Coronavirus: Doctors condemn ‘crackpot ideas’

Some of the nation’s leading doctors have lashed out at Liberal MP Craig Kelly for pedalling ‘crackpot ideas’ on COVID-19.

Liberal MP Craig Kelly. Picture: AAP

Some of the nation’s leading doctors have lashed out at Liberal MP Craig Kelly for pedalling “crackpot ideas” on COVID-19, as Communications Minister Paul Fletcher vowed to use new legislation to reduce harmful content online.

After Scott Morrison and Acting Prime Minister Michael McCormack refused to criticise Mr Kelly, who has promoted links to studies that pushed head lice treatments as a cure for corona­virus and compared mask use to child abuse, Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly rejected the MP’s posts.

Professor Kelly said the latest medical studies had not found drugs such as hydroxychloroquine were useful in preventing or treating the coronavirus.

“He’s no relation, I can absolutely guarantee that,” Professor Kelly said of the MP. “He needs to decide what is the appropriate thing for a member of parliament to be commenting on.”

Australian Medical Association president Omar Khorshid also attacked Mr Kelly’s comments, saying they were unhelpful. “It’s really disappointing to see people who should know better getting out there and putting out just crackpot ideas on health issues, and most significantly, during a global pandemic,” Dr Khorshid told the ABC.

The furore in Australia over Mr Kelly’s and his Nationals colleague George Christensen’s social media posts come as Twitter’s decision to suspend outgoing US President Donald Trump’s account triggered a debate about how tech giants should be regulated.

Mr Kelly and Mr Christensen say “neo-Marxists” were behind the siege on the Washington Capitol and backed Mr Trump’s claim the US election was ­“stolen” from him.

Mr Fletcher told The Australian he believed the social media giants should do a better, more consistent job in making decisions about content on their platforms. He supported guidelines that gave clear advice about when content was removed and allowed for a safeguard for the government to override that decision “when necessary”.

“The recently released exposure draft of the Online Safety Act seeks to give effect to this in principle,” he said.

“The new act would include a set of basic online safety expectations — including expectations that the platforms develop community standards, terms of ­service and moderation procedures fairly and consistently ­implemented.”

Liberal MP Fiona Wilson delivered a rebuke of Mr Kelly and Mr Christensen on Wednesday, cautioning politicians to use their platforms wisely and abide by their duty to “follow the evidence and facts … Freedom of speech does not equal freedom of responsibility.”