George Christensen is doing everything he can to undermine the government’s handling of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout but Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce are nowhere to be seen.
The Queensland LNP member for Dawson has always positioned himself as a maverick. But since announcing he would not contest the next federal election he has ratcheted up his behaviour through attempts to undermine Australia’s vaccine rollout by promoting unproven COVID treatments and cast doubts on the usefulness of vaccines.
Last week, when Australia’s medical regulator the Therapeutic Goods Administration restricted the off-label use of ivermectin to treat COVID, Christensen was furious.
With his fellow misinformation superspreader, parliamentary colleague Craig Kelly, Christensen has been bullish on using the anti-parasitic despite an absence of evidence supporting its use and growing data showing it doesn’t help.
He has also cast aspersions on vaccines — a medical treatment that is proven, safe and effective. He says he hasn’t been vaccinated yet.
On Friday afternoon, after news broke of the ivermectin ban, George Christensen shared images on his Telegram channel of a package of pills he claimed were ivermectin.
“My ivermectin treatment pack. Prescribed by a GP. Now the TGA has banned GPs from prescribing the drug off-label. It’s a decision they will regret,” he wrote ominously.
Later that night he held a live audio call where he told an audience drawn from his 19,000 Telegram followers that they should protest against the TGA by ringing it to demand its decision be overturned. Christensen went on to post multiple times about this.
“I rang the TGA every hour of the day today and couldn’t get through,” Christensen posted on Monday. “I left a message though. Well done to all who joined.”
To put it bluntly, a Coalition MP is spending his time encouraging his followers — among them anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists who very clearly hear his dog-whistles — to waste the time of his government’s regulator during a pandemic so much that their phones were unusable. He did so during office hours, he claims, which means the taxpayer is footing the bill for his use of time.
He’s also defending anti-vaxxers arrested for incitement and has used his platform to amplify other conspiracy theorists. He told his online followers to resist workplace vaccine mandates.
Why is he doing this? Perhaps it is his adamant belief in the benefits of a livestock dewormer over a proven vaccine. Or, as Crikey has written before, it may be because he is trying to grow his profile and online reach to pave a way as a conservative influencer post-politics. He already has a much bigger audience than most Australian politicians — meaning his actions already have an outsized influence.
Viewed through that lens, his attempts to gain attention by stunts that allow him to virtue-signal that he is a “truth-teller” (while actually ignoring the truth) plays to the hyper-engaged online conspiratorial and fringe audiences.
The government’s leadership has remained largely mute. Morrison and Joyce have defended him as exercising “freedom of speech”. And that same tired defence was rolled out in response to his latest antics.
“We live in this beautiful thing called a democracy and freedom of speech is centre to that democracy,” Agriculture Minister David Littleproud told ABC News Breakfast on Tuesday.
The reason Morrison and Joyce are unlikely to do anything is because they need Christensen. He is one member of the government that holds a one-seat majority. Christensen’s wild vaccine and ivermectin claims also have the benefit of ensuring that the LNP isn’t outflanked by One Nation in Queensland, which has also tacked towards the conspiratorial claims.
Even if George Christensen’s antics are harming it elsewhere, the government is hanging on, white-knuckled, knowing he’ll soon be a problem of the past.
But this crass political calculus has a cost. People are poisoning themselves using ivermectin. Unvaccinated Australians make up the majority of people dying from COVID.
What it is undeniable is that Christensen is using the benefits of his office — his time, his title, his platform — to encourage people to act in a way that may harm them, and not to do something that would help. He is undermining the government from within.
It’s behaviour like this that shows how truly pathetic Morrison is as a leader. He has zero authority.
Not sure that George should take ivermectin – it is an anti-parasite drug.
You buy ivermectin over the counter at farm suppliers, along with a drenching gun to apply it. It’s for worms in animals. Also in people. Also treats scabies taken orally. And used as a shampoo for lice. Amazingly, some people think it works against viruses. Well it doesn’t, so save your money. Christensen is an idiot who would rather die of a horrible disease than be vaccinated with a safe vaccine. Only the ultra gullible could possibly take his advice.
Plenty of ultra gullible around, unfortunately.
Sorry to say but you might be a bigger idiot because vermectin has been used in more than 30 countries to fight COVID. Just six years ago, in 2015, two scientists who developed it won a Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in recognition of the powerful benefits of this drug. It is a very safe drug and has been FDA-approved for other conditions for decades. In fact, ivermectin is given to 300 million people a year, mostly in Africa and Latin America, as it prevents river blindness, a devastating disease. In the areas it is given out, it is distributed to just about everyone except pregnant women and children under the age of 5.
Over the last four decades, ivermectin has been prescribed an estimated 4BILLION times to people around the world, and side effects are exceedingly rare. Ivermectin is on the World Health Organization’s List of Essential Medicines.Ivermectin is known as an anti-parasitic drug that kills worms and lice. But it also has been shown to have potent antiviral properties against a wide range of viruses, including the Dengue virus, the West Nile virus, and the Zika virus. And early studies showed it was incredibly potent against SARS-Coronavirus in the test tube, with a single treatment reducing viral DNA to one 5,000th of what it was previously within only 48 hours.
