“Activist doctors” have jeopardised the effort to immunise Australians against COVID-19 with their “strident” public comments on the AstraZeneca vaccine, Dr Nick Coatsworth says.

The former federal deputy chief medical officer claims the comments have undermined confidence in the vaccine by playing up concerns over its safety and efficacy.

In a speech last week, he did not mention any names but said the comments had only made managing vaccine hesitancy more difficult.  

“There is a hardcore rump of activist doctors who have been anti-AstraZeneca since the start of this year, misquoting and misrepresenting the phase III trial data and, in my view, substantially undermining the national program,” he said at the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons’ annual scientific congress in Melbourne.