Pharmacy Guild head Trent Twomey says now is the most convenient time to get Covid

The head of the peak body for Australian pharmacists is under fire after making a controversial Covid admission.

In a highly controversial move, head of the Pharmacy Guild Trent Twomey has declared it would be “convenient” for his family to catch Covid in the next four weeks before school returns.

He is no longer requiring his children, who are aged under 12, to wear masks and is taking them to the movies and the public pool.

“There is no good time to get Covid, but if my family have to catch it, now would be a good time,” he said.

The Australian Medical Association has condemned his stance as self-centred and irresponsible at a time the nation’s hospitals are buckling under an explosion of Omicron cases.

“You shouldn’t be setting that example,” AMA Vice President Dr Chris Moy said.

“I don’t believe that this is responsible, both from the point of view of the overall public health perspective, but also from a point of view of setting an example,” he said.

“Suits us is not the same thing as suiting the entire community effort,” Dr Moy said.

Trent Twomey is under fire for his comments. Picture: Stewart McLean

We needed to make sure as many Australians as possible have had their boosters and do everything to ease pressure on hospitals, he said.

Mr Twomey said he had done everything he could to protect his family. He and his wife had both had their booster jab and his children, aged under 12, had received their first Covid vaccine.

“I don’t think that’s a controversial view. I think that’s actually the consensus view. I’ve have had a lot of people say that,” he said.

The Pharmacy Guild president said while his children had previously been wearing masks in public since they were vaccinated they were no longer doing so but he is wearing one to comply with public health orders.

Georgina Twomey with her son Archer, daughter Scarlett and husband, Trent Twomey. Picture: Brendan Radke

His children are aged under 12 and are not required to wear a mask.

He has been taking his children to the movies and the public pool, activities they would not previously have engaged in before they were vaccinated, he said.

“My children will be going back to school in a couple of weeks, I’ll have to resume travel because my job requires me to travel interstate and I don’t know when I’m going to come down with it,” he said.

“I could come down with it when I’m in transit, my children could contract it while they’re at school,” he said.

Now that return to school had been deferred in Queensland for two weeks, “it’s the most convenient time for my family to contract Covid-19 because it’s going to be highly disruptive to my children’s education, highly disruptive to my wife’s work, my work is if we get it at different times if we get it once those things normalise next month,” he said.

Originally published as Pharmacy Guild head Trent Twomey says now is the most convenient time to get Covid