ABC health commentator Norman Swan has been slammed for saying Sydneysiders doing their civic duty and lining up to get a Covid-19 vaccine amid the city's raging Delta outbreak are 'guinea pigs'.
The GP-turned-journalist claimed on ABC Breakfast on Tuesday morning that this was the first time a government had tried to stop a disease outbreak with vaccines.
He was not claiming that the vaccines were experimental - only that the government's strategy of using vaccination to control the outbreak was untested.
Disease expert and former deputy chief health officer Dr Nick Coatsworth said vaccines are used to stop outbreaks all around the world
Dr Coatsworth (pictured) said: 'Rapid vaccination during an epidemic is part of epidemic control'
Do you trust the ABC's Covid-19 coverage?
Yes 28 votes No 92 votesNow share your opinion
'I don't think that this has been tried anywhere else in the world where you're trying to use vaccination to curve an outbreak,' he said.
'And in a sense, the residents of New South Wales, or Greater Sydney, are guinea pigs.'
But disease expert and Australia's former deputy chief health officer Dr Nick Coatsworth said vaccines are used to stop outbreaks all around the world - and even pointed to his own field experience in Africa.
'No, Dr Swan, they are not guinea pigs. I vaccinated during measles in Chad in 2005,' he wrote in a response on Twitter.
'Rapid vaccination during an epidemic is part of epidemic control. And it's what every other country has done with Covid-19. Restrictions plus rapid vaccines works.'
Residents queue up for their dose of the Covid-19 coronavirus vaccine at the Homebush vaccination centre in Sydney on Monday
Dozens of Twitter users also criticised Dr Swan, pointing out that the UK, the US and other countries rapidly rolled out vaccines earlier this year to control Covid-19 outbreaks.
'Thanks for calling out this nonsense,' wrote one user.
'What an absurd comment from Swan,' wrote another.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted the ABC for comment.
Sydney recorded 199 new cases of Covid-19 on Tuesday, taking the outbreak to 3,832 cases.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has flagged that some restrictions could ease when six million jabs have been given out in the state, meaning 50 per cent of adults will be fully vaccinated.
But the relaxation also depends on case numbers being reduced dramatically.
It comes after Scott Morrison said lockdowns may still be needed to control Covid-19 after 80 per cent of the population is vaccinated.
Modelling released on Tuesday showed that if an outbreak of the Delta strain lasted for six months then 1,984 Australians would die if 70 per cent of the population were