Cam Wilson is another cowardly scribbler attacking a man who has the courage to speak out against an army of hacks who lie to us on a daily basis. Wilson should go back to the ABC which is full of like minded truth benders. I see he primarily covers internet culture and tech in Australia. He should stick with that as he knows SFA about Ivermectin.
So, let me get this straight… What you are saying is there is an effective medication to treat C19D but that a gigantic worldwide conspiracy of wicked people are preventing this life-saving medication from being made available… yes?
But didn’t you also post against another article that C19D was no worse than the flu? So if this was the case why would we need ivermectin in the first place?
Did you even stop to think who benefits from rolling out tehse experimental jabs? Didn’t think so.
I totally disagree with you. If this drug was beneficial, don’t you think our government (appalling as it is) would recommend it?
I take issue with with your personal attacks on the ABC and this author who are reporting facts not propaganda. They are following the guidelines that the Therapeutic Goods Administration – TGA have issued.
“He should stick with that as he knows SFA about Ivermectin.” Just out of interest what is your expertise regarding Ivermectin? Do you have credible peer reviewed scientific studies using Ivermectin as a treatment for Covid-19 and have you been vaccinated with TGA approved vaccination or did you opt for Ivermectin?
Except Omura and Campbell got the Nobel for using ivermectin (a drug used to treat parasites) on ……… well bugger me, they used it to treat parasites. And in fact they used avermectin, which is a precursor of ivermectin, not ivermectin itself. And you are correct, it is relatively safe, it is used widely (for parasites and lice, neither of which are viruses), it is on the WHO Essential Medicines list, it’s even on the Australian PBS. And indeed it has been shown to be active against SARS CoV-2 (and other viruses) in a test tube. Just not in people. Big hint: test tubes are not live people. In vitro studies regularly fail to translate into in vivo studies, which is exactly what has happened with ivermectin and SARS CoV-2. There are a number of observational and retrospective studies that suggested it might work, and even a few (poorly designed, underpowered, not well controlled) randomised controlled trials that supported those early outcomes. However there is no solid credible evidence from large, properly constructed, well designed, adequately powered randomised double blind controlled trials that show it is effective as a treatment for any virus. In fact trials of this nature all show the opposite – it has no clinical effect over that of a placebo against viruses in vivo.
I love it when, as I am incensed enough to start punching out a rebuttal to some nong who uses the comments on a well written article to advance their own conspiratorial nonsense, I read further down and someone like you has quite literally taken the words out of my mouth and done it for me. Bravo.
Vermectin is not Ivermectin and Covid19 did not exist as a recognized virus except in bat noses in 2015.
It is a bot like saying my deisel car will run on petrol because they all come from the same source.
Sorry, but you are wrong. The manufacturer of ivermectin Merc disavows this treatment for COVID-19 on their own website. https://www.merck.com/news/merck-statement-on-ivermectin-use-during-the-covid-19-pandemic/
From the statement:
Do you really think the 6th largest pharma conglomerate in the world by sales would miss an opportunity to flog 5 to 10 billion doses of their medicine? Dream on..
Yer wot? What’s happened to hydroxycloraquine or a dash of bleach on the rocks? Are you a believer in fake news construed by the truth benders?
You do realise that the effect on viral samples in test-tubes was a generalised disruption of nucleoside synthesis at a dose effectively 1000x greater than its anti-parasitic effect? It has no specific effect on the virus, and would probably have similar generalised effects on almost any other live material at that concentration.
And did you know that ivermectin is lethal to tortoises!
He is talking to an audience throughout Australia which has lost faith in the political and social direction Australia is going.
What is the bet; when THE “EVIL” PENTECOSTAL calls the election, Georgie THE PUDDING stands as a LITTLE CLIVE “CLONE” in the Senate.
Nailed it! Then he only has to raise his head once every 8 years.
every 6 in Australia.
Sorry, my memory is confused.
What a triumvirate: Palmer, Kelly and big George. The lard arse party on the move!
The Liberal Party’s enabler party on the move for lard arse scottie.
I think this is a very distinct possibility.
I would be really happy if we could write-off the likes of George Christensen, Craig Kelly and Clive Palmer as the cranks that they are. However, after the American experience with a really dangerous moron like Donald Trump, I feel that we must take these wackos seriously and not underestimate the influence that they may be capable of wielding. We must be particularly thankful that, up to this point at least, unlike Trump, they have not received any significant backing from the Murdoch media.
If this pandemic crisis has taught me anything, it is that we should not underestimate just how irrational and plain stupid a significant proportion of the population is.
(Disclaimer, I have made my fair share of mistakes in my life and I have done some silly things but I think that on this issue I have got it close to being right.)