As Australians are dragged into the same lockdowns as New Zealand, we should expect that those in charge and on the front line are the best we have.
But the shocking cluster of infections and deaths in regional Tasmania undermine that confidence, one way or the other. If rumours about the source of the outbreak are true, some people in the health sector there need a rocket up ‘em. But if it is just an internet rumour, why is Australia’s Chief Medical Officer peddling it at the highest level?
Either way, it’s not a good look to Australians struggling through these lockdowns.
Health workers in northwest Tasmania, where a coronavirus outbreak has shut two hospitals, attended an “illegal” dinner party together, Australia’s Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy has revealed.
The hospitals in Burnie closed on Monday, with a cluster of more than 60 COVID-19 cases, including about 45 staff, associated with the facilities.
Just to be clear what the consequences of this outbreak have been: our entire state is in a state of emergency. Nearly half of the state is under stringent lock-down for the next two weeks. Over half of all cases in Tasmania can be traced to just one regional hospital. Four of the five deaths in Tasmania are linked to the cluster.
Worse, hospital services in the region are devastated. Their patients have all been dispersed to other hospitals in the state, with the obvious associated risk.
Dr Murphy made the revelation on Tuesday morning while he was briefing a select committee of New Zealand MPs about Australia’s response to the pandemic.
“We thought we were doing really well in the last week then we had a cluster of 49 cases in a hospital in Tasmania just over the weekend, most of them went to an illegal dinner party of medical workers,” he told the committee via video link.
For days, rumours and online chatter have been rife that the outbreak was linked to hospital staff “partying on” with a “fly-in, fly-out locum”. Reporters were beginning to flag the rumours at premier Peter Gutwein’s pressers. Gutwein’s response was swift and indignant.
Premier Peter Gutwein told reporters that Professor Murphy was commenting on a rumour but he has asked police to investigate.
“Our contact tracing has not identified a dinner party of health workers. However, I accept that this is a serious allegation, and it’s something that needs to be followed up,” Mr Gutwein said.
Murphy has since walked back the allegation, indicating that his source was nothing more than the same Facebook tattle I’ve been seeing.
There are two possibilities, here: either some hospital staff behaved grossly irresponsibly, or the bloke in charge of Australia’s virus response – and thus, de facto responsible for decisions that are affecting Australia’s health, economy and security for years to come – is taking his talking-points from social media.
To be clear: I’ve known of these rumours for days, but I’ve held off writing a word until something more concrete than some Facebook rando’s “I just reckon” came out. If Australia’s Chief Medical Officer has no such compunction – he raised the rumour at a video conference with a New Zealand parliamentary committee – that does not inspire confidence.
Let’s be clear: proportionally, this outbreak has been catastrophic for Tasmania, with its population of just half a million.
The North West Regional Hospital and North West Private Hospital are undergoing a deep clean by specialist teams after shutting their doors.
Tasmania has called in members of the Australian Defence Force to help progressively get services back online, as well as Australian Medical Assistance Teams.
About 1200 healthcare staff have been ordered to quarantine for two weeks, along with their households, putting up to 5000 people in isolation.
Time and again, we are seeing that the worst depredations of the Chinese virus have been brought about mostly by official incompetence and downright stupidity.
We don’t expect any better from the Chinese communists, but we should surely be able to expect better from whomever is responsible for this fiasco. High-level officials or frontline medical staff, somebody has stuffed up.
There had better be a hell of an accounting and not just a whole lot of arse-covering.
If you enjoyed this BFD article please consider sharing it with your friends.
