Vaccine expert Kristine Macartney dismisses natural treatments for Covid-19

A top vaccinologist has dismissed claims natural medicines can treat Covid-19 in a landmark trial watched by 45,000 people online.

Kristine Macartney says natural treatments should not be used on Covid-19 patients. Picture: David Swift

One of the country’s most respected vaccinologists has rejected claims natural medicines can be used to treat Covid-19 in the first day of a landmark trial challenging NSW Health’s response to the Delta outbreak.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard is facing several Supreme Court challenges regarding the exercise of public health orders during the current outbreak, after civil cases were brought by two aged-care workers, a paramedic, a hospital worker, a schoolteacher, a construction worker and a pregnant woman.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard. Picture: David Swift

The plaintiffs claim NSW Health’s vaccination mandate — which prevents essential workers from leaving an LGA of concern for work — is unlawful and unreasonable, as well as arguing Mr Hazzard did not have the power to enact the health orders.

On Thursday afternoon, Barrister Peter King, representing construction worker Al-Munir Kassam, said Mr Hazzard had also failed to investigate wider, alternative treatments for Covid-19.

During cross-examination, Mr King asked Kristine Macartney, director of the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance, whether “natural treatments”, including Zinc, vitamin D and vitamin C, were safe and effective for Covid-19 patients.

Professor Macartney, who was called as the government‘s first witness, said she did not agree with the use of those treatments in Covid-infected patients.

Professor Macartney was also pressed on the use of other drugs, including the controversial antiparasitic Ivermectin, as well as Hydroxychloroquine and Doxycycline. But Professor Macartney claimed they were neither safe nor proven treatments for Covid-19.

Mr King asked Professor Macartney how she could dismiss these drugs if she herself had not conducted first-hand research into their application as a Covid-19 treatment.

Later in the afternoon, Barrister Marcus Clarke, acting for aged-care worker Natasha Henry, called on deputy chief health officer Marianne Gale, asking what her qualifications were in the areas of infectious diseases.

“To what extent do your qualifications entitle you to form the opinion that the vaccination of aged-care workers and service providers offers the most consistent and sustainable protection for vulnerable residents against Covid?”

Dr Gale replied: “I’m not a vaccinologist, I’m a public health physician. And it is part of the practice of public health and part of the studies of public health … And so to that extent, I am aware and across the evidence around vaccination and its impact.”

On Thursday morning, the trial attracted close to 45,000 online viewers, after presiding judge Justice Beech-Jones warned viewers on Tuesday to stop contacting his office.