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Session Descriptions
Evidence Based Communication
Speaker: Dr John Campbell
So many issues have been made obvious in the past few years regarding communication, trust and the public understanding of science. Traditional modalities for publication and dissemination of new thinking have become ambiguous, often clouded with claims of vested interests pushing their own ideas to the detriment and even ridicule of any opposing views. Strangely, interventions which are the most expensive have often come to the fore and been officially adopted by our governments.
Investigative journalism, main stream (legacy) media and medical journals have failed to step up to the plate. For example, excess deaths have been occurring in Australia, Canada, United States, NZ, UK and most other ‘western’ countries. Where are the government and academic investigations, the clamour for answers amongst our elected representatives, the outrage and grief, even the simple questions?
We need to base our thinking, decisions and actions on the best possible evidence, or default to a threatening new dark age. Principles of evidence-based medicine must be re-emphasised: empirical evidence, expert opinion, patient preferences and acceptability. I propose evidence-based communication will be increasingly important over the next few years. Information that is based on science, explanation of science, expert teaching and explorations of the human experience. Government, science and health care alike should be of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
The Covid policy analysis Australia should have done - and what's needed to avoid a repeat of the catastrophe
Speaker: Professor Gigi Foster
Australia's leadership cadre in covid times wrought unprecedented destruction upon the Australian population in their charge. Their actions were informed only by incomplete and policitised sources of information, while dissenting voices were denigrated and suppressed. The process by which this poor policy making gripped the country for over two years is illustrative of the problems in governance and in our wider society that will continue to damage Australia unless we see and act on the need for change.
In this talk Professor Gigi Foster will discuss the costs of Australia's covid policy response to Australia's health and wealth, and contextualise this analysis within a broader view of what types of reforms are required in order to avoid a similar tragedy the next time that a perceived health crisis arrives. Particular attention will be paid to the proposal of embedding more direct democratic elements into our present polity.
THE DISQUISITIVE NARRATIVE OF COVID-19 - Where have all the leaders gone?
Speaker: Emeritus Professor Robert Clancy
Australia has a proud record of managing pandemics over a 120 year period. Led by physicians and scientists this experience created an enviable public health service and embedded an extraordinary lineage of scientists that have provided international benchmarks in infection disease and vaccine research: Ashburton Thompson, Macfarlane Burnet, Frank Jenner, and Peter Doherty to name a few! The momentum of “owned” experience culminated in a national plan for the next pandemic (most recent version 2019: based on assumption that it would be a viral infection of the airways) developed, co-ordinated and supervised by Australian Health Professionals. The “plan” was based on a public health response determined by the epidemiology of the pandemic, a vaccination programme to support the public health initiative and drug therapy based on screened existing medication until and unless specific viral chemotherapy was developed, all in the science frame of modern airway immunology and host-pathogen relationships including 80 years of experience of influenza vaccines.
The Covid pandemic in Australia, did not not follow this plan- it was in Sweden. Outcomes from both countries will be discussed. Management of Covid in Australia and most of the western world, was dictated by a narrative developed to support a novel genetic vaccine by international pharmaco-political directives outside of traditional professional operatives. This presentation will outline how well the core components of pandemic management: epidemiological analysis; vaccine efficacy and safety; and pharmaceutical value, turned out. Focus on the conflict between narrative and science will include comment on the damage done to the traditionally strong and effective medical influence at the centre of Australian medicine. What have we learnt and what changes must be made?”
Session 2:
Evidence-Based Medicine (T-EBM) Wheel
Speaker: Professor Colleen Aldous
We have developed a Totality of Evidence-Based Medicine (T-EBM) Wheel, a framework designed to enhance the traditional Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) Pyramid by incorporating a more extensive array of peer-reviewed evidence. By focusing on the COVID-19 pandemic and examining the use of ivermectin as a pivotal case study, we critique the EBM Pyramid's hierarchical organisation for its failure to capture the diversity and calibre of medical evidence fully. This is especially critical in emergency scenarios where swift, comprehensive decision-making is imperative.
The T-EBM Wheel proposes a more inclusive and equitable model that embraces all evidence types, including randomised control trials (RCTs), observational studies, and mechanistic research, presenting outcomes in an equitable, visually digestible format. This approach encourages a holistic examination of evidence and outcomes, aiming to enrich medical education and inform decision-making processes. By promoting the integration of a broader spectrum of evidence, the T-EBM Wheel aspires to enhance patient care and the effectiveness of treatments, highlighting its significance in the strategic repurposing of medications like ivermectin amidst the global challenge of COVID-19. This shift towards a more encompassing view of evidence underscores the necessity for adaptability in medical practice and research, offering a path forward in the pursuit of optimised healthcare solutions.
