Corona Virus

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Originally Posted by WhiteD3

I do feel for the Vic CHO who, from far away Brisvages, looks to have done a good job on COVID and I understand he's become some sort of sex symbol to those ladies stuck at home.........

But back to topic.....

I don't get the reluctance on VIC officials to tell the truth re private security. Too late now I know but why didn't they say from the outset that they used private security to save money and police resources? Makes sense to me but maybe I'm missing something? Having the coppers or ADF on guard is no guarantee that COVID idiots won't sneak out or try to have it off with their guard. The whole issue rings of mock outrage to me but of course now its gone too far with politicians and public servants lying and all.

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I agree that overall the CHO and even the DHHS have done a good job and given good health advice. But I suspect more heads will roll yet before we get to the truth on what really took place. One minister has already taken the fall, and yet nothing changed.

And why the reluctance? - under Victorian law those in charge can be held criminally liable. Working out who was in charge seems to be a challenge as no one can recall.

If they were a commercial organisation all involved would have been stood aside pending an investigation, and certainly not be allowed to continue to make statements to the media. It is the relentless scrutiny of the media which is unearthing what happened.

The real problem is the hotel quarantine program is an Australian government mandated requirement for overseas arrivals which was left to the states to manage with no federal oversight. Not sure it would have been handled any better though.

Today is Thank You day in Victoria.

I want to give a big shout out to all of our health professionals and support services for who today is just another day on the front line.

Thank you.

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Originally Posted by JDNSW

Absolutely correct. In fact, the situation is probably worse than the excess death figures show for many countries, because nearly everywhere has taken some effort to try and stop the spread of covid-19, and even where these infection control measures have been less than stellar in controlling the pandemic, they have reduced the spread of other infections that have similar transmission mechanisms. Most notable is influenza, which is much less infectious, but also much more widespread in many countries.

This is attested by evidence such as that published in Denmark early in the pandemic, which clearly showed a 75% reduction in the proportion of positive tests for influenza with the introduction of movement restrictions, despite the same number of tests being performed.

Another possible indicator supporting the excess number of deaths as being an underestimate of covid-19 deaths is the publication in the last couple of days that suicide rates in lockdown in Victoria have not increased as was expected by some.

And as an indicator of Australia's success in dealing with the pandemic is that for Australia, once reported covid-19 deaths are accounted for, the excess death number is very small.

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I read the excess deaths rate for the USA is 300,000, compared with the Covid death rate of 220,000, so the real death rate is higher than the official figure.

As for the CMO and who decided to use private security, I don't see why it would be a big issue.
The Commonwealth and all the states use private security - it's standard practice.
The question I want answered is why the private security were not properly trained in infection control.

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Originally Posted by DiscoMick

The question I want answered is why the private security were not properly trained in infection control.

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im guessing it has something to do with said private security IQ level.

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Originally Posted by DiscoMick

The Commonwealth and all the states use private security - it's standard practice.
The question I want answered is why the private security were not properly trained in infection control.

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Exactly - not a basic problem with the decision - it is the implementation of the program and training. Could easily have had the same issue with the cops or the ADF doing the same.

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Originally Posted by WhiteD3

I do feel for the Vic CHO who, from far away Brisvages, looks to have done a good job on COVID and I understand he's become some sort of sex symbol to those ladies stuck at home.........

But back to topic.....

I don't get the reluctance on VIC officials to tell the truth re private security. Too late now I know but why didn't they say from the outset that they used private security to save money and police resources? Makes sense to me but maybe I'm missing something? Having the coppers or ADF on guard is no guarantee that COVID idiots won't sneak out or try to have it off with their guard. The whole issue rings of mock outrage to me but of course now its gone too far with politicians and public servants lying and all.

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The general view here appears to be that the health officials and Government (i.e., Daniel Andrews) have been doing their best, Daniel Andrews has been turning up every day when it would've been easy to send someone else to cop it all, but the DHHS is a disaster, as was the now-ex Health Minister. She was clearly out of her depth and the intemperate comments she made at the start, in particular about Missy Higgins' father, were very revealing. What has changed with this second outbreak is that the pretence of national cooperation has gone and Daniel Andrews is now under sustained attack by the Murdoch-Liberal media-political complex, some of which is sticking. It started with the Prime Minister's office background briefing against Daniel Andrews - despite he and the PM supposedly having a close relationship - and now it's actual Ministers piling on the pressure. The point of the inquiry should've been to identify the problems so that they don't occur again, instead it's turned into a politicised witchhunt and everyone appears to be diving for cover.

Interesting question why you have a Federal government applying so much heat to a State premier, particularly when there's no election in the offing.

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Originally Posted by BradC

So update on this. As reported by the Sydney Morning Herald and various other outlets as coming from the Victorian CHO (you know, the dude who can't remember he not only received, but replied to an E-mail on private security for the quarantine hotels), it is allegedly possible that this was a "false positive". The contact tracers (who I've been reliably informed by those subject to contact tracing) are apparently hopeless, and I'm led to believe follow up tests have been negative and nobody has any idea "where it might have come from" if indeed they had it in the first place.

I wasn't game to ask how many people had been tested given everyone who had been on the ward for more than 2 hours since Sept 30 was tested (eventually).

My lad had 3 tests in a week. Thankfully he was only conscious for one of them.

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Hopefully your son will be clear of it.

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Originally Posted by Arapiles

Hopefully your son will be clear of it.

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It looks like everyone is including the patient who initially tested positive. Despite the chaos and disturbance caused it would appear a good outcome all round. While I might gripe about the day to day issues and inconvenience I can’t argue that any of the measures taken were not proportionate to the threat, particularly in that ward.

They really do have to get some more resourcing into contact tracing though.

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Originally Posted by Eevo

im guessing it has something to do with said private security IQ level.

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I don’t think that’s fair at all. The reality is the people on the ground were not given any training let alone appropriate training. They don’t appear to have been adequately screened in the recruiting process. There are always a small proportion of newsworthy muppets and we saw them on the news.

My feeling is on the whole there are a massive chain of failures from the highest level down, but blaming the canon fodder is easy when they are the visible ones.

The security industry in Vic needs a good clean out. We did it in WA quite a few years ago now and there has been constant pressure to do similar here that has been resisted by vested interests. Maybe this’ll be the push it needs.

The criticism of the CMO seems to be a beat-up intended to make trouble.
Sutton just said he didn't read all of a letter drafted on his behalf.
He also said he probably would not have opposed the use of private security even if he had known about it.
I think the real question is how the system was managed. After all, once Corrective Services took over and sent in staff trained in infection control the problems stopped.

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