CHO Jeannette Young explodes at question on level of Covid deaths she would be ‘comfortable with’

Jeannette Young became visibly upset as she faced questions about Covid deaths during her daily press conference, firing back at reporters ‘remember who I am’.

An emotional Dr Jeannette Young has denied making political decisions and declared she’s not comfortable with “any deaths” during a highly-charged press conference discussing the state’s plans to open up.

Despite Premier Annastacia minutes earlier calling for a national conversation around the risks associated with Australia’s plans to live with Covid, Queensland’s Chief Health Officer became visibly upset when asked what level of deaths she would be “comfortable with” in a scenario going forward.

That’s despite the Doherty modelling charting the numbers of infections, ICU hospitalisations and deaths under several scenarios, depending on different levels of restriction.

“Comfortable with? I’m a doctor, none,” she told the reporter.

“Can you please remember who I am?

“I stand up here every day but ultimately I went into medicine to save lives.

“I’m not comfortable with any deaths that are preventable.

Queensland Chief Medical Officer Jeannette Young became upset during a press conference at Parliament House. Pic: NCA NewsWire / Sarah Marshall

“So that’s why I want every single Queenslander who can be vaccinated to get vaccinated because that is the best protection and that’s why I’ve spent the last 19 months doing everything I can.

“Thank goodness I work with a Premier that we have here and the Cabinet to stop the virus coming into Queensland.”

Responding to a question that suggested she was “making political decisions”, Dr Young shot back: “I’m not making political decisions.”

“You’ve got me quite upset now,” she said.

“I do not want to see any death of a Queenslander that is preventable, whether it be due to smoking, due to obesity, due to high-alcohol intake, due to accidents that could have been prevented, due to road trauma, I could go on.

“That is what I’ve just spent the last 16 years of my life working on.

“So I don’t want to see any deaths.”

Asked when she would be comfortable opening up and lessening restrictions, she said that would not be until “every single Queenslander has been given the opportunity to be vaccinated”.

“So it is up to individuals to choose whether they wish to protect themselves,” she said.

“Once they’ve had that opportunity, of course we make decisions, but I would not want to see the virus coming into Queensland without mitigating factors until that’s happened,” she said.