‘Multibillion-dollar failure’: Aussie doctors rip into Covid response

Aussie doctors have delivered a scathing verdict on the Covid response, from misinformation about the virus to the “failure” of the vaccination program.

A top doctor has ripped into Australia’s handling of the Covid pandemic, accusing the government of spreading “misinformation” and putting people at risk.

Dr Kerryn Phelps accused the government of fuelling mistrust of health authorities while overselling the “safety and efficacy” of vaccines, and ignoring those suffering serious adverse events from the jabs.

Dr Phelps, who first went public in late 2022 about the “devastating” vaccine injury both she and her wife had suffered after a Pfizer jab, said while there was “a lot that our public health agencies got right during this pandemic”, significant mistakes were made.

The former MP for Wentworth and Deputy Lord Mayor of Sydney, and past president of the Australian Medical Association (AMA), is one of dozens of doctors and medical professionals who made public submissions to the federal government’s Covid-19 Response Inquiry.

Dr Phelps slammed “confusing misinformation” spread by authorities early on.

This included claims that Covid was not airborne, there was “no need for masks”, children did not spread the disease and that “herd immunity” could be reached.

All of this turned out to be false.

She said the consequence of the “let it rip” decision in late 2021 led to a “massive number of infections and excess Covid-related deaths estimated by actuaries to be 20,000 in 2022”.

“Political decisions were made, and public health advice was provided based on this misinformation, fuelling mistrust in subsequent advice emanating from those sources,” she said.

Regarding the vaccine rollout, Dr Phelps said “doctors and the public were assured that the vaccines would reduce the risk of severe disease, hospitalisations and death from the virus” and the “information being disseminated emphasised their claimed ‘safety and efficacy’”.

Dr Kerryn Phelps, right, and Jackie Stricker-Phelps. Picture: John Feder/The Australian

“Of course, early in the rollout of the vaccines, little was known about the potential range of adverse effects of the vaccine,” she said.

“In the urgency to vaccinate as many people as possible as quickly as possible, patients who had suffered significant vaccine injury were encouraged or mandated to have subsequent doses with inadequate evidence for the potential damage this might do to someone who had already suffered an adverse reaction to the vaccine.

“It was extremely difficult for patients who had been affected to obtain a medical exemption.”

Another consequence of this lack of information about adverse events “was that many patients report that they were not believed, or their doctors initially did not recognise the diagnosis or did not have treatment protocols in place”.

“This meant that patients had to take matters into their own hands and set up advocacy groups such as Coverse to share experiences and provide much needed support,” she said.

“It also became evident that these were not sterilising vaccines, and that while they were reported to provide some protection against severe disease and long Covid, they would not stop infection or transmission or the development of long Covid.”

It comes as Dr Nick Coatsworth, the country’s former deputy chief medical officer, now the Nine Network’s medical expert, said he would not be getting any more Covid vaccines. Speaking to 2GB’s Ben Fordham on Wednesday, Dr Coatsworth said he stopped getting vaccinated “about two years ago”.

“I had three vaccines, and that’s been enough for me,” he said.

“Any reason why?” Fordham asked.

“Because I don’t think I need any more, Ben, and the science tells me that I don’t,” Dr Coatsworth said.

For future pandemics, Dr Phelps called for a “return to the precautionary principle and the fundamentals of public health and disease prevention” and a “comprehensive plan for research and development of treatments”, including sterilising vaccines.

Among the recommendations in her submission were for greater access to high-quality N95 masks with associated mandates in healthcare facilities, a “concerted and sustained effort” to reduce Covid transmission in schools, a return to isolation for infected individuals during the infectious period with appropriate financial support, and expansion of hybrid work and education.

Australia’s Covid response is under the microscope. Picture: John Gass

She also called for research into the underlying mechanisms of vaccine injury, better follow-up of adverse events reported to the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) and identification of barriers to reporting such reactions, as well as better information for GPs and a review of the Covid-19 Vaccine Claims Scheme.

In a separate submission to the inquiry, Kooyong MP Dr Monique Ryan was strongly critical of the “extent and severity” of Morrison government’s “failures” during Covid.

