Almost 2,500 doctors have urged the health minister, Greg Hunt, to take immediate action on containment measures around the country to curb coronavirus.
Led by Dr Hemant Garg, the letter states doctors are “dismayed at the disconnect between the actions being taken within the medical community and the recommendation for actions being passed on to the general population”.
“We should immediately recommend a three to four week closure of schools, cultural and religious places including places of worship, gyms and leisure centres, pubs, bars, theatres, cinemas and concert halls,” the letter states. “This would allow a steady declaration of cases of coronavirus to present to hospitals and fever clinics as their symptomatic phase develops.”
On social media many doctors and members of the public are also calling for immediate school closures and shutdowns. A separate letter, led by an intensive care specialist in Sydney and directed to the prime minister, calls for an immediate lockdown of Australia.
“Many of us are in contact with colleagues in Italy, Spain and France and they are begging us to learn from their mistakes,” the letter states.
“With access to intensive care the death rate from COVID19 is likely less than 1%, but in an overwhelmed system without access to intensive care the death rate approaches 4%.”
On Tuesday Hunt said while school closures had not been ruled out, “mass school closures would impact significantly on critical emergency service workers, on health workers, as well as exposing young people potentially to being with grandparents on a much more broader basis”.
Prof Julie Leask, from the University of Sydney’s faculty of health and medicine, said pressure should not dissuade the federal government from following advice from the key decision-making committee for health emergencies, the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee.
She said because of public panic and fear she is “concerned the pressure will be so high on politicians to adopt a strategy that doesn’t have a good evidence base, and that they may overrule the measures the Committee are advising”.
What are the common symptoms of Covid-19?
- Fever
- Dry cough
- Fatigue
- Muscle aches and pains
When should I get tested?
The current national advice is to get tested if you:
- are experiencing the symptoms above, and
- have travelled overseas recently (within the past 14 days); or
- have been in close contact with a confirmed case of Covid-19
Help lines
The national coronavirus health information hotline is 1800 020 080.
The federal health department has a coronavirus health alert website.
The state health department websites and contact numbers are:
- NSW – 1300 066 055
- Victoria – 1800 675 398
- Queensland – 13 HEALTH or 13 432 584
- South Australia – 1300 232 272
- Western Australia – 1300 62 32 92
- Tasmania – 1800 671 738
- ACT – Business hours: 02 5124 9213, after hours: 02 9962 4155
- Northern Territory – 08 8922 8044
“There’s a real risk of that,” she said. “[Former labor party leader] Bill Shorten deciding to remove his children from schools is a personal decision but by making it public it sends a signal to the wider community that it’s something that should be done, when the advice right now is not to do that. We are in a precarious time. But it’s not like the government is sitting on its hands.”
However, Leask said the views of the doctors should be listened to by the federal government.
“They are facing a very large demand on health care services and it’s clearly filling them with dread, the idea of an Italy-type situation where they have to make decisions about who gets the ventilator and who doesn’t. What strategies are taken now to flatten the curve are essential,” she said.
“This is a very tense time and people are angry and scared. But the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee recommendations are being informed by careful modelling of infection spread balanced against unintended consequences of something like closing schools.
“That expertise needs to be respected in the same way you might respect your neurology colleague in terms of how to treat someone with delirium.”
Leask said to quell public panic the federal government needed to do “a much better job” at communicating the reasons behind their decisions.
A communique issued by the Australian Medical Association federal council on Tuesday agreed, stating “consistent, succinct and contemporaneous communication across all media from a single trusted source must be provided” to the public.
“Public education on effective and sensitive public distancing measures should focus on individual as well as institutional responsibilities,” the AMA said. “Planning should be undertaken for potential advanced education centre closures, workplace restrictions, and the possibility of school closures.”
Victoria’s chief health officer, Dr Brett Sutton, issued a statement explaining why closing schools doesn’t necessarily help flatten the curve. He said research shows the potential reduction in community transmission from pre-emptive school closures may be offset by the care arrangements for children not at school.
The infectious disease physician and clinical microbiologist Prof Lyn Gilbert said there was still limited community transmission of the virus in Australia. She said while stopping large public gatherings, testing and tracing measures and hygiene messaging had assisted with this, modelling data shows blanket closure of schools has little effect on transmission.
“People are getting quite excited about the idea of shutting everything down suddenly,” she said. “You can’t easily keep that going for any length of time unless you do it with sensible justification and gradually. People will tolerate it for a couple of weeks but not a long time without justification. People must be considered about how it’s done and use evidence and do it gradually, and that’s happening at the moment. There will be progressive announcements.”
It was also important that Australia had acted much more swiftly than Italy, Gilbert said.
“We just have to be patient and not give in to the panicked demands of people saying shut it all down,” she said. “I’ve seen people saying shut everything down for 18 months until we have a vaccine, but there is no guarantee we will have one.”
