No solid grounds to keep state border shut
MICHAEL CHASE-SMITH, SURFERS PARADISE
WHERE is the medical advice and evidence to close the state borders and to keep them closed until now? Back in March and April there was so much fear being spread by politicians and journalists of how bad this virus could be, which was based on modelling which has since proven to be so incorrect.
In July, we Queenslanders had a glimmer of hope when the borders were opened briefly until they were “slammed shut” by the Premier, or was it the Chief Health Officer?
The damage to livelihoods, families, businesses and the Queensland economy are well documented, but where is the documented medical advice and evidence that the state border should have been closed and still should be closed. The Qld Chief Health Officer, Health Minister and Premier have consistently told us that borders need to be closed but at this time we have not seen any of the medical advice that dictates this course of action.
Commonwealth medical advice and international experts have been repeatedly advising against border closures and lockdowns. Is there any true medical advice or as many believe, it is just the opinion of the CHO.
The number of cases in Qld have been very low from the start yet we have been pretty much locked down since late March.
On Easter Saturday, April 11, the Health Minister did a press conference and advised that he had “fantastic news”, the Queensland target cases could now be reduced by 80 per cent to 250,000. On that day, I believe Qld had 976 cases so he was basically saying with all seriousness, that we still expected another 249,024 cases.
Since then, more than six months later, we have had a total of 1164 cases, put simply that is 188 new cases at an average of one case per day. What ridiculous modelling was the Qld CHO and Health Department using to come up with these figures?
Interestingly, the Health Minister has not provided any further target case updates and no-one has questioned him then or since. Meanwhile the State has been shut down, thousands of businesses financially crippled, so many lives affected in a very bad way, and whenever the borders open now, it will be too late for many.
The other question remains, who is making the decisions? The Premier says she is acting totally on the medical advice of the CHO yet when it suits her, she says she is making decisions to keep Queenslanders safe.
In any business, a manager takes advice from the people who have that expertise or skill, but a good manager will then make the decision to use the advice or not, based on practicalities and common sense. We have not seen any good management in Qld in this regard as it easier to just close borders and we suspect it has suited certain purposes to do so.
Before those who will say that the Premier has done a great job, can you please show us all the medical advice and evidence supporting border closures? Not one document has been produced. These decisions have destroyed far more than the virus could have and history will look back and be extremely critical how this has been managed.