Writer
John Dwyer
Professor John Dwyer AO, is an Immunologist, Emeritus Professor of Medicine at UNSW and for many years heavily involved in efforts to improve the delivery of healthcare in Australia. He was the founder of the Australian Healthcare Reform Alliance.
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A moral responsibility to get Australian’s home
Almost 40,000 Australians are trapped abroad because of the Covid-19 epidemic. Many have been trying to return for more than a year. Many in countries with raging epidemics, such as India and Brazil are in real danger of personal infection. Many new viral ‘variants’ are more infectious and can cause serious disease in younger populations Continue reading »
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Explaining the AstraZeneca blood clots: what are our risks and how do we proceed?
Australian governments are advising people under the age of 50 not to pursue vaccination with the now locally produced AstraZeneca vaccine. Given Australia’s control over community transmission, any risk posed by the AZ vaccine is unacceptable, particularly, for not at-risk populations. Continue reading »
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The unfolding Covid disaster in PNG
Helping New Guinea with its disastrous Covid outbreak is not pure altruism on our part. The unbridled, indeed raging pandemic, known to have infected 100,000 already and likely to have infected a million more within a week or so, provides a perfect ‘incubator’ for wild type more infectious variants of the Covid to develop. We Continue reading »
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Vaccine misinformation on social media is out of control, but we should expect better from the mainstream media
I am surely not alone in being angry that The Australian would accept Clive Palmer’s money and let him publish dangerous, inaccurate claims about our Covid vaccination program. Continue reading »
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How effective are the Covid vaccines for our global immunisation efforts?
While there are more than 200 vaccines against Covid-19 being developed, there are now seven vaccines being widely distributed and used around the world. Do they all work? That depends on how you judge “works” often described in terms of “efficacy” in achieving desired goals. Continue reading »
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Reflections from the ’80s: the HIV epidemic in Myanmar
For the last three years off the fifteen I worked in the US my clinical life was consumed with setting up a unit at Yale University to study and treat patients with the mysterious Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), the cause of which was eventually discovered to be a unique retro-virus called, logically enough, the Continue reading »
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Vaccination controversy shouldn’t compromise efforts to protect Australians
The crucial fact is that all the vaccines being administered around the world provide near 100% protection from death and the need for those infected to receive intensive hospital care. Continue reading »
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The race is on … vaccines vs variants. The global response will determine the winner
Boris Johnson’s call for wealthy nations to share Covid vaccines more equitably with poorer countries was vital. The warning from the WHO that “no-one is safe from Covid till all are safe” is a truism with major implications. Continue reading »
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We have the tools to help control the pandemic; we have to use them
The arrival of more infectious Covid variants means more of us need to be vaccinated than previously thought, with an uptake of at least 80%. The federal government must now drive that promotion campaign with a focus on vaccine safety. Continue reading »
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It is foolhardy, indeed downright irresponsible, to have spectators at cricket and tennis matches this summer
The basic imperative for controlling an epidemic wherein the inhalation of aerosolised viral particles can cause much illness and death, is to stay away from each other. Continue reading »
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Reflections on and predictions for the Covid-19 pandemic as 2020 gives way to 2021. Part 2
If there is a “brotherhood of man” now is the time for it to manifest itself as we respond to the enormous challenge involved in overcoming the inequity that could stop us winning the struggle with a deadly virus. Of course in helping the less fortunate we will be helping ourselves. Continue reading »
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Reflections on and predictions for the Covid-19 Pandemic as 2020 gives way to 2021. Part 1
At a meeting recently in Texas the chairman of the International Association for the Promotion of SARS viruses addressed an enthusiastic audience. Representatives of all strains of COVID-19 currently having their way with humans were present. “How much better is this than being confined to a dingy cave resting in a Bat”, he laughed. “How Continue reading »
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Surely pre-senile dementia is too high a price to pay for sporting glory
Watching 22-year-old cricketer Will Pucovski collapse after a rock-hard ball travelling at more than 100mph smashed into the side of his head was literally sickening. The ninth time he would be diagnosed as having concussion, the cumulative damage to his brain could be very serious. Continue reading »
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The global effort by anti-vaxxers to destroy confidence in Covid-19 vaccines
With the global effort to immunise 8 billion people leaving the station the challenges involved are immense. Continue reading »
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Scott Morrison said NSW was the ‘gold standard’ in infection control but begging is not working in encouraging mask wearing
Recent infections in NSW demonstrate how fragile is our control of community acquired Covid infections. As it will be many months before Australians are immunised and immune to Covid-19 we must focus on stronger containment strategies now. It’s time to mandate mask wearing and not just ask people to wear masks. Continue reading »
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Biden wins the poisoned chalice as we pray for a coronavirus vaccine
The challenges facing President-elect Joe Biden and his team are daunting; A polarised population, high levels of unemployment, a likely Republican-dominated senate, and the perseverance of COVID-19 to name a few. Continue reading »
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Around the world it is the lack of caution among 19-29 year olds that disproportionally puts infection control at risk
The Victorian ‘lockdown’ was necessary, brutal and successful. But any COVID complacency could be literally fatal. We must ask a lot of our younger Australians who understandably chafe at restrictions placed on their social interactions. Continue reading »
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Misinformation about Covid-19. Don’t listen to Donald Trump or Alan Jones.
