AMA calls for national plan to combat threat of Omicron
OMAR KHORSHID: The Australian Medical Association is today calling on our national leaders as they come together at National Cabinet to make a national plan for dealing with Omicron. This threat is real. It is spreading around the globe like wildfire, and it is causing disruptions to lives and economies in Europe, and in other countries overseas in ways that we just don't want to see here.
The idea that Omicron is mild is out there in the media. It may be mild, but we just don't know. And now is not the time to be taking risks with people's lives. And of course, with our economies going into next year.
It is a no brainer in the view of the AMA, and in fact, in the view of many experts that have been coming out over the last few days, that sensible measures, sensible measures that do not have significant impacts on people's lives, like wearing masks, like some simple social distancing requirements, density limits in indoor venues are all measures that are absolutely essential to manage Omicron.
They will not destroy the economy, they will not destroy people's Christmas, and they can keep a little bit of a handbrake on Omicron while we learn more about it, and whilst we get our booster program underway.
The approach so far by the New South Wales Government in particular is risking lives, is risking an extraordinary impact on the health system into next year, and it just doesn't make sense.
QUESTION: The Premier of New South Wales, Mr Perrottet, and the Prime Minister himself, appear to be resistant to mask mandate. Yes, if you want to, it's pretty much- that's the extent of it. So, if New South Wales is risking lives, so is the Prime Minister?
OMAR KHORSHID: We understand that our leaders don't want to limit the freedoms of Australians, but we've got to remember we're in the middle of a global pandemic that has taken an extraordinary number of lives around the world. So having the courage, having the will to say to people: look, we just need you to do this, like we need you to wear seat belts, like we need you not to drive when you're drunk. We need you to wear a mask, not to protect yourself, but to protect other people in the community. That is what we do. Those are the limits we accept on our freedoms to live in a community, in a society. These are very reasonable steps, and they must be taken now.
QUESTION: If that is so obvious then, why do you think that the New South Wales Premier and the Prime Minister are so resistant to that idea?
OMAR KHORSHID: You'd have to ask those political leaders why they're taking the decisions they're taking. But from an outside view, it seems to me that having given people hope, they don't want to take it away just before Christmas. And I understand that. It is a difficult thing to say to people that we know we said this is the end of restrictions, this is the end of the pandemic, but it absolutely is not. And to be honest, the best way to avoid lockdowns, to avoid going down those pathways that nobody wants to go down is actually to take Omicron seriously, to bring in some simple measures, like are being used throughout the world in order to manage this pandemic, because living with COVID is not letting it rip, it is not doing absolutely nothing to control its spread.
Living with COVID means sensible measures being taken long term and also being able to flex those measures up and down in order to protect the health system and to keep our economy moving. That was always part of the national plan. It's part of the Doherty modelling. And here we are with a new, more transmissible virus. It's exactly the kind of event that means the approach needs to change.
QUESTION: The Federal Government was going to hold National Cabinet yesterday, but they put back for a day. Do you understand the reasons for that? And does that perhaps show that they're not taking it as seriously as they should?
OMAR KHORSHID: I hope that the change in National Cabinet suggests that they're taking this more seriously, that they need time to get the advice that they need in order to come up with what we're calling for today, which is a national plan. It would be so much better if we can start to do things as a nation rather than each state taking its own course. So, I'm hoping it's a good sign, but of course, time will tell.
QUESTION: The modelling from the WA Government was based on the Delta strain in terms of reopening. Is that outdated now that Omicron has arrived?
OMAR KHORSHID: Unfortunately, the differences that are apparent from Omicron mean that all our modelling is out of date. The original Doherty modelling is out of date. The modelling that most of our state governments have done themselves is out of date. And we just don't have the data around Omicron to do new modelling as yet. We know it's spreading very quickly through previously immune populations, either through infection or vaccination. We know that. But we don't know if it's because it's innately more transmissible or if it's because the previous immunity doesn't work. So, these questions have all got to be answered but the key one is how many people are going to get sick? How many people are going to end up in hospital? And that's the question to which right now we just don't have the answer.
QUESTION: With Scott Morrison saying yesterday that he wants the heavy-hand approach of COVID to be over, do you believe that the Prime Minister sees tightening public health restrictions as a policy failure? And is this a concerning public health stance?
OMAR KHORSHID: The AMA's view is that it was always the plan. It was the national plan to still need public health measures, to still need to contact trace as part of our response to COVID going forward.
Living with COVID was never about letting it rip and sitting back and just watching it wash through the population and hoping it doesn't affect hospitals. It was always about taking necessary steps when they need to be taken, but with the benefit of a fully vaccinated population.
That hasn't changed one bit and I really hope that all of our leaders around the country are able to communicate the fact to their populations that these kinds of measures are our future for the moment. There is no future without COVID anywhere in the world at the moment and if we ignore COVID, it comes back and gets us. We've seen that time and time again throughout the world. So, let's not make those same mistakes here in Australia.
QUESTION: The Prime Minister though yesterday he was saying people have been told what to do by governments for two years and they're tired of it. He now, and Mr Perrottet as well, now seem to be taking a laissez-faire sort of attitude towards it. I'm assuming you believe that's just not the time to do that.
OMAR KHORSHID: The Prime Minister showed really great leadership early in the pandemic and did things that we would never have believed a prime minister in his position would do. He took necessary steps and he helped protect our population. We've seen our state premiers do the same thing throughout the country.
So, my message to all those leaders as they go into national cabinet today is please keep up that strong leadership that you showed early on. Now is not the time to step back. Now is not the time to waste all the good work that was done in this country, all the sacrifices that have been made by so many Australians.
Let's keep up the pressure, let's keep COVID at bay. Let's keep the numbers at reasonable levels. We're not talking about going into unnecessary lockdowns here. We're talking about keeping a little bit of a lid on the virus numbers whilst we enable our system to adapt, whilst we enable booster vaccinations to happen, whilst we learn more about Omicron. These are sensible, no brainer decisions. They are the consensus view of almost all the experts, and we're hearing today that it's also the view of the experts that advise government.
QUESTION: So- which doesn't explain why, why they would just flush all that good work down the toilet.
OMAR KHORSHID: I really hope that the decisions that come out of national cabinet are decisions that Australians can be proud of, that our leaders show leadership, that they continue to protect our health because Australians have made it very clear that their health is critically important to them.
We're happy to accept all these restrictions that have been put on our lives because of the benefits to health, not just to our own health, but to the health of the people around us and to the more vulnerable around us. That's what makes me so proud to be an Australian, the fact that we have addressed this pandemic in ways that many other countries just couldn't do. And I think we should continue to do that.
QUESTION: Can you just- just looking at the numbers that New South Wales and Victoria are getting, and the numbers are starting to grow in other states as well and obviously here. Where do you think we're going to be in, say, three months' time? What's the picture going to be like in three months' time?
OMAR KHORSHID: Gazing into the crystal ball is difficult, particularly when we've got a new variant that is surprising everyone. But looking at the numbers around the world, looking at the numbers in our states that are just starting to get Omicron outbreaks, it's likely we're going to have very, very large numbers of COVID cases throughout our communities in Australia.
