Tuesday, August 03, 2021

Against the Berg (again)

It's been quite a while since I have complained about Chris Berg and his cloak of affability giving him some undeserved cover for terrible takes for which he should be condemned. Fortunately, the ABC seems to have binned invitations to him. (I wonder why...ha ha.) But anyway:


So says the man who (I recently reminded myself on the weekend) was writing pieces with Sinclair Davidson a decade or so ago for the IPA to sow disbelief in climate change as a serious problem.  

And who then went on to write a book with him recently about how the ABC needs to be defunded  - while (as far as I can tell) spending no time on commenting on the very specifically screaming pile of anti vaxxer bullshit that is Sky News in Australia.   Because private media is always better at stuff like this, hey, Chris?

For what it's worth, I think people are reading too much into Swan's comments.   I would see it more like this:


Oh look, even monty is involved in countering Nick Coatsworth's criticism:


God knows Swan has become a hate figure for the wingnut Right.

As with most medical people commenting on this, I'm prepared to cut him a fair bit of slack.  It is, as I keep saying, an obviously complicated pandemic, and uncertainty is going to be reflected in comments made from time to time.   People should stop sweating on every single comment without taking the broader context.   

As for Coatsworth - I don't know why, but there is something about his media presence that I find off putting.   That TV and twitter ad where he encourages vaccination - it's all a bit head-tilty, robotic and unengaging to my mind.   I wish they hadn't used him for it.

7 comments:

Not Trampis said...

I believe he has written a lot for the CIS in his younger days

Jason Soon said...

sorry but Dr Nick is right for once and I rarely like his takes. For Swan to talk about guinea pigs when we still have high rates of vax hesitancy is irresponsible

Steve said...

Jason, I strongly suspect that the people in Sydney with vax hesitancy at the moment are not the sort of people who would be paying attention to Swan anyway. His appeal is to a different demographic, and one that should be smart enough to not read too much into each and every word.

Not Trampis said...

no Swann is correct. for Coatesworth to compare covid to measles is absurd.
Paul is correct it is a long term solution not a short term one and why auntie gladys is saying this is breathtaking

GMB said...

Norman Swan is clueless on these matters and basically a quisling for not emphasising that all these vaccines must be destroyed.

GMB said...

The Covid bioweapon has burnt out now people. The Delta variant is an obvious hoax. There is no evidence for it. Its not there.

GMB said...

Oh I see. Berg is trying to get us vaccinated. He is acting the Judas goat. There are so many lies here its kind of hard to unpack. No vaccine has ever turned around an upward trend. In the history of vaccines, they are introduced when the disease is on its way out, so the vaccinators can make a tonne of money for no useful effect.

But in this case there is no upward trend in Covid to reverse. Covid has already been and gone. The tests were always fake tests. But when you actually presumably had some Covid in the community they looked like they could work. Now that the Covid is gone the tests are picking up cold and flu. Most of the samples are thrown away, returning a negative test. The tests that are not thrown away are used by the international conspirators to drive any narrative they want.