Here is the big so important question. As we prepare to ease some restrictions, will we, in contradistinction to many communities in other countries, embrace the long-term behaviours that must be normalised to allow us to live as safely and productively as is possible in a Covid-infected world? We need to look closely at the Continue reading »
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PART 2: COVID controversies and vaccine shortcuts
The urgent need for a vaccine to protect us from COVID-19 is obvious. Scientists have produced some promising candidates but, as so often is the case in this pandemic perceived political imperatives are demanding ‘shortcuts’ in the development process that may hinder essential studies of efficacy and safety. Continue reading »
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Covid controversies continue to hinder our efforts to end a deadly pandemic – Part 1
It is truly lamentable that in this most scientific of all ages, so much of the world is making a mess of tackling the worst public health challenge in a hundred years. Continue reading »
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The hindering of our efforts to control the spread of Covid-19
We face social fatigue and misconceptions about social distancing; irresponsible public behaviour; and a widespread lack of appreciation of the long-term clinical consequences of an encounter with this virus. Continue reading »
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Where politics ‘trumps’ public health
We are six months into the Covid-19 (C19) pandemic. A year ago, we would have expected the United States to play a major leadership role in countering any pandemic. Instead, is has suffered at least 2,700,000 infections, resulting in 128,000 deaths . Continue reading »
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Political ambition demands we play the Covid ‘Blame Game’ while Rome still burns
President Donald J Trump claims that carelessness in the Wuhan Institute for Virology saw the Covid-19 virus, which, he insists, was being grown in the Institute, escape, resulting in a disastrous pandemic. Continue reading »
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JOHN DWYER. Palmer’s Pills, all 32 million of them!
Sydney Morning Herald, March 3, 2022. A grateful nation rewards Clive Palmer with the Prime Ministership for using his personal fortune to save Australia from a Covid catastrophe. President Trump tweets his congratulations noting that the two men are “kindred spirits”. Continue reading »
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JOHN DWYER. Trump, Xi and the WHO.
President Trump, always blaming someone to hide his own inadequacies, has vented his fury on both China and the WHO. The WHO, for one precious week, had accepted China’s advice that the novel respiratory infections were not transmitted from human to human. Continue reading »
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JOHN DWYER. Questions we need answered before we can safely ease COVID-19 restrictions.
COVID decisions at the cross roads; which path will Australia take? Continue reading »
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JOHN DWYER.Exploring COVID-19 controversies. Part Two.
How do we safely ease social distancing restrictions and reignite our economy? Continue reading »
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JOHN DWYER. Exploring COVID-19 controversies. Part 1
As we settle into the longest winter of our lives, strict containment strategies are provoking controversy fuelled by misinformation or insufficient knowledge of COVID realities. Continue reading »
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JOHN DWYER. Health care professionals want a lockdown now.
In sharper focus than ever this week is the danger health professionals experience in caring for seriously ill patients infected with COVID-19. Continue reading »
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Trump declares he is convinced we now have a drug to terminate the epidemic
As I write Boris Johnson has just locked down the UK and ordered police officers to enforce the lockdown. Almost simultaneously Donald Trump has declared that there is a “great weariness” among Americans for this social distancing business and he wants it to end in two weeks. Continue reading »
