Sunday 20 November 2022 05:02 AM Nick Coatsworth slams Norman Swan saying the ABC's 'most trusted' doctor ... trends now
Former deputy chief health officer Nick Coatsworth has has mocked ABC Covid pundit Norman Swan's marketing slogan of being 'Australia's most trusted doctor'.
Dr Swan's reputation took a hit last week when he suggested the fatal heart attacks of cricket legend Shane Warne and Labor senator Kimberley Kitching, both 52, were likely Covid-related.
Dr Swan told Daily Mail Australia it was 'too much of a coincidence' they both died after recent Covid infections, but was forced to apologise when Senator Kitching's furious family told him she never contracted the virus.
Senator Kitching was instead suffering from hyperthyroidism in the months before she died, although her symptoms were improving.
Dr Nick Coatsworth has again unleashed at Dr Norman Swan over the debacle of the ABC pundit suggesting Covid may have contributed to a politician's fatal heart attack when it emerged she'd never had the disease
Daily Mail Australia then revealed on Thursday that although Dr Swan has not treated a patient since joining the ABC in 1982 he kept his medical registration because media work counts as 'practice' under medical board rules.
Dr Coatsworth was highly critical of Dr Swan after than ABC health guru's mistake was revealed, and couldn't resist another swipe this weekend.
'An interesting week in medical media,' he tweeted.
'At the end of the day, the only conclusion we can reach is that you can't be "Australia’s most trusted doctor" if you haven’t seen a patient since the 1980s.
'The ABC may wish to reflect on that.'
Dr Swan has been the ABC's go-to authority on Covid since the beginning of the outbreak, despite his long absence from treating patients
Dr Coatsworth at the time said Dr Swan wouldn't have had to apologise if he had followed the medical maxim of not speculating on cases that aren't yours.
'You can't go wrong if you just avoid making assumptions and speculating about causes of death, particularly when they were both so tragic,' he told 2GB radio on Wednesday.
'The lessons we should draw is that every senator should aspire to be like Kimberley Kitching, every young boy or girl who picks up a cricket ball should be like Shane Warne.
'That's all we should take out of that, the positive of their lives and that sort of speculation [from Dr Swan] should have no place in the Covid discourse.'
Dr Swan made the suggestion in the context of a new British study linking contracting the virus to a greater risk of heart attacks - up to 21 times soon after recovery, and 30 per cent and 50 per cent higher after six months.
Dr Coatsworth criticised Dr Swan for using outdated studies to push a panicky narrative around Covid.
The family of late Senator Kimberley Kitching (pictured) angrily refuted Dr Swan's speculation that her fatal heart attack could be Covid-related by saying she never had the virus
