Dr Nick Coatsworth: COVID Mistakes, Big Government & The Future of Australia
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Dr. Nick Coatsworth, welcome to Straight Talk, mate.
Oh, thank you, mate.
You've been pretty vocal lately.
Well, not lately, forever, but lately. Yeah, look, MB, I've got the opportunity from COVID to have a bit of a platform, a bit of a voice. And, you know, it was once when I actually learned how to do my debating and public speaking at school. that I actually became reasonably good at it. I would never claim to be the best doctor in the world, but my latent talent is sort of talking. with everything that's happening so far in the world. And I think what's happening to the country as well, what's happening to Australia, I think it's important that people with something to say get up and say it.
Well, I think it's also important too, Nick, that people with – let's call it status, and I don't mean that in sort of any condescending way or the opposite to that, as a matter of fact – But people with status, I think, have an obligation to say something if they've got an opinion. If they don't have an opinion, fair enough. But if they've got an opinion on something, I think there's an obligation to say something. Do you think you fit into that category and would you agree with that proposition?
Oh, I definitely agree with the proposition. I think there's limitations on what people can and can't do. I think from my point of view, I'm relatively unconstrained. Yes, I work with the Nine Network. I'm very fortunate to have that sort of position. I still work as a doctor. But I think as long as you keep your opinions within a reasonable discourse, a reasonable left or right of arc, you can have strong opinions and you should express them.
So, you know, one of the things you're, from my point of view, at least that you're best known for is the COVID period. Yeah. How did you go from being a medical practitioner to being someone that effectively became the federal government spokesperson nearly for COVID or during COVID? How did that sort of all occur?
Yeah. Well, I mean, some of it's always going to be right place, right time, but there were a few key steps in the career that got me there. I think the first one was probably working with Doctors Without Borders, getting a real passion for crisis medicine and humanitarian aid.
Maybe you'd explain that a little bit. I mean, I've heard of it, but explain a little bit about that. What does it mean? Is that like charity, not charitable work? Is that like freebie stuff? Like you're doing, you don't get paid?
Yeah, no, we weren't paid for it. And it's a French organization with a very long and deep history of going into some of the most difficult conflicts in the world. Where were you placed? Well, I went to the Congo. Now, there's two Congos, two Congos. There's the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is the least democratic. And then there's the Republic of Congo, which is sort of the old French Congo. The DRC, which is the one that's playing footy at the moment. The DRC is playing footy and has got an Ebola outbreak. Right. So that's not the one I was in, but we were just across the river from that. They're both next to each other, the old Belgian and the French Congos from colonial days. So it was post-conflict, Mark, but it was a long way away from the capital.
Like if you think about Sydney and, I don't know, Bourke or West Adabo or something like that, that's where this was relatively in that country. So- There's nothing there. We're in the middle of the jungle. We're in a village of 30,000 people. We're providing the only health care there. Do you have a hospital? MSF had built a hospital there when the need arose 10 years ago. And now we're sitting there going, well, what do we do with this hospital? And we ended up being the last group of MSF doctors. I was the doctor. There was a nurse. There were a couple of other people. And we were the last ones there because the home base in Paris said – no need here anymore. We need to shut down. So I'd gone out thinking I was going to be, you know, save the world.
There was a program back then called ER where there was a young doctor called Carter.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–6:25
2
How did Dr Nick Coatsworth's Doctors Without Borders work shape his medical leadership?
6:25–48:03
3
What motivated Dr Coatsworth to join the national COVID response team in early 2020?
48:03–1:02:20
4
Why does Dr Coatsworth believe COVID accelerated Australia's reliance on big government?
1:02:20–1:11:30
Speakers
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