Federal Minister for Health Greg Hunt has made an extraordinary attack on health economist Professor Stephen Duckett, describing some of his early COVID-19 advice as “wildly incorrect and dangerous”.

Mr Hunt was being interviewed on the ABC’s 7.30 Report last week when he took aim at Professor Duckett, health program director at the Grattan Institute and a former Secretary of the Federal Department of Health. 

The health minister had been asked whether Australia should be pushing towards elimination of COVID-19 rather than suppression, as Professor Duckett proposed earlier in the week. 

Mr Hunt didn’t name Professor Duckett but questioned his credentials by referring to comments he had made at the start of the pandemic in relation to ventilators.