Dr Norman Swan Links Shane Warne’s Death to COVID-19

On 4th March 2022, Australian cricketer Shane Warne died in Thailand from natural causes according to Thai authorities, although it’s suspected he had a heart attack. He was aged 52. He was fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Labor senator for Victoria Kimberley Kitching died six days later, also from a suspected heart attack, also aged 52.

ABC’s health expert and former physician, Dr Norman Swan, recently suggested that their deaths were linked to COVID. He stated on ABC News Breakfast, “It’s too much of a coincidence that Shane Warne and the Labor Senator in Victoria died not long after a COVID infection, and people are reporting sudden death after COVID infection. It’s not benign.”

Subsequently, he was criticised for his view, and was accused of speculating on their causes of death without any evidence.

On Tuesday, he was contacted by the Daily Mail, doubling down on his assessment, “Warne had lots of risk factors for heart disease, but if he was going to get a bit of extra inflammation from COVID, that could have tipped him over the edge. These are two high-profile people, one of whose death was a complete surprise, and they both had COVID in the background. These weren’t private deaths, they were very public and had an impact on a lot of people who scratched their heads and wondered why, and that could have been a reason.”

It should be noted that Kitching’s family have stated that she had not contracted COVID before her death or tested positive previously.

This morning, ABC News Breakfast’s Michael Rowland issued an apology, “Dr Norman Swan has issued an apology after suggesting there may be a COVID link to the deaths of Labor senator Kimberley Kitching and cricket great Shane Warne. He made those comments during his interview on our program yesterday. Dr Swan says he’s personally apologised to Senator Kitching’s husband yesterday and that he made an error he regrets.”

Subsequently, Dr Swan stated, “If I thought it was hurtful to the families, I wouldn’t have said it. What would be hurtful is saying Kimberley Kitching had a dreadful lifestyle, if I was blaming her for the heart attack that would be a dreadful thing to say to the family. But if it’s a side effect of COVID it starts to explain things.”

He stated that he thought it would be helpful to have an explanation and also to warn people not to be blasé about catching COVID.”

With regards to Dr Swan’s comments, former deputy chief medical officer Dr Nick Coatsworth said, “I think Norman would be the first to agree that it wasn't his best moment in the pandemic. You can’t go wrong if you just avoid making assumptions and speculating about causes of death, particularly when they were both so tragic. The lessons we should draw is that every senator should aspire to be like Kimberley Kitching, every young boy or girl who picks up a cricket ball should be like Shane Warne. That’s all we should take out of that, the positive of their lives and that sort of speculation [from Norman Swan] should have no place in the COVID discourse.”

What are you thoughts? Did Dr Swan go too far in his COVID alarmism?

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