Select a region
The Bailiwick’s response to covid-19 has been heavily criticised by a consultant physician and cardiologist who has practised locally with the Medical Specialist Group for 15 years.
In a letter written in June, but which has only now come to light, Dr Dean Patterson urged the Bailiwick’s leaders to change course and warned of “the clear and imminent danger of our freedoms and values being permanently and irreversibly expunged”.
Deputy Peter Ferbrache, Chairman of the Civil Contingencies Authority, replied to Dr Patterson at the time and told him that his opinions “appear to be at odds with the views of the medical and scientific bodies who we consider best placed to provide advice on these questions”.
Dr Patterson stands by the raft of concerns raised in his letter and says he will write to Deputy Ferbrache again soon.
Speaking to Express yesterday, Dr Patterson said: “The field of science and medicine is littered with people who were thought to be heretics who were doing pioneering stuff for breaking the mould."
Pictured: Dr Dean Patterson specialises in cardiovascular medicine at the Medical Specialist Group.
Express is today publishing Dr Patterson’s June letter to Deputy Ferbrache, Deputy Ferbrache’s reply and responses from the Medical Director of the Princess Elizabeth Hospital and the Medical Specialist Group, which has distanced itself from Dr Patterson’s views on covid-19.
In his June letter - written before the emergence of the latest variant of concern, omicron - Dr Patterson told Deputy Ferbrache that he was writing “with a burning conviction that I have never experienced in my 27-year professional career as a doctor”.
Dr Patterson wrote that he had “huge admiration of the Civil Contingencies Authority’s efforts from the start and during the initial phase – in particular for Dr Brink’s dedication and tenacity of approach to the outbreak”.
But he went on to state that “covid-19, while a potentially lethal virus to some people with underlying health issues, is not the pandemic that it was made out to be by the so-called leading establishment epidemiologists across the world”. He said they had “failed us all and caused more harm through their obsessive, pessimistic and highly inaccurate modelling”.
“I have been concerned from the start of this pandemic that there was no-one with real world clinical experience of dealing with patients with respiratory infections included at a top level,” wrote Dr Patterson.
“In addition, the Civil Contingencies Authority and the medical leadership appear to have committed themselves to a policy that gives no exit from the current core strategy of viral variant – PCR test – virus detection wave – lockdown – repeat.
“The strategy of vaccinating all subjects is unheralded and not necessary. Only people at risk require the vaccine as covid-19 poses a very low risk to healthy people. We have never mandated vaccinating the whole population for influenza, so why vaccinate the healthy for covid?
“I am one of a growing, previously silent group of medical professionals, businesspeople and well-meaning individuals who up to now have been willing to give the team in charge of the pandemic the benefit of doubt when we were faced with many unknowns. However, the material facts relating to the core issues are now known and many untruths have subsequently been exposed.”
Dr Patterson stated that he was writing with his concerns partly because he believed “there has been an absence of open debate regarding the policies that have been implemented”.
“I, as a General Physician responsible for the care of hospitalized covid patients, have felt my views have not been given a fair hearing.” His letter went on to set out various reasons why he felt that his views had not been properly taken into account.
Pictured: In a reply to Dr Dean Patterson's letter of earlier this year, the Chairman of the Civil Contingencies Authority, Deputy Peter Ferbrache, rejected Dr Patterson's criticism of the handling of the pandemic. The Bailiwick's political and public health leaders are currently promoting the vaccine booster programme, which is delivered mainly from the Sir John Loveridge Hall at Beau Sejour.
Speaking to Express yesterday, Dr Patterson said he is not opposed to all vaccinations (known as 'anti-vax') but is in favour of “healthy discussion and debate".
“My position is not to go against vaccines," he said. "This is not about the vaccines. It’s about science, debate and doctor/patient relationships. All these things that medicine is founded upon.
“The last 22 months have seen almost every person in Guernsey become a patient of public health. When you become a patient of any specialty, you become occupied by that premise. It starts to hog the limelight...and take precedence in terms of priority.
“People have been made to become a patient either willingly or unwillingly and that means this activity is stopping normal patient activity from processing. One of the astounding things throughout this whole process is the censorship and lack of discussion.
“We need more discussion about the unintended harms."
Comments
Comments on this story express the views of the commentator only, not Bailiwick Publishing. We are unable to guarantee the accuracy of any of those comments.