Qld COVID cases a cause for concern

Transcript: AMA Queensland State Councillor, Dr Ian Williams, ABC News Radio Drive, Thursday 30 September 2021

Subjects: Queensland COVID cases, NRL grand final, vaccination rates

ALI CREW:     Queensland has recorded six new locally acquired coronavirus cases, but authorities have stopped short of announcing a lockdown. Several Queensland regions are returning to stage 2 COVID restrictions. Four of the new cases are linked to Brisbane’s aviation cluster, including a pilot who flew to Townsville. Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Logan, Moreton Bay and Townsville will see reduced capacity for homes and public places for the next two weeks.

The latest caseload comes just four days before the NRL grand final, which is scheduled to be played at Brisbane’s Lang Park on Sunday night in front of about 35,000 spectators.

Dr Ian Williams is a GP and a member of the Queensland AMA’s State Council. He joins us now. Good afternoon Ian.

IAN WILLIAMS:   Good afternoon, and thanks for asking me to be on.

ALI CREW:     Our pleasure. What’s your assessment of the growth in COVID cases in Queensland this week?

IAN WILLIAMS:   Well, I’ve got to say, I’d much rather be in Queensland than in New South Wales or Victoria. I’m sure you’d rather be up here too. We’re seeing more and more people coming to Queensland for our great lifestyle, so I’d like to invite you to come up and join us as soon as you can.

ALI CREW:     Well, no lockdown there just yet but, Ian, you’re seeing active cases now, some mystery cases in the community, they’re not linked. We saw the Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews lock down Melbourne after detecting one case. They’re now up to nearly 1,500 cases. Are you not concerned that there are now active cases in Brisbane?

IAN WILLIAMS:   Well, I’ve got to say that there’s no transparency through this process. So I can’t really say whether I’m concerned or not, because I don’t have the data. Queensland Health has the data and they’re making assessments on that data. And you’ve got to say, up till now, they’ve done a pretty good job. So from the point of view of myself and other members of the AMA, or the general public, we’re not privy to the data that they have. And so we’ve got to hope and pray that they interpret the data correctly and that what they’ve done for us today and tomorrow and next week will give a good result. It has been up to now and I always say, the best predictor for good future performance is past performance.

We’ve had a good result so far and I wish them well with their information. But as a member of the general public and the general medical community, we don’t have the transparency of the data that they have, and if our Chief Health Officer and the Premier are pleased to go ahead with the way they’re going, well, they’ve done a good job so far. Full strength, full merit to them.

ALI CREW:     How is the Queensland health system placed to cope with the potential surge in demand for ICU beds, for example, if the case numbers were to rise exponentially?

IAN WILLIAMS:   Well I guess the problem is across the whole country, and you’d be well aware of it in New South Wales and certainly Victorians are well aware of it, is that our public health system has been underfunded for decades, for decades. And because of that, it’s always run at peak capacity – 100 per cent, 110 per cent capacity. So there really is no capacity for continuing work as usual and adding COVID-19 on top of that. So the problem for us is that COVID-19 becomes an issue with hospitalisations, intensive care, it means a lot of the work as usual will not be done.

Now, we know that there’s a lot of good people in the Queensland Health system and they will do their best for everybody, but there’s finite resources. And because there’s finite resources, COVID-19 will come – No.1 – because it’s an infectious disease and we’ve got to deal with it today, because we don’t want to have the deaths that we’ve seen overseas. But it’s going to take a lot of effort and it means that other work won’t be done. And that’s our problem. It’s a matter of doing what’s urgent, and what’s less urgent gets left behind, unfortunately.

ALI CREW:     You seem to have a lot of trust and confidence in authorities and the way they’ve handled the pandemic in Queensland to date, as you’ve mentioned. Nevertheless, the NRL grand final will be played in Brisbane on Sunday. Do you think that that’s reasonable right now, given that a crowd of around 30,000 will be allowed to attend?

IAN WILLIAMS:   Well, like I said at the beginning, I’m really pleased to be in Queensland and not in Sydney. And so, the best predictor of future performance is past performance. Just like in the southern states, we have really put intellectuals in Queensland, and they are looking at the data – data that I don’t have availability of. And so, because of that, and because of their understanding of the way that the virus flows, we’ve got lots of good information to work from. We’ve got good understanding of where the cases are and how they’re spreading. I have to give faith to our leaders and, really and truly, you look at Queensland and I can do whatever I want –almost - in Queensland. I can go to the NRL grand final. You’ve got to think that the people in power in Queensland are doing something right. So I’m fully behind them. I think, good luck to you. I don’t understand what they’re doing, but I don’t have the data to comment one way or the other whether it’s a good idea or a bad idea.

But I think the opportunity to go to the NRL grand final in Brisbane – bring it on.

ALI CREW:     Are you comfortable with where vaccination rates are in Queensland at the moment?

IAN WILLIAMS:   No, that’s a great disappointment, isn’t it? That is a great disappointment. Queensland is lagging the field and it will be wonderful to see Queensland rates up much more than what they are, but I understand that a lot of that is due to lack of supply. And because of New South Wales and Victoria needing the supplies much more than Queensland, I can understand why those extra supplies from Poland and overseas have been pumped into New South Wales and Victoria to get their rates up. And because of that, we’re just not getting the same amounts of supply as our southern cousins are getting. So we would like to see our rates much higher, because if we can get our rates much higher, then we can open up to our southern cousins. But everyone has to be immunised.

So it’s very disappointing at the moment, but every day we are immunising more people, first and second doses, so that gives me great heart for the future.

I look to Christmas Day and hope I open my Christmas box and there it will say, “Queensland is open.” Wouldn’t that be a great Christmas box for everyone.

ALI CREW:     It certainly would. There are many people looking for that same thing in their Christmas box. Dr Williams, we appreciate you joining us today.

30 September 2021