By Michael Koziol
The ABC has cautioned its high-profile coronavirus expert Dr Norman Swan over his comments linking the heart attack deaths of cricket legend Shane Warne and Labor senator Kimberley Kitching to COVID-19, saying the remarks breached editorial standards.
Swan was forced to apologise on Wednesday after he told his ABC News Breakfast audience it was “too much of a coincidence” both Warne and Kitching died of heart-related issues not long after contracting the virus. He later doubled down on that stance in an interview.
ABC doctor Norman Swan has apologised for his comments over Labor senator Kimberley Kitching, who died earlier this year.
However, it was never reported that Kitching had contracted the virus before she died, and Swan accepted that she had not after a phone call with her widower Andrew Landeryou, who had texted Swan to complain.
“I apologised profusely,” Swan told this masthead. “We had an amicable conversation. Clearly he was very upset. And I was devastated that it had that impact on the family. I didn’t say [it] casually, and if I thought it would hurt either family, I wouldn’t have said it.”
Swan also apologised on air on Wednesday. In a statement, an ABC spokesperson noted the apology and said: “Dr Swan has had discussions with ABC management about the comments. He understands the comments did not meet the ABC’s editorial standards.”
ABC chair Ita Buttrose, who has previously called Swan a “treasure”, did not respond to requests for comment.
The incident is the latest in a number of controversial statements about COVID-19 by Swan, who became a key figure in Australia’s understanding of the pandemic through his television and radio appearances and daily podcast produced by the national broadcaster.
Swan also argued that while Warne had risk factors for heart attack (he was known to have an unhealthy diet at times), COVID could still have been at fault, telling Daily Mail Australia extra inflammation “could have tipped him over the edge”. No one close to Warne who was contacted by this masthead wished to comment.
But Dr Swan has stood by his remarks regarding the late Shane Warne, who at times had an unhealthy lifestyle.Credit: AP
Speaking to this masthead, Swan did not resile from his broader remarks – in the context of a newly published study of 48 million adults in England and Wales – warning of an increased risk of heart attack and stroke in the weeks and months following COVID-19 infection.
An angry Swan also took issue with 2GB radio host Ben Fordham, who accused the ABC personality of scaremongering. “Stop using the misery and the heartbreak of others to push your agenda,” he said, adding Swan “made a fool of himself”. 2GB is owned by Nine, which publishes this masthead.
“If Ben Fordham wants to go and pretend that this is a benign disease that doesn’t cause any problems he’s living in cloud-cuckoo-land.”
ABC doctor Norman Swan hits back at criticism from 2GB’s Ben Fordham
Swan called Fordham’s comments “complete bullshit”. “I got it wrong with Kimberley Kitching and I regret that, but the data are the data and if Ben Fordham wants to go and pretend that this is a benign disease that doesn’t cause any problems he’s living in cloud-cuckoo-land,” Swan said.
The study cited by Swan, which was published in American Heart Association journal Circulation, has also been criticised by some experts. University of NSW epidemiologist Greg Dore said it was “enormously biased” because it was conducted in 2020 in the pre-vaccination era, and at a time when the people most likely to be tested for COVID were people going to the doctor or hospital because of chest pain or other problems.
“There’s inherent bias towards diagnosis of COVID-19 in people presenting with these conditions,” Dore said. While it was known COVID-19 could cause deep venous thrombosis or pulmonary embolism, so could other infections, and while the link to heart attack and stroke should not be dismissed out of hand, this study was likely to be overstating the association, Dore said.
Swan has been with the ABC for 40 years, creating the Health Report on Radio National early in his career. He has also won a Gold Walkley, the highest prize in Australian journalism, for exposing fraudulent medical research.
He rose to greater prominence early in the pandemic as host of the ABC’s Coronacast podcast, but was criticised, including by senior figures in the Morrison government, for what they believed was his tendency to catastrophise the risks of COVID-19.
In an interview with this masthead last year, Swan conceded he contributed to hesitancy about the AstraZeneca vaccine by debating its efficacy and involvement in a rare clotting disorder. But he maintained those issues were real and said it was not his job to “keep secrets from people”.
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