Coronavirus: DCMO fans flames of medical dispute, takes aim at Norman Swan

As health experts argue over the speed of lockdowns, infectious disease specialist Nick Coatsworth has taken aim at ABC health expert Norman Swan.

The Health Report's Dr Norman Swan on the ABC. Picture: Supplied

A newly-appointed Deputy Chief Medical Officer has fanned the flames of a dispute emerging between public health experts and the state and territory chief health officers about the severity and speed of lock down measures Australia should implement to stop the spread of COVID-19.

Nick Coatsworth, an infectious diseases specialist at Canberra Hospital and Australian National University academic, has been appointed the fourth deputy to Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy to help communicate health updates to the public.

During an interview on ABC TV on Thursday morning, Dr Coatsworth appeared to back up comments made by fellow Deputy Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly on Wednesday that there were “two schools of thought” about how to respond to the coronavirus outbreak.

On Wednesday, Dr Kelly said the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee — the body that advises the National Cabinet and includes the CMOs — was in favour of a scalable approach, while other health experts, including those advising the Victorian Premier, were in favour of a “go hard and go fast” approach”.

Asked about the effectiveness of ramping up social isolation restrictions, Dr Coatsworth said it was “a contested point”.

“I have to say that the experts around the table of the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee do not think that this will be over in weeks, if you put in harder and faster measures,” Dr Coatsworth said.

“This is about degrees. We’ve gone hard and fast. To say that we’ve gone light and slow would be completely inaccurate. The measures that we’ve got in at the moment are unprecedented. The impact they’re gonna have on individual families is unprecedented.

Dr Coatsworth mentioned ABC health journalist Norman Swan as putting forward a view at odds with the AHPPC.

“I disagree with Norman (Swan) when he thinks that this is going to be over in weeks if we go for harder and faster lockdowns,” Dr Coatsworth said.

“I would like Norman to go to Darwin and tell the people of Darwin why they have to stay in their houses when we’re a continent and there’s differential expression of this virus and its impact across the country.”

“People are going to ask for hardest and fastest, but I don’t think they’ve thought through the impact on Australia and Australians of doing that.”