What COVID-19 vaccines can and cannot do and why
Speaker: Professor Nikolai Petrovsky
The rapid development of safe and effective vaccines would be highly advantageous in any pandemic but there are many practical limitations in respect of how rapidly a vaccine can be developed, tested, manufactured and assessed in human trials. Vaccine efficacy can have many different endpoints, including reduction in total infections, severe infections and transmission amongst others. Some of these such as reduction in severe disease are linear effects and some such as effects on transmission are non-linear, such that a 50% reduction in infection rates does not translate to a 50% reduction in transmission.
The failure to appreciate the difference between linear and non-linear effects, led to incorrect claims that the COVID-19 vaccines could prevent transmission, for which there was not only no credible evidence, but simple logic dictated was not possible. Hence all vaccinated individuals remain susceptible to infection and all policies that assumed that vaccinated individuals were at less risk of transmitting disease were ineffectual. Omicron, which arose in late 2021, induced much milder infection markedly changing the risk-benefit of vaccines. Recombinant protein vaccines remain amongst the most reliable, cheapest and safest pandemic approaches but were underexploited because of political and financial forces driving the new mRNA vaccine technologies. The COVID-19 pandemic represents the biggest public health failure of all time, due to a failure of policies to be based on science with the vast majority of the scientific community happy to stay silent while flawed and objectively false narratives were promoted by public health authorities.
Big Pharma & Marketing-Based Medicine in the Covid Era
Speaker: Associate Professor Peter Parry
Associate Professor Peter Parry will speak about his children’s bipolar PhD study leading him to recognise:
- the widespread over exaggeration of drugs benefit and minimisation of harms,
- the corruption among drug companies and their influence on regulators,
- his initial concerns about the safety of the mRNA vaccines and
- his avoidance of then leading to him being mandated out of a job, the role of the spike protein, and control of the dominant narrative and confirmative group psychology.
Session 3:
Principleless, Panicked and Power-hungry: The Three 'P's of Society's Elite During COVID
Speaker: Professor James Allan
This session will look at how the lawyerly caste let society down during Covid. It will look at how the political caste was arguably worse. And the journalists were worse again. And it will consider the pusillanimous performance of doctors as a group.
It will start with consideration of what we know about how to make decisions in conditions of radical uncertainty (spoiler alert: Do NOT go for the precautionary principle on steroids that involves the most heavy-handed, thuggish and freedom-enervating option on the table that requires you to throw out the plan based on a century of data so that you can copy what authoritarian China is doing.) It will consider the inroads on free speech and the censoring of dissenting views. As the title says, 'principleless, panicked and power-hungry' pretty much sums up what we saw from our elites during the lockdown years and what the author will speak on. Throw in 'pusillanimous' if you want a fourth 'p'. The author will not pull his punches.
A General Practitioner perspective on the Covid-19 era
Speaker: Dr Melissa McCann
This session will give you insight from a General Practitioner'a perspective on the Covid 19 era, from the experiences working in general practice during the pandemic, impacts of lockdown and telehealth on patient care, the experiences of patients later navigating the mandatory vaccination requirements, and finally the experiences of patients who suffered adverse events from vaccination.
Dr Melissa McCann will share reflections as a health care provider navigating the at times conflicting priorities of operating a business and fulfilling the requirements of the Code of Conduct whilst attempting to advocate for patients during this challenging period. Dr Melissa's will also share how this advocacy focus culminated in the instigation of a Federal Class action on behalf of injured and bereaved patients.
Dr Melissa will dive into her experience with regulatory action from AHPRA and Medical Boards as a consequence of publicly discussing safety concerns about the vaccines and my reflections on the foundational medical ethical principles and the challenges to those.
Finally, Dr Melissa will share observations and perspectives on the renewed focus and direction for medicine and clinical care that she see as one of the positive consequences of the lessons learned from the covid 19 period and ways forward for supporting each other to improve health and wellbeing.
COVID-19 “Vaccines”: A Failure of the Drug regulatory System
Speaker: Dr. Phillip Altman
Prior to the COVID pandemic, Australia’s drug regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), was highly regarded internationally for its rigorous application of the most stringent international standards of drug quality, safety and efficacy.
However, in assessing the quality, safety and efficacy of data submitted in support of the gene-based COVID “vaccines”, these standards were seriously compromised in many fundamental and critically important ways. Given the serious quality, safety and efficacy problems now well-known and widely reported in relation to the COVID“ vaccines” – the evidence now suggests that these gene-based injections should never have been approved by the TGA because they have caused more harm than good. A detailed description of the TGA’s failures to properly evaluate the COVID “vaccines” will be described in this presentation.
Analysis of Pfizer data with Dr Jeyanthi Kunadhasan
