Dr Nick Coatsworth admits the big vaccine mistake he made as one of the country’s top doctors during the Covid – Daily Mail

By Eliza Mcphee For Daily Mail Australia 01:17 28 Feb 2024, updated 01:17 28 Feb 2024

Dr Nick Coatsworth has said that government officials including himself 'got it wrong' when it came to supporting Covid vaccine mandates - and that future pandemics should prioritise convincing people to get vaccinated.

His comments come afterQueensland's Supreme Courton Tuesday found thatpolice and ambulance workers in the state were given unlawful directions to get vaccines or face potential disciplinary action.

The court found Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll failed to give proper consideration to human rights relevant to the decision to issue the vaccine mandate.

Former Department of Health director-general Dr John Wakefield was unable to prove he issued the vaccine mandate under an implied term of the employment agreements for ambulance service workers.

As a result, both vaccine mandates were found by the court to be 'unlawful' and to have no effect.

Weighing in on the groundbreaking decision, Dr Coatsworth, Australia's former deputy chief health officer during the pandemic, said he had to acknowledge his own role in the system promoting vaccine mandates.

'We didn't get it wrong promoting the vaccines, but the mandates, yes, I think we did get that wrong,' he told The Today Show on Wednesday.

'And I think you can say hindsight is 20/20. But hindsight gives us foresight. And if we have another pandemic, we should think long and hard whether mandates for vaccines are justified.'

The infectious disease physician was the face of the vaccine rollout and was a common appearance on Australian televisions during the Covid outbreak.

He was appointed as one of three new deputy chief medical officers under Brendan Murphy at the start of the pandemic in March 2020.

Dr Coatsworth said CommissionerCarroll 'didn't give any regard to the human rights implications' of the vaccine mandates.

He said the Supreme Court's decision could mean some of the workers sacked for not following the mandates could potentially get their jobs back.

'It could open the way for civil proceedings and damages against the governments with human rights acts, which are Queensland, the ACT and Victoria,' he said.

'But importantly, I think it opens allthe decisions that we as senior health officials, as senior police and ambulance officials made.

'Did we have regard to Australians' human rights when we made those decisions and to what extent did we balance those decisions against human rights?'

The expert said in the event a pandemic was to occur again, authorities should rely on convincing people to get vaccinated rather than enforcing mandates.

'I think what we saw in New South Wales and Victoria was that you could get tohigh levels of vaccine coverage without the mandates, and that was because people were genuinely worried and they were prepared to be informed about these vaccines.

'That's the way to do it for the future.'

The Supreme Court also found the vaccine directions limited the human rights of workers because they were required to undergo a medical procedure without full consent but it was reasonable in all the circumstances.

Senior Judge Administrator Glenn Martin said the police and ambulance services were trying to prevent their employees from suffering infection, serious illness and life-changing health consequences.

'The balance between the importance of the purpose of the limitation, and the importance of preserving the human right... is complicated by the fact that these directions were given in what was, by any measure, an emergency,' he said.

More than 70 frontline workers in Queensland had taken legal action against the state government in three separate lawsuits.

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Dr Nick Coatsworth admits the big vaccine mistake he made as one of the country's top doctors during the Covid - Daily Mail