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The Front Line

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Q+A Panel: Kerryn Phelps, Lucy Morgan, Vyom Sharma, Abbey Fistrovic
The Front Line

They’re in our emergency departments, aged care homes and guiding our community response... seeing first-hand how quickly this virus can slip beyond our control.

Victoria has hit a new record with 723 cases, with Melbourne health care workers increasingly getting infected themselves. 

In NSW, hospital staff are bracing for a second wave, and dealing with recovered patients with significant post-viral syndromes and Queensland is trying to contain its first community transmission cluster in months.  

It’s clear we will be living with COVID for quite some time, and these are the people we will be relying on.

What are the lessons learned so far? Are we becoming too complacent? How are the hospitals and the frontline staff holding up? What is different about this second wave?

Discuss the Questions

Here are the questions our panel faced this week. You can discuss their answers on the Q+A Facebook Page.

STATE OF DISASTER

(02:48)

Margaret Healy asked: A state of disaster has now been declared. In hindsight, perhaps Victoria should have taken this hardline to begin with. Does the panel think the community is too divided to follow the rules this time and if so, what can the authorities do about it?

COVID POSITIVE – NOT ISOLATING

(07:12)

Naim Melhem asked: We have seen what happened in Victoria and it is on the increase, yet we have the Army and health official door knocking the people tested positive for COVID-19 and find them not isolating. They were outside home. This should be considered a criminal matter. This is what the other states should learn from and why aren’t they going hard and seriously on this matter?

ST BASILS AGED CARE

(13:20)

Spiros Vasilakis asked: The mandatory requirement for aged care staff to wear PPE was not brought in until the 13th July. But why wouldn’t aged care providers implement the wearing of PPE mandatory for all staff much earlier, of their own initiative, given they are dealing with such a vulnerable group- it wouldn’t have hurt anyone to wear PPE but the consequences of not wearing it have caused a disaster. Why would they not act in a preventative and proactive way?

ST BASILS AGED CARE

(13:20)

Christine Golding asked: Why wasn’t Australia (both federal and state governments) better prepared to manage the tragic consequences of COVID-19 outbreaks at St Basil’s and other aged care facilities, given what we saw happen at Newmarch House in NSW and what we observed in Italy, Spain, UK and USA?

INCOME PROTECTION

(16:55)

David Hart asked: Many of these coronavirus cases have occurred because part time or casual staff could not afford to self-isolate because they were not included in the government's paid pandemic leave. Many of these casual workers also had several jobs requiring them to travel to different employment making "ring fencing" almost impossible. If any casual or part-time employee is told to self-isolate will the federal government immediately offer the same pandemic leave income protection as you have for Victorian casual employees from today?

POLITICAL MESSAGING

(20:58)

Peter Morris asked: As a Doctor in Victoria, I am obviously concerned about the increasing threat of coronavirus. I am appalled by the behaviour of several of the most outspoken Victorian Opposition MPs who are continually undermining the governments COVID advice and safety messages. This has led to complacency among some Victorians. These politicians often use Twitter to spread their political messages, when they should be encouraging people to: stay home, get tested if they have symptoms, to wear a mask and socially distance in order to stop the spread of the virus. My question is to Andrew Laming and the panel: As an elected MP, regardless of your party, shouldn’t the needs of your constituents and their safety be the most important priority ahead of this political rhetoric?

SOCIAL MEDIA MESSAGING

(31:32)

John Partridge asked: This virus is moving faster than Usain Bolt. I have 4 daughters, the youngest being 22. They don’t read newspapers or watch TV news. They get ALL their information from social media. How are we going to get the message through to them that as a group women aged 20 to 29 have the highest number of infections? This is VITALLY important.

CHRISTMAS 2020

(53:16)

Tom Paterson asked: My wife and I live in Adelaide. Our son lives in Sydney and our daughter lives in Melbourne. We celebrate Christmas as a family every other year and, our year is this December. They plan to fly in on Christmas Eve and fly home on Boxing Day. What does the panel think is the chance of us being able to celebrate Christmas as a family this year? Thank you.

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