A distinguished Newcastle health researcher has slammed the NSW government's move to scrap quarantine for tourists and Australian citizens arriving from overseas from November 1, describing the plan as unsafe and irresponsible.
Premier Dominic Perrottet said on Friday that from November 1 hotel quarantine would be a "thing of the past" for fully vaccinated tourists and returning Australians.
"There is absolutely no reason, if you are fully vaccinated, whether you are a returning Australian or tourist, that you should have to hotel quarantine," he said.
"This will be a boon for most people coming home and it will be a boon for our tourism industry.
"We can't live here in a hermit kingdom."
Scott Morrison shot down part of the plan only hours later when he backed scrapping quarantine for Australians, permanent residents and close family but not tourists, students and other foreigners.
"We are not opening up to everyone coming back to Australia at the moment. I want to be clear about that," Mr Morrison said.
A political insider said Mr Perrottet's move appeared to be a calculated provocation of the Prime Minister rather than a slip-up.
Laureate Professor Nick Talley, from the University of Newcastle medical school, said opening borders and scrapping quarantine would threaten to overwhelm the NSW hospital system with unvaccinated people who had been exposed to infections brought in from overseas.
"The standard approach to pandemics is to move in a very controlled way, to measure what you're doing to make sure you're not causing harm and move on," he said.
"We are not doing the traditional, safe approach.
"And, what's more, we're opening up not just to safe countries with high vaccination rates; we're opening up to everywhere.
"It seems rather not the kind of responsible approach I would have expected, I'll be honest."
Professor Talley, the editor of the Medical Journal of Australia, said he supported opening up economic and social activity "but what I don't believe is appropriate is rushing like a bull at a gate and then hoping that everything will be all right".
"Even vaccinated people will bring virus in. I'm worried to be opening up to everywhere, including places where the virus is absolutely rampant.
"I worry that there will be a huge surge in the unvaccinated that will overwhelm the hospital system."
Professor Talley said he welcomed Mr Morrison's intervention to prevent tourists arriving.
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