less in younger people,” he said, noting 1.4 per cent of those cases were admitted to hospital.

But Professor Kelly said the disruption to school had been significant and that children were known to transmit the virus, particularly Delta and it seemed Omicron.

He said they had been cautiously watching what was happening in the USA where 5 million children had received the vaccine.

“Myself and others met with colleagues from the US today to hear about their experience with over 5 million doses in that age group,” he said, noting Australia had just 2.3 million children in the age group to be vaccinated.

“That’s a substantial sample size and they have been following very closely for vaccine side effects and have not found anything at all severe.”

He said the US had only recorded four cases of myocarditis – an inflammation of the heart muscle – in those children but it was mild and short lived.

Senator Rennick then started to disagree with Professor Kelly.

Queensland Liberal Senator Gerard Rennick has been asking questions at the inquiry. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

“OK so with regards to transmission you have to admit the vaccine hasn’t stopped transmission, we know the Omicron variant came to Australia through vaccinated arrivals and plenty of people, it is well known now, vaccinated people transmit the virus as well, so I don’t necessarily buy into that,” he said.

“The other argument that children can’t go to school - you’re trying to put a pharmaceutical solution to a political problem, so I’m not really sure that’s correct as well. But anyway that’s your opinion.”

Professor Kelly shot back “that’s not my opinion, that’s the science”.

“There’s definitely a decrease in transmission from the virus,” he said.

“But I’ll respect your difference in opinion on that, but it's not my opinion it’s what the studies have shown.”

Later Senator Rennick also asked the co-chair of the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) Christopher Blythe whether he thought it was “ethical to treat children as experiments”.

Professor Blythe, who is a paediatrician, immediately responded: “I don’t think I really agree with your position”.

He said ATAGI had been extremely cautious in its approach to children.

“What we do when we assess a vaccine is we look at the benefits and the risks … we’ve taken a cautious approach and time to assess that,” he said.

Senator Rennick later clarified he meant US children were being experimented on.

The inquiry had earlier heard that Australia was on track to have all children aged between five and 11 first-dosed before school starts next year.

”We will have capacity to get all that cohort first dosed early in the New Year,” Covid-19 task-force Commander Lieutenant General John Frewen said.

Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly told Senator Rennick ‘that’s science’. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Lieutenant Frewen also told the inquiry that 470,000 Australians had so far received a booster shot.

But he said the number of people currently eligible was about 678,000.

He said that in March, April and May next year the number of people needing their booster would “ramp up dramatically”.

By the end of this month there would be 1.7 million eligible, by the end of January 4.1 million and by May it would be 17.8 million.

The inquiry heard Australia has 37 cases of the Omicron strain, just 10 of which were acquired overseas.

Professor Kelly said the variant of concern was “already here” and they were not looking to stop its entry into Australia, but slow down transmission until more was known about it.

“As of a few minutes ago I can confirm there are 37 identified cases detected in Australia,” he said.

“Only 10 were associated with overseas travel, the rest are locally acquired.

“To be clear, we are not looking to stop the entry of this variant, but rather looking to slow down its transmission into and within Australia as we have time to learn as much about it as we can.”

Covid-19 task-force Commander, Lieutenant General John Frewen has spoken about the booster program and the rollout for kids aged 5 to 11. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

The inquiry heard that Australia’s vaccine wastage rate had crept up to 4.3 per cent, or a bit more than 3 million doses.

Lieutenant Frewen said that this was due to expiration of doses brought forward during the Victoria and NSW outbreaks and Moderna coming in 10-dose vials, meaning once they were opened sometimes all weren’t used.

Originally published as Covid-19 inquiry: Controversial Senator shut down by Australia’s chief medical officer