Radio broadcaster Ben Fordham has launched another blistering attack of doomsayer experts leading a Covid-19 fear campaign as he leapt to the defence of the South African doctor who discovered Omicron.
Dr Angelique Coetzee claims she has been subject to ‘attacks’ and vile abuse from scientists and politicians worldwide who have accused her of downplaying the strain after she declared at the start of the Omicron wave that the variant was mild.
Her claims prompted the 2GB breakfast host to slam the ‘alarmist’ experts in Australia who are ‘scaring the living daylights out of people’.
The Sydney broadcaster singled out top doctor Kerryn Phelps, epidemiologist Raina MacIntyre and ABC commentator Dr Norman Swan, whom Fordham claimed hadn’t practiced medicine in almost four decades.
Dr Kerryn Phelps was branded an ‘alarmist’ by radio broadcaster Ben Fordham on Thursday
Fordham believes Dr Coetzee came under attack because she doesn’t suit the Covid alarmists and urged listeners to not listen to them, citing low death rates from the variant.
‘This doctor should be celebrated for her groundbreaking research on coronavirus but instead she had people trying to convince her to shut her mouth,’ he said.
‘The death rate from Omicron is 0.1 per cent. Its fatality rate is the same as a bad flu season in Australia.
‘But the scare campaign has been in overdrive. At the start of the pandemic we were warned about 150,000 deaths in Australia. We’ve had 4,300.’
‘All tragic but nothing like we warned about.’
Hospitalisations and ICU admissions have remained below the peak experienced during last year’s Delta outbreak, the higher number of Omicron cases.
Fordham slammed ‘Covid cheerleader’ Dr Swan’s recent claims that Omicron was not as mild and gave little to no natural immunity.
‘Norman Swan was ignoring the science, he was ignoring the scientist who discovered Omicron,’ Fordham said.
ABC presenter and ‘Covid cheerleader’ Norman Swan (pictured) was accused of ‘ignoring the science’
He then labelled Dr Phelps as an ‘alarmist’ after her recent claim on Twitter that her home state NSW had ‘surrounded to Covid.’
She also posted an alarming video warning parents not to send their kids back to school during the Omicron outbreak
It prompting a three-word response Australia’s former deputy chief medical officer Nick Coatsworth who urged people to ‘Ignore this individual.’
‘She spends her days on Twitter slamming (Prime Minister) Scott Morrison and NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet,’ Fordham said.
‘And to this day, we thinks we can eliminate the virus.’
Early on in the pandemic, Professor MacIntyre predicted Australia could suffer 400,000 deaths to the virus
Fordham slammed her recent warning that NSW would face grim times over summer because of Premier Perrottet’s ‘magical freedoms’.
‘There was nothing magical about it. I was able to enjoy a summer of freedom, catching up with family and friends and going on holidays,’ Fordham said.
‘It seemed real to me.’
2GB breakfast host Ben Fordham (pictured with wife Jodie) has slammed the ‘alarmist’ experts in Australia who are ‘scaring the living daylights out of people’
He also mocked Professor MacIntyres’s advice to tape up doors and wear masks inside your home to stop the virus spreading.
Dr Coetzee was one of the first to report the new variant in November last year and said it caused ‘mild’ symptoms for those in South Africa.
But she claims she was told by scientists and politicians from around the globe that she was wrong.
‘Because of all of Covid’s mutations, all of these scientists and politicians who aren’t from were contacting me telling me I was wrong when I spoke out, that it was a serious disease … they were telling me I had no idea what I was talking about, they kept attacking me,’ Dr Coetzee told The Daily Telegraph.
South African doctor Angelique Coetzee (pictured) was ‘pressured’ into describing the Omicron variant as more dangerous than it really is
‘They are accusing me of lying, of downplaying Omicron because of how it has been in Europe … in their minds, it is impossible for a disease with more than 38 mutations to be mild.
‘I have stated many times before it can be a serious illness if you are unvaccinated and have comorbidities but for the majority of people it is a mild illness. I am the one who has seen the patients first-hand but the politicians won’t listen.’
‘If a clinical feature proves I am wrong, then I will apologise.’
Fordham ended the segment by praising Dr Coetzee, who has vowed to ‘stick to her guns’ and not give into the pressure.
‘Good on you doctor. Don’t give in to the scaremongers,’ he said.
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