TGA threatens Craig Kelly with legal action over 'seriously misleading' COVID-19 texts
The nation's medical regulator has demanded rogue crossbencher Craig Kelly stop distributing "seriously misleading" information about COVID-19 vaccines.
Key points:
Craig Kelly has been sending out mass texts to Australians
The TGA has demanded he stop sending texts about COVID vaccinations
Mr Kelly says the media release from the TGA is defamatory and he is seeking legal advice
Mr Kelly, who quit the Liberal Party after spruiking unproven remedies for the virus, has been spamming people with text messages containing a link to what he says is the Australian government's COVID-19 vaccine adverse events report.
Lawyers for the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) have written to Mr Kelly accusing him of breaching copyright and "demanding he stop distributing incomplete extracts of the report … which the TGA believes could be seriously misleading".
"The TGA has acted in an effort to ensure that the public receives accurate information about adverse event reports," the TGA said in a statement.
"It is alleged that extracts were selectively taken from the Database of Adverse Event Notifications on the TGA website by the United Australia Party and used by the United Australia Party in text messages to members of the public.
"The reports are subject to copyright and the extracts distributed by the United Australia Party have removed important information about the reports and the TGA's copyright statement."
TGA investigating whether crime committed
On Monday, TGA boss John Skerritt indicated the regulator was investigating whether Mr Kelly's messages had fallen foul of the law.
"We are looking through, with advice from the Australian government's solicitor, whether an offence has been committed because it does have an Australian government logo," he told 730.
Mr Kelly has previously conceded the messages might be annoying, but argued there are worse ways of getting attention.
"If people don't like a text message, they're much less intrusive than the old method of cold telephone calls," he said.
"If someone doesn't like it, it's just a microsecond swipe of the finger and the message is gone."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-15/craig-kelly-legal-action-tga-texts-covid-vaccines/100465488
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