In her submission she cited “lack of preparedness” for a global pandemic, inadequate quarantine and testing, delays in procurement and rollout of vaccines and failure to “combat widespread public misinformation” about the jabs.

But the Teal MP also said the government had failed to “adequately address community concerns regarding side-effects of vaccinations”, which she said were “not well communicated to the general public” contributing to “mistrust of the system”.

“Constituents also reported unreasonable delays and rejection of claims by the Covid-19 Vaccine Claims Scheme,” Dr Ryan said.

A number of submissions also highlighted human rights concerns around Covid measures.

The Queensland Human Rights Commission (QHRC) said it had received more than 1500 complaints, the majority related to border closures, hotel quarantine, and mandatory mask and vaccination requirements.

“Rights raised in relation to these complaints included recognition and equality before the law, the right not to be subject to medical treatment without consent, privacy and reputation, humane treatment when deprived of liberty, and freedom of movement,” it said.

Queensland GP Dr Melissa McCann, who is leading a vaccine injury class action against the federal government, said in her submission it was “difficult to know” whether the key Covid response measures “could have been managed any worse”.

Long queues at a vaccination hub in Homebush, Sydney. Picture: Dylan Robinson/NCA NewsWire

“The Covid-19 vaccinations have been perhaps the most egregious health response measure in recorded history,” she said.

“The success of a vaccination campaign is not measured by the percentage of population who were convinced to be vaccinated, despite this being reported by various official sources as evidence of a successful program.

“A successful vaccination campaign ought to result in the majority of vaccinated persons not becoming infected with the disease the vaccines were designed to protect against.

“A successful campaign would result in reduced number of cases and reduced transmission of disease throughout a population following the vaccination campaign.

“It ought to result in small numbers of adverse events after vaccination and such events comparable with traditional vaccines. It ought to result in an overall reduction in severe disease, deaths caused by the disease and reduction in overall excess mortality across a population.”

By all of these measures, the Covid vaccination campaign “has been a complete failure despite the multibillion-dollar investment”, she argued.

Pfizer Australia, in its submission to the inquiry, said it was “proud of our role in the pandemic”, noting a recent paper in the journal Vaccines estimated the timely rollout of Covid jabs resulted in overall benefit to the Australian economy of $181 billion.

“The probability of a pandemic with similar impact to Covid-19 is around 2 per cent in any given year, meaning someone born in the year 2000 would have a 38 per cent likelihood of having already experienced a pandemic by 2023,” Pfizer said.

“In order to improve Australia’s response to the next pandemic it will require proactive planning and broader, earlier availability of vaccines and treatments.”

AstraZeneca said its vaccine, which was discontinued in Australia in March 2023, was estimated to have “saved more than 6.3 million lives worldwide in the first year”.

Kooyong MP Dr Monique Ryan. Picture: Martin Ollman/NCA NewsWire

While the drug maker has acknowledged that its vaccine could, in rare instances, cause fatal blood clots and low platelet counts, AstraZeneca told the inquiry that there has been “public misperception relating to the risks associated with the vaccine”.

It said TGA regulations prohibiting pharmaceutical companies from promoting medicines “inadvertently prevented AstraZeneca from proactively responding to incorrect claims associated with adverse events”.

The AMA, in its submission, said while the vaccination program was “not perfect”, it felt in general it was “well planned and implemented”.

“We recognise this was not the view of the public, but this view was largely perpetuated by the media,” the AMA said.

“For example, the AMA spent days responding to individuals frustrated they could not receive an initial vaccine for up to six weeks in the initial phase of the rollout.”

The peak body said it remained “strongly supportive” of the decision to grant emergency authorisation for the vaccines, and added it was “concerned that governments are all too willing to put the past behind us and not seek to properly evaluate and learn from Australia’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic — likely because this might invite criticism of their actions”.

The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) argued “misinformation about Covid-19 and Covid-19 vaccines was rife during the pandemic and a mistrust of science, medicine and medical practitioners was a common element of much of the misinformation shared, particularly on social media”.

“The Australian government should fund a public awareness campaign to educate Australians about the importance of immunisations and heeding the advice of medical experts in general and promptly during future pandemics or major public health disasters,” it said.

The Covid-19 Response Inquiry is due to hand down its report by the end